Scenes from Washington - Night and Dusk

One of my favourite things about Edinburgh is the Royal Mile, a lovely old Scottish street connecting the Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyrood House. Washington has an equivalent: the straight stretch from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument and across the length of the National Mall to the Capitol. It is mighty impressive, especially with the two reflecting pools at either end.

World War II Memorial Evening of 18th November
I started my exploration at the World War II Memorial. It is a tasteful structure and not as given to hyperbole as I had expected.

This was taken with the sun setting, but still bright enough for a decent picture to be taken with natural light.

I went through a period of World War II junkyism, thanks largely to HBO's Band of Brothers. In a few short months, I had learnt more about both the European and Pacific theatres of operations than I ever did in history lessons at school. I think this helped me to appreciate the monument rather more than I otherwise would have.

View of Washington Monument from World War II Memorial
Evening of 18th November

I took this from behind the monument, standing at the edge of the reflecting pool. The setting sun was behind the camera and cast a lovely glow on the Washington Monument.

My favourite part of this shot is the positioning of the fountain in front of the Monument, with the straight columns of the Memorial and the flag pole adding parallel vertical lines to the left side of the photograph.

World War II Memorial - Atlantic Evening of 18th November

The Memorial is an oval of columns representing the States of America. On either end is a pavillion structure representing the two major TOPs - Atlantic and Pacific. This shot is of the Atlantic part of the structure.

This photograph clearly shows the long shadows being cast by the setting sun. The place was also teeming with people, despite the cold and the relative lateness of the hour. Most of the tourists were Americans, taking photographs against the columns representing their home states.

World War II Memorial - Pacific Evening of 18th November

This is the other part of the Memorial - the Pacific pavillion. I managed to capture more of the pool and fountain in this shot. The sun was setting just behind the pavillion, hence the darkness of the shot.






View of Lincoln Memorial from World War II Memorial
Evening of 18th November

From the World War II Memorial, I made my way across the length of the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. I actually walked through the Constitution Gardens but it was getting very dark, and I did not make the detours to see the other memorials there.

This picture was taken from the World War II Memorial, looking across the pool. The sun had almost completely set by this time, but we had enough to get a rather nice reflection in the pool. I was rather pleased to catch one of the ducks in the pool!


Lincoln Memorial
Evening of 18th November

Ah, the scaffolding! Just my luck to visit the Lincoln Memorial when it was undergoing restoration works. The scaffolding most maddeningly covered Lincoln's face from the front!

That said, the scale of this statue was astounding. I had of course seen Lincoln Memorial many times in American movies (although the only one I am calling to mind is Forrest Gump, which is not a favourite of mine at all. I also remember a bastardised version of the Lincoln Memorial at the end of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, which does not really count as that statue did not have Lincoln's face). Still, seeing this in person was quite an experience. It could have been more ideal, but I am grateful to have seen it at all.

Lincoln Memorial
Evening of 18th November

By this time (oh, no more than 5.30), the sun had well and truly set and I had turned my camera to "night scene" mode.

This shot of the Lincoln Memorial from this particular angle probably looks better by night than by day. The unsightly fencing marking works areas is at least partly obscured by the darkness.

I have to say that the lighting architects have done a marvellous job. The Lincoln Memorial rises from the darkness of the park like some glorious Roman temple. It is truly a majestic sight.


View of Washington Monument and Capitol from steps of Lincoln Memorial
Evening of 18th November

This was taken from one of the lower steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I was determined to shoot this because of the glimpse of the Capitol dome in the distance. Before this shot, I had taken at least 5 pictures of this same scene that betrayed an unsteady grip of the camera. When taking night shots, the trick is to keep the camera absolutely still as the shutter takes a longer time to let in light from the photographed objects. Well, in the 1 deg cold, my ungloved hands were not having a good time keeping completely still.

This shot was taken with my camera placed on a ledge. It was not a perfectly flat ledge, being one of those rough, unsanded surfaces. I still had to hold the camera down in place, but the ledge meant that the camera was resting on an unmoving surface.

From the Lincoln Memorial, I made my way back across the pool to the World War II Memorial and across to the Washington Monument. I got to see the Monument upclose, and it is most impressively large. The view from the Monument was also magnificent, with the White House, among others, in sight. However, none of the photographs turned out well, due to the wretched "camera held still" problem.

View of Capitol from Reflecting Pool
Evening of 18th November

And so I made my way from the Monument to Capitol. This took me from 15th Street to 1st Street, as I trudged in wintry conditions across the length of the National Mall. The Mall is probably wonderful by daylight. It was quite lovely at night, but not bright enough for phototaking. In the end, I opted to walk along Constitution Avenue, sighing at missed opportunities to visit the Smithsonian Museums. Outside the Museum of Natural History, there was a sign proclaiminh the Hope Diamond, one of the artifacts I really wanted to see. Oh well, next time perhaps.

After a most invogorating walk and 14 blocks later, I was at the Capitol Gardens. This shot is taken from the edge of the reflecting pool and the Uleysses S Grant Memorial is visible on the right.

Again, the lighting engineers who light the Washington's various monuments do a wonderful job. The Capitol Dome is like a jewelled crown against the skyline. Even from afar, this is a thing of beauty.

Capitol
Evening of 18th November

This was around 8 pm at night, not late by any means. But the Capitol grounds was practically deserted. Other than me, there were two joggers and around 5 other tourists.

To be fair, just as I was making my way to the building itself, I saw a tour bus departing the parking area.

The good thing about having the place practically to myself is that I could linger and attempt to take one shot which was not a complete no-show. This turned out to be the single shot of the Capitol building that was even halfway respectable.

A pity, because this was a wonderful piece of architecture. The dome is world-famous, and rightly so, but the building itself is also beautiful to behold. There was something rather serendipitous about standing in the still of a cold night in front of this building, looking up at that dome. It was so quiet, as the nearest traffic was far away enough not to be heard. It was like being thrown back into a long-ago era of elegant buildings and gas-lamps.

Scenes from Washington - Day

I did not have much of a chance to see Washington by daylight (one morning walk before the workshop and around half and hour after the workshop ended). What photographs I did manage to take benefited from a wonderfully clear sky and quite dazzling sunshine, especially in the morning.

Front of White House
Morning of 18th November

This was taken from the front gate of the White House in President's Park, under the watchful eye of a couple of guards. It was just as well that I took that morning walk, because the Park is close after 4.30 pm!

Stylistically, the front part of the White House is actually more impressive and imposing than the back view that we get from Pennsylvannia Avenue. The back of the White House is rather like a genteel plantation mansion from the South (I keep thinking Tara from Gone with the Wind), while the front is rather more grand in an officious manner. It would be great if this front view was a photo opp as well. But I guess it's understandable that the President of the USA would not want his front doorstep to be so open to public scrutiny!


Eisenhower Executive Office Building
Morning of 18th November

This is one of the two government building flanking the White House. The Eisenhower Building is to the West and a mighty lovely piece of architecture. The gold-topped monument in front is called the First Division Monument.

What I like about this building is that it is so completely different in style to the White House and to the Treasury Department building which flanks the White House on the East. This building reminds me of the Hotel Du Ville in Paris (which was not a Hotel at all, but a hospital, if memory serves correctly). It does not have the imposing exterior of a government building and could just as easily have been a manor house converted to a modern hotel.

Treasury Department
Morning of 18th November

This is a very treasury looking building, with its classical columns and the Roman-temple extension in the front. Unfortunately, there were works being done in front of the building, which rather spoilt the photograph.






General William T Sherman Monument in Sherman Park
Morning of 18th November

This monument sits in Sherman Park, in front of the Treasury Department and diagonal to the White House.

William Tecumseh Sherman was a commander for the North during the American Civil War. Not being an American, I did not know much about him, but I could admire this monument for its clean lines and the elegance of its structure.

Unfortunately, the sun was shining from behind the monument directly into the camera lense. The image turned out to be a little darker than I would have liked and the shot as a whole is a little overexposed.


Rochambeau Monument in Lafayette Park
Morning of 18th November

This was taken from the White House side of Pennsylvania Avenue, looking onto the south section of Lafayette Park. This monument stands at the south-west end of the park.

Lafayette Park's 4 corners contain statues of European military heroes during the American Revolution. Regretfully, I only managed to photograph this monument of French commander, Lt Gen Comte de Rochambeau.


Washington Monument, White House and Monument of Andrew Jackson
Morning of 18th November

This was taken in the middle of Lafayette Park. I was trying to capture the three structures in a diagonal line. Because the sun was shining directly into the lens, this was not an easy shot to take. I had to position the camera such that the sun was hidden behind trees. Thankfully, Washington was still in autumn mode despite the coldness of the weather, and the tree still had leaves!

The equestrial monument of General Andrew Jackson is in the dead centre of Lafayette Park (which has a most pleasing, European symmetry in the placement of its monuments). According to this website, this is the first esquestrian statue cast in the United States.

Gentleice Goes to Washington

Well, none of the planned travel journals materialised, but I WILL GET DOWN TO IT. For starters, some pics from my whirlwind trip to Washington. I spent most of the daylight hours indoors attending a workshop, so there are precious few pics that are lit by sunlight. Most of those taken in the dark were less than satisfactory, to say the least.

I only had around 4 hours to explore Washington's many sights, and I did it all on foot. I did not manage to get inside the Smithsonian museums to my regret. However, in those four hours (during which the temperature got down to something like 0 deg Celcius), I got to the main postcard highlights:

The Lincoln Memorial

This was taken at dusk (around 5 pm), with the sun almost completely set.

This is indeed a majestic and most impressive monument. However, I had the misfortune of visiting during a period when Lincoln's statue was undergoing restoration work. Scaffolding obscured most of his face and part of his mid portion. Will post those pictures at another date.



The White House

This was taken in the morning (around 7. 45 am) with strong sunlight shining straight into the camera lense. This is the view from Pennsylvania Avenue, around 3 minutes away from my hotel. The White House is naturally fenced off, and I poked my camera through the gate's grate to take this shot.

This is in fact the back part of the White House. I have a photo of the front, taken that same morning. However, the front of the house is more heavily fenced and the picture I took has two fences obscuring the view of the house.

Capitol

This is, tragically, one of the very few shots of the Capitol that turned out okay. This was taken at night, well after sunset (around 8 pm). I had trudged the whole 2 km of the National Mall to get here and my fingers were frozen by this time (not conducive to taking night photos at all).

The Capitol is perhaps the most impressive building I saw in Washington. Notwithstanding its symbolism (and opinions may well be divided on this), it is just a beautiful building. The famous dome is a marvel up close.


Washington Monument

This was taken with the setting sun behind the camera (around 4.30 pm), from the Lincoln Memorial end of town. I liked how the colour of the sky turned out. It was very cold in Washington those two days, but the sun was out and the sky was cloudless.

The Washington Monument appears to be no more than just a block of cement and many places have such monuments. But what makes it impressive is its sheer size. Like so many things in America, this was HUGE.

Things to Do

Trips to be add to this blog:

• Berlin last year
• Scotland and UK last year
• Vietnam this year

And if the memory allows:

• Paris
• New Zealand