Strolling Around Washington, D.C.

If you appreciate history or architecture, Washington DC is a fabulous place to visit.  Although I've been there several times, without a doubt my most memorable visit was back in 2005 when I spent 5 days there during the cherry blossom festival.   With the entire city bathed in pink, it was absolutely beautiful.  Additionally, for anyone who has not had time to explore the city at night, some of these images my prove interesting.
[click on any image to enlarge]

#10_28741  Jefferson Memorial  - 1/160 @f13, iso 400, 44mm



#10_27885  The Path Around the Tidal Basin


Walking along the edge of the tidal basin to the Jefferson Memorial was just an amazing splash of color with the cherry trees in bloom.  The photo above gives an idea of what it looks like but it's hardly a substitute for being there in person.  After visiting in April, it will be difficult to get excited about going there again at any other time of the year.

Washington is also a great place for night time photography.  To me, there is something magical watching as the darkness slowly filters out the daytime distractions to provide a different perspective the buildings and monuments.

#10_28252  US Capitol at Dusk - 2 seconds @f6.3, iso 100

The image above was made at 8:03pm, and the one below was taken just 16 minutes later.  While dusk is my favorite time for photography, it's easy to see that one can only photograph one or two sites in a day before the light is gone.   Since I was standing on the national mall only a few steps from the Smithsonian, I was able to photograph it as well before the sky was too dark. With few exceptions,  once the sky is black it's usually too late to get a good photo.



#10-28278   US Capitol at Night  - 8 seconds @f8, iso 100, 65mm



#10_28283  Smithsonian Castle  - 15 seconds @f4, iso 100, 33mm



#N_50872  Iwo Jima Memorial - 0.4sec @f4, iso 200, 30mm


For best results when photographing the monuments, it's important to have a wide angle lens.  Most of the buildings cannot be photographed very well without one, and using one gives you the opportunity to capture some really interesting perspectives.   Both views of the Jefferson Memorial below were photographed with a 17mm lens.  In the second one, I was lying on my back to get as much of dome as possible in the photo.



#N_50672  Jefferson Memorial  - 1/40 @f9, iso 200, 17mm



#N_50676  Jefferson Memorial  - 1/50 @f9, iso 200, 17mm


When I visited the Lincoln Memorial, I stood there trying to figure out a way to make a photograph that would not look the same as all the other ones I had seen.  I photographed the statue of Abraham Lincoln from the front, the back, and both sides,  figuring I should be able to come up with something a little bit different.   My favorite photo is below.

#10_27818  Lincoln Memorial  - 1/60 @f4.5, iso 400, 44mm

Although I did not have time to go inside the US Capitol on my trip back in 2005, I finally did take the Capitol tour in 2010.  Since the last time I had been to Washington, the new visitor center had been built, which now has guests entering the capitol from underground.

Even my 15mm fisheye lens was not wide enough to capture the underside of the capitol dome the way I wanted to.  The first image below is the best I could do, and the next one shows a close up of the painting under the dome. [click any image to enlarge]



#N_96508  US Capitol Dome  - 1/100  @f6.3, iso 400, 15mm



#N_96516  - Painting Under the Capitol Dome  - 1/30 @ f5.6, iso 400, 95mm



 

#10-28609   The White House  - 1/250 @f5, iso 200, 65mm


The last few images are Washington National Cathedral.

#N_96443  National Cathedral  - 1/125 @f13, iso 200, 15mm fisheye (straightened)





#N_96435  National Cathedral  - 1/10 @f2.8, iso 800, 15mm fisheye (straightened)





#N_96386  National Cathedral  - 1/20 @f2.8, iso 800, 15mm fisheye (straightened)






A Stroll Around Jacksonville

Despite the crisp weather this past Monday, I spent the afternoon taking pictures of some of Jacksonville's more recognizable points of interest. 
 

#7_0288 Friendship Fountain - 1/3 @f3.5, iso 800, 28mm

Starting out at Treaty Oak Park, I photographed the oak tree centerpiece that is believed to be over 250 years old. Treaty Oak is over 70 feet tall and its width is more than double it's height. Here is a look at the tree from 2 different angles.

#112380 Treaty Oak - 1/160sec. @ f8, iso 200, 17mm



#112364 Treaty Oak - 1/125sec. @f8, iso 200, 17mm

The downtown skyline has not changed much the last few years with the exception of titles on the buildings.  Wells Fargo has now replaced Modis, on what was originally the Independent Life Building.  Just east of the Main Street Bridge is the Maritime Museum, and the US Navy Memorial behind it.

#112437 US Navy Memorial - 1/1600 @f4, iso 100, 24mm

From Friendship Fountain, I shot several photos of the city skyline and I like this one the best, mainly because of the really cool cloud formation.


#112262 Jacksonville Skyline - 1/160 @f7.1, iso 100, 17mm

Here is a similar image shot from the Acosta Bridge.   [click any photo for a larger view]



#112468 Jacksonville Riverfront Panorama - 1/400sec @f8, iso 100, 17mm

To the west of the bridge is the Museum of Science and History.  I have not been inside for several years and I don't know if it's still the same, but when I was growing up we came here for 'cosmic concerts' at the Alexander Brest Planetarium, located inside.  It had theatre seats that tilted back so that you were looking up at the dome shaped ceiling.  Music would be playing while a fancy Minolta gizmo using laser light would project all sorts of planetary images across the ceiling, which acted as a huge movie screen.  It was a hot ticket when I was a teen.



#112463 Museum of Sciense & History - 1/400 @f8, iso 100, 35mm

For anyone who is curious about the progress of the new courthouse, here is a photo of it under construction.   The building takes up 4 city blocks.



#112510 New Courthouse - 1/1000 @ f5.6, iso 100, 15mm fisheye
(this was shot with a fisheye lens and then straightened in photoshop)

Next to the Jacksonville Landing is the Times Union Center.  The second image (night photo) shows it back in 2004.

#112550 Times Union Center - 1/400 @f8, iso 100, 17mm

#10d_10430 Times Union Center at night - 2004

It's always fun to photograph the buildings on the waterfront when it starts to get dark and the lights of the buildings begin to appear. 

#112729 Waterfront at Dusk - 1/20 @f4, iso 400, 41mm

#112736  The Jacksonville Landing - 1/13@ f5.6, iso 400, 135mm



#112740 The Waterfront at Night - 1/10 @f4, iso 400, 17mm



I had planned to photograph the fountain at night, but skipped it because the fountain was not working properly.   I fill finish up with two images of Friendship Fountain below, that I shot back in November.





#7_0288  Friendship Fountain  -  1/3 @f3.5, iso 800, 28mm

#110246  Friendship Fountain  -  1/10 @f2.8, iso 400, 15mm fisheye
(shot with 15mm fisheye lens, then straightened in photoshop)





Photographing Alligators (or not)

During my various travels photographing birds, I have for the most part ignored alligators when I've seen them.  This is mainly because they are about as plentiful as mosquitoes here in Florida and I feel that if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all.  Up until a few years ago, we had a few gators in the pond that borders our back yard, so I hardly get excited when I see one. 

On many occasions where I've been visiting a wildlife sanctuary to photograph birds, invariably someone approaches me when they notice one of my rather large white lenses, to tell me they see an alligator that I should go photograph.  This always puts me in the rather awkward position of figuring out a polite way to tell them that I couldn't care less about photographing an alligator.  But keeping that thought to myself, I always thank them and tell them that perhaps I'll check it out when I'm finished with what I'm working on now.  I'm guessing that most of these folks are probably northern visitors.  I guess if I were in Maine and saw a whale, I'd get excited too.

Every now and then while photographing birds, I have also photographed the occasional alligator.  When I've done so, I did it with the thought that if I ever decided to take a closer look at gators I would have a few images to work with.  But unlike birds, gators all look the same to me with the exception of differences in size.  What sometimes sets them apart are different surroundings and/or colorful reflections in the water from trees or other foliage on the bank of the pond.

This past week at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, I saw many gators, but two in particular that were close together that finally caught my interest.  They were facing opposite directions and the soft early morning light made them interesting, so I decided to snap a few shots.  One was a little larger than the other (probably about 8 or 9 feet in length) and was facing to the left,while the smaller one was facing the right.


#N_112154  - Shot settings: 1/1250 @f6/3, iso 400 at 500mm, hand held

When I later took a closer look at these images on the computer, I liked what I saw so I figured it was finally time to post a few gator photos.  These first two images show the same gator.  The image below is a close up cropped from the one above.
[click on any image for a larger view]


#N_112154c (cropped from the photo above)

The soft light and a bit of fill flash reveal some detail in the head shot, and that's what I liked about this particular image. 

The next image is the smaller gator that was facing the right.  If you are thinking this is just your typical average boring alligator photo, I pretty much agree.  This is why I seldom bother to even take pictures of them.


#N_112142 (1/1000 @ f6.3, iso 400, at 500mm.)

Although gators all look about the same to me, sometimes different surroundings make the shot more interesting than the gator itself.  I particularly like colorful reflections, as shown in the next few images. 

Thinking back, I knew I had some images with reflections from the Everglades National Park, so I dug them out to add them to this post.  The same gator is pictured in both images below; the first a little further away and the second as it approached me a little closer.



#N_80810 (1/500 @f5.6, iso 400 at 420mm)



#N_80811 (1/500 @ f5.6, iso 400 at 420mm) 


This last image may be my favorite of the few I have shot over the last few years.  I like the open  mouth, and the way we can see the roof of the gator's mouth in the reflection in the water.

#N_63432 (1/200 @ f5.6, iso 800 at 400mm)

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

I was glad to be able to make my first trip of the season to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge earlier this week, and fortunately there were enough birds to make the trip worthwhile.   It's about 150 miles away, so I have to start out around 4:45 am in order to get there by sunrise and take advantage of the soft early morning light.

I was able to photograph a couple new species on this trip so that was an extra bonus.  This time of year the birds are starting to dawn their breeding colors, so that makes the photography all the more rewarding.  I met up on this trip with Dave Turko and we spent the morning tooling around Blackpoint Drive and Biolab Road, within the refuge.


#111890 - Reddish Egret - 1/1250 @f4, iso 400, 500mm


We saw quite a few reddish egrets, and enjoyed watching them strut around in the shallow water and pounce on countless fish. They always put on a good show.  The image above shows a typical early morning scene.   Below, the bird is ready to strike at a fish, and they rarely miss.


#111990 - Reddish Egret - 1/800 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm hand-held



#111873 - Reddish Egret with Catch - 1/1250 @f4, iso 400, 500mm

One species I have rarely seen and had never photographed, is the white morph reddish egret.  We were fortunate to see one but not in the best light.  I did not manage to get a photo I was happy with, but I captured the image below as documentation of having seen it. 


#111906 - White Morph Reddish Egret - 1/2500 @f5, iso 400, 500mm

The white morph is one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen.  I'm pretty sure the color of the bird's bill and lore get brighter than you see here. I hope to be able to get some better images of this species at a later time. 

The image below is a Northern Shoveler. They are common but I had not gotten a decent photo of one before now.


#111951 - Northern Shoveler - 1/1250 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm hand-held

This is the first time I've tried hand holding my camera with 500mm lens and 2x teleconverter attached.  Adding the flash, the entire rig weighs 15 pounds.  It's quite a bit of weight to try and hold steady to get sharp photos.  I've gotten used to stooping down and propping up the lens with my left arm, resting it against my knee for support.  Dave shot this photo of me holding this rig.  When time permits, it's a lot less work to mount it on a tripod with gimbal head. 

One thing that really surprised me was that the images shot with the 2x teleconverter on this outing were surprisingly sharp.  Many times in the past I have avoided using the 2x except occasionally on my 300L f2.8 and 500L f4 lenses, and even then only as a last resort.  In theory, an extender will degrade image quality slightly, so you only want to mount it if you are using a very high quality lens to start with.  I sent my 500 f4 to Canon to have the calibration checked a few months back and this outing indicates that it's performing noticeably better now.  Before calibration, the images were noticeably softer with a teleconverter attached, than what I am getting now.


Canon 1D Mk2N camera, Canon 500L f4 IS lens, 2x Teleconverter, and 580EX II flash with "better beamer"  flash extender

The next two images are a horned grebe.  I had seen this bird one time before, but had not gotten a photo of it until now.  Again, this was not the best light angle, so I'll have to try and do better next time.


#112120 - Horned Grebe - 1/1000 @ f5.6, iso 400, 700mm



#112125 Horned Grebe - 1/1250 @f5/6, iso 400, 700mm

While driving around Blackpoint drive, we saw two bald eagles in a tree in the distance. They were not close enough for the photo to show much detail, but I took the shot below anyway.  This is at 1000mm, and with the 1.3x crop of the camera sensor, it's equivalent to 1300 mm on a 35mm film camera.


#112089 - Bald Eagles - 1/3200 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm hand-held

On the way out of the wildlife refuge, there were lots of birds in the water along the causeway.  I took the opportunity to get the close up shots shown below.


#112273 - Black Skimmer - 1/1600 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm



#112213 - Black Skimmer in flight - 1/2500 @f6.3, iso 400, 700mm



#112297 - Royal Tern - 1/1600 @f10, iso 400, 700mm



#112268 - Royal Tern - 1/1600 @ f8, iso 400, 1000mm

I saved one reddish egret photo to use as the last image.  This guy was more or less posing for me.


#112011 - Reddish Egret - 1/1250 @f8, iso 400, 1000 mm

Overall, this was a good trip.  I photographed several species I had not gotten before, and finally seeing a white morph reddish egret made it a memorable day.