Last year, the Apollo 50 Festival was held on the National Mall in Washington, DC. At this time, the National Air and Space Museum produced this event. It was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. Since I can remember, my dad fostered an interest in the space program. With this in mind, I thoroughly studied the vehicles used to send people into space. However, I have never seen a rocket launch live.
Last summer, we made it out to the Mall to see the ‘Go For the Moon’ show. A projection was sent onto a side of the Washington Monument. Being that I was a STEM student throughout my academic career, I was inspired by the crowd that gathered out there that summer night. NASA and the space program was the impetus for so many to get into the sciences. For those that have not seen an American rocket launch, this was a great demonstration. Pairing it with inspiring words from JFK, a soaring musical soundtrack, and the projection of the Saturn V rocket would probably inspire another generation to continue space exploration now!
Jo and Claro met me in downtown DC for some engagement photos. Claro and his family have been family friends for years. By comparison, we are Hokies, Filipino, and lived most of our lives in northern Virginia. He and his fiance Jo planned to marry last summer. When they thought about a photographer for their day, I came to mind. Of course, I jumped at the chance to cover this important event for them!
National Gallery of Art East Building
Our first stop was the National Gallery of Art. Seeing that it is a space to view large art installations, it is a beautiful space for portraits! The large open space with lots of natural light makes photos very easy. In addition, your subjects can move around freely and still be in nice even light.
We started in the East Building of the museum. Given that is a modern space with clean lines, we found plenty of places for photos. With this purpose in mind, we explored all the levels of the museum to find the best spots. In between the East and West building, there is a tunnel famous for posing subjects. Above a motorized walkway a many spot lights mimicking a symmetrical field of stars. Whenever I get a chance, I will bring subjects here. I have not fallen off of the walkway yet!
Lastly, there is collection of glass pyramids on the ground level outside of the West Building. As a matter of fact, it it right above the tunnel in the above photos. Putting them in between these glass sculptures creates some awesome reflections. In reality, it is producing a Photoshop-like effect right in the camera! Although we did not have to walk a long distance, we were able to get a lot of Jo and Claro engagement photos quickly.
I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! It was another nice day for family gatherings with a long weekend. It comes in handy to recover from all the eating and visiting. With the break, I took some time to see a new feature film playing in a real IMAX theater. At this time we went to the National Air and Space Museum in downtown Washington, DC. Being Black Friday, I did not expect too as many people filing into a museum.
There was a line through security, and all the exhibits had people going through them for most of the day. It was encouraging seeing as this was probably the only museum that I requested to visit as a child that was enamored with the space shuttle program, and all the technology that has come from aeronautical research. This was the perfect setting to watch the movie, Interstellar.
This movie is another good story told by director Christopher Nolan. For me, he creates films where I end up really pulling for characters to overcome obstacles as they strive to accomplish an almost impossible goal. Technically, Nolan has used the IMAX to his advantage in previous movies like The Dark Knight, and seeing it in a real IMAX theater can make panoramic vistas look even grander, and can make simple dialog scenes very intimate. It teaches lots of photographic lessons of framing, composition, and he uses the effect to really enhance the storytelling.
Science Fiction
The almost 3-hour movie did not seem much longer than an hour and a half. The musical score by Hans Zimmer was very celestial to go along with the space travel focus. Overall the keyboard was used throuhgout. It sounded like old pipe organs, and synthesizer pads that reminded me of scores from many 1980’s science fiction movies. The sound also had a lot space with the reverberating chords. In an IMAX theater, the volume and strong low-end tones added to the dramatic action scenes. The collaboration between Zimmer and Nolan has spanned a few films including the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. Again, it works well here. I am listening to the sound track again now to catch more of the subtleties. For sure it was hard to not be distracted by the visuals.
Without giving away the movie, I really connected with the motivation of the characters. They have ambitions to save the world, do tasks that are in the best interests of their families, and to leave the human race in a better place than they are now. It is very inspiring to see these themes told in such a big movie, then to walk out of the theater and see the actual machines that were very much a part of the recent non-fictional past can be inspiring. Hopefully many in the 3 sold-out shows that evening felt the same way!
