Posts Tagged ‘Washington’

DC – World War I Memorial

©TimeLine Media - DC WWI Memorial

There are so many memorials scattered throughout Washington D.C.’s streets. The most memorable are easily recognizable from their appearance on currency, movies, and TV shows. However, the smaller World War I Memorial is dedicated to the resident of the District of Columbia that fought and died in the Great War. It was recently restored by the National Park Service in 2011. Overall the work was done very well. The memorial glows out of a section of trees along Independence Avenue. It is a short walk from the larger World War II Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. Although it was not the final destination for the evening, it was a really pleasant surprise to see. Since it was a little off the path, it was easier to get clean photos without other people in the area.

©TimeLine Media - DC WWI Memorial
©TimeLine Media – DC WWI Memorial

At this time the improved lighting under the dome made for a nice setting apart from the nearby trees. When I edited these photos, I pushed the white balance sliders much closer to the blue side of the scale than normal. Without any people in the frame, it is much easier to play with this setting. Most people look better warmer in photographs – more to the yellow side of the slider. But here, the blue makes a nice contrast with the light under the dome, and it emphasizes the time of day.

©TimeLine Media - DC WWI Memorial
©TimeLine Media – DC WWI Memorial

It’s nice to play tourist in your local area sometimes. We’re just lucky to be close to such a photogenic place! I’ll have more from other stops on this photo walk. Have a nice weekend!

©TimeLine Media - DC WWI Memorial HDR
©TimeLine Media – DC WWI Memorial HDR

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703-864-8208

Washington, DC venues

©TimeLine Media - 9th floor of the Hay Adams Hotel, Washington, DC

This has been a busy week of shoots for me. I have been assisting on some events, and shooting some of my own. While assisting, I always learn new things in order to be successful as a photographer. Luck has been on my side to find great photographers in the area that like my work enough to have me shoot along with them. With  some assignments this week, I have been to some of the nicest venues in the area. Washington, DC, being a city of decision making power, is the site of many conferences, events, and weddings. I have taken for granted so many of the things around here being a native of the area. So it has been nice to appreciate the opportunity to photograph many familiar landmarks from new angles. If it was only nicer weather this weekend, I may have been inspired to go out again. Oh, and I have to visit my mother.

©TimeLine Media - Gaylord Hotel at the National Harbor
Gaylord Hotel at the National Harbor ©TimeLine Media
©TimeLine Media - The US Capitol Building from the Newseum 7th floor terrace
The US Capitol Building from the Newseum 7th floor terrace ©TimeLine Media
©TimeLine Media - 9th floor of the Hay Adams Hotel, Washington, DC
9th floor of the Hay Adams Hotel, Washington, DC ©TimeLine Media

Next door to the Hay Adams are other buildings with terrific views of the White House. There were lots of cameras and tents for television production setup permanently, but I did not see anyone broadcasting at the time. Now I know where all those “Reporting from Washington” views are filmed! I would be so distracted all the time if my outdoor view was Lafayette Park, the White House and the Washington Monument.

©TimeLine Media - 9th floor of the Hay Adams Hotel, Washington, DC
©TimeLine Media – 9th floor of the Hay Adams Hotel, Washington, DC

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

HDR photography

©TimeLine Media - HDR photography in Washington, DC

One of the first lessons I learned in photography was that cameras “see” much different from the human eye. If you look around a closed room, then out a window, not only does the eye focus much faster than any lens, but it can take in much more detail than you realize. This happens so quickly, that you do not even realize drastic light condition changes. With this in mind, HDR photography can render a scene closer to this.

High Dynamic Range Photography

When studying photography, you can see that you have to make compromises. In a high contrast scene, such as a bright sunny day, you cannot have a blue sky and shadowless subjects in the foreground without some help. You either have a beautiful sky with your subjects in silhouette, or dark shadow, or you have a completely “blown out” white sky with detail in your foreground subject. You do have some options if you want to manipulate the light such as flash or bouncing light to your subjects with a reflector, but I want to post today about another new option that has become popular with the advancement of computers – HDR or High Dynamic Range photography.

HDR is an option for shooting with the new iPhone 5. The idea behind it is to take multiple images of your scene. In a 3-image HDR, one of the images will be underexposed, one will be exposed properly as determined by your meter, and one will be overexposed. Here is an example from the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC. I took these during late morning – the sun was already high in the sky, and it was difficult to get both a blue sky in the photo, and to read the text on the memorial.

Washington, DC

©TimeLine Media - HDR photography in Washington, DC
©TimeLine Media – HDR photography in Washington, DC

In this first photo, the frame is overexposed but you can clearly read the text. The sky is bright white with no detail, and some of the cherry blossoms are washed out as well.

©TimeLine Media - HDR photography in Washington, DC
©TimeLine Media – HDR photography in Washington, DC

This is the correctly exposed photo using the Matrix Metering in my Nikon DSLR. It is the most even across the frame in terms of dark tones and light tones.

©TimeLine Media - HDR photography in Washington, DC
©TimeLine Media – HDR photography in Washington, DC

This is the underexposed frame – most everything is in shadow, only good detail in the sky and other bright parts of the frame. With these 3 images, you combine them in software. For this, I used Google’s Nik HDR Efex pro 2. The software stacks the images, and uses calculations to increase the dynamic range of light and dark tones in the photograph to get a better approximation of what your eye sees when you are standing at the memorial. Let me know it turned out! There are many plugins and other techniques to combine with HDR to make scenes look either more realistic, or surrealistic depending on your preferences. It is always nice to have options. Here is the final HDR photo –

©TimeLine Media - HDR photography in Washington, DC
©TimeLine Media – HDR photography in Washington, DC

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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