I found myself in Washington D.C. last weekend for a company sponsored event. Knowing that the weather was going to be beautiful, I hoped to spend a little time photographing. Last year, for the same event, it was bitter cold, windy, and overcast. I still snapped a few images of the Capitol building, then headed back to the warmth of the car and the impending 4.5 hour ride home. This year, Adriana and I enjoyed a nice walk around the National Mall on a beautiful March day with some of the bluest skies that I’ve seen in far too long a time.

We parked near the Library of Congress and made our way in the direction of the Capitol building. I hadn’t seen it from the front before and was wowed by all of the open space and stone. We approached via a stairway that caught my eye immediately.

Once we got to the top, I switched out lenses and got as close as I could to the figure atop the dome. She was originally named “Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace” but is now simply referred to as the Statue of Freedom.

We passed around the end of the building to see the side that I was familiar with. There were many people out enjoying the sunny day, taking photos of themselves with the Capitol building as a backdrop and even using the distance to and perspective of the  Washington Monument to place their finger on top of it. I patiently waited my turn when there weren’t people in front of me to capture a nice wide angle of the building.

Happy to have my shot, I walked back over to Adriana who was speaking with a fellow out-of-towner. He was mentioning that his daughter had managed to sneak a small stuffed bear into his luggage and that he takes photos with it to send back to her. We chatted for a little while and mentioned that we were from Pittsburgh. He immediately told us that he was a Steelers fan. I nodded my head and said that I was as well, even with how difficult it was last season. We said goodbye and moved along to “just run down to the Washington Monument” then head home. I am a poor judge of distance. As we walked down the path, I noticed an interesting tree. As usual, I apologized, then headed off to get a quick shot of it framing the Capitol building.  I’m really happy with the composition, but haven’t truly committed to the color or black & white version yet.

A few feet further, I noticed that the moon had risen and was in a great spot above the Capitol building’s dome.

Fast forward after a long walk later (poor judge of distance) and the realization that we were close to the Jefferson Memorial, I talked my wonderful wife into adding to our journey. On the way over, I caught a couple of blackbirds having a bath.

Then, just as we were about to cross the street, I found another amazing tree. I’m a sucker for a cool tree.

I was humbled by the beauty of the Jefferson Memorial. It is a wonderful, serene spot that is an incredible memorial to one of our founding fathers.

I love to capture beautiful architecture, and the design of the memorial gave me many opportunities. I especially liked the ability to look out and see the Washington Monument through the columns of the Jefferson Memorial.

I composed one last shot (while there weren’t any people in frame), and we called it a day. I overestimated the length of both distance and time that my journey would take, so we decided to catch a ride back to our car.

We used the Lyft service for the first time and couldn’t have been happier with it. It took a little work on our part to get to a location that was on a road (Adriana and I were unaware that by pressing “request Lyft” that it was 1. setting your location and 2. a driver would immediately be on their way). As it turned out, our fist bumping driver (a genuine part of the experience, we found out) went to the University of Pittsburgh and was originally from Uniontown. Small world!