A Night in DC, Shooting Around the Crowds

By Ken Hubbard

Ok, so André wrote a great article about the night the government did not shut down and how to make the most of the not so great conditions that night. Even though the weather was dreary and the cherry blossoms almost gone, there were still many tourists around. As photographers we all know how frustrating crowds can be when trying to capture the images you want. Normally, to create a photograph I want, I would wait as long as it takes for the crowds to dissipate. Since rain was a factor all night, I didn't have the luxury of waiting so I was forced to look at the monuments differently than I normally would. Below are a few images from that night.

This first image was taken at the FDR memorial, which sheer size can be intimidating to a photographer, let alone dealing with the crowds. What caught my eye immediately was the wall of faces, a very powerful representation of a tragic time in history. I wanted to isolate one figure with a very shallow DOF and shot at an angle that faded away into darkness. This image was shot with the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD lens.

Moving on to the Washington monument, I've always liked the way the ring of flags around the monument looked at night, and in the past I've tried to capture the monument and the flags in one image, but once again, crowds were always the issue for me. So on this night I just started shooting the flags, walking around the monument and shooting parts where there was no one standing around. Fortunately, while walking around I was able to capture this image with the Capital building in the background. I lined it up evenly between the flag poles, and ironically one flag is not flowing in the breeze and is a yellowish color while all others are white, make of it what you will. This image was also shot with the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD.

Lastly, the Korean Memorial. I've tried many times to capture this memorial at night, but once again there are always people there and even worse, it is close to a roadway with many cars and buses always parked in the background. With this in mind, I started shooting the individual sculptures to keep the tourists out of the images. What caught my eye with this image was the incredible orange color in the sky and the American flag in the background. I purposely captured the backside of the sculpture with out of focus figures in the bottom right hand corner to give a feeling of marching towards the flag. Again, shot with the 18-270mm VC PZD.

Comments

[Justin]

Love that last photo great collection.

[Ken]

Thanks Justin.

[ed suarez]

Very nice photos in D.C.

[Ken]

Thanks Ed!

[Randy Hull]

Very nice shots. Especially like the last one.

[Ken]

Thank you Randy!