Photo Walk along the Potomac

Today I did my photo walk along the Potomac on the Virginia side. What I like about Virginia is that you can go from one end of the state to the other on a bike path. The paths are many and well linked. Here's a picture of the path by the river.

And I'm still into reflections, so here's a reflection of the Memorial Bridge. This is one of my favorite bridges, I just love a beautiful arched bridge. There are numerous bridges that cross the Potomac, most of them utilitarian, steel monstrosities, but the Memorial Bridge is different. It's wide and functional with a large pedestrian path. It has 9 arches and is faced with beautiful granite. 

I had to walk quite far to get this shot. I wanted to get the sunny side of the bridge and there's not any parking nearby. As you can see in the path picture, the shaded side is not nearly as impressive. And autumn really seems to be a good time for taking pictures of the Potomac, it really makes that water seem blue.

A little aside: about three years ago I was doing a photo shoot at the Lincoln Memorial end of the bridge when my cell phone fell out of my pocket and over the edge never to be seen again. I hold no grudges against the bridge. It's still one of my favorites.

More Pink

I guess when you have a pink wall in your studio, you have to shoot pink. I liked my last shoot with the pink wall so much, I decided to redo my business cards. But I had the problem of not having any images of men in pink. So I asked my new friend Andrew if he wouldn't mind shooting in pink.

Here's my favorite shot from today.

And here's how I plan to use it on the back of my business card. I know it's a risk going all out pink on my business cards, but I still have a bunch of my old ones to hand out to the more stodgy types. This card makes me smile.

More Landscapes

I discovered a new place to walk in DC. The Zoo owns some land around the Zoo, they bought it as a buffer from the urban development, and they have a path that runs along Rock Creek.

Since I'm too cheap to pay for parking, I parked in Adam's Morgan and walked down to the Zoo. That's no small feat considering the hill. Here's a picture from the top of the hill where I parked. Fall is still in bloom here although it's fading.

Here's Rock Creek.

The bridges in DC always fascinate me. They are just so big.

And if you get bored of walking on the path, you can always cut back through the Zoo, which is free —that makes it one of my all time favorite zoos.

I'm trying to go on a long photo walk every weekend. It has a two-fold purpose, one to keep me healthy, and two, to get me to practice taking landscape shots which I feel is a weakness of mine. So far, I think it's working out perfectly.

Shooting Models Again

I'm happy to be shooting models again. Chelsea organized a shoot to capture her pink hair before she dyed it another color and I'm glad she did. It's been a while since I've done full-on model shoots with hair and makeup and clothes styling. It can be overwhelming because there are many people to organize just to do a shoot. And on the day of the shoot, hair and makeup can take hours (which means I'm trying to entertain myself for that time). But when it all comes together, it really can be a lot of fun.

This shot of Jasper, who was incredibly well behaved in the studio, is really my style. I even did my old texture edit to it. It speaks to me. And I finally got to shoot the pink wall I painted. Everybody else has shot it but me. I prefer wall textures to seamless paper, it just feels more natural to me. So when I get bored of a wall color, I just paint it. Reject paint from the Lowe's is a great, cheap way to keep my pictures fresh. And the color doesn't put any color cast on the seamless because the seamless is in front of this wall.

This shot in the window is really different from my style. It screams more fashion than portrait to me. It's shot with a ring flash and edited to have some punch in the colors. I like that Chelsea fits into the small space of the window. It makes a nice frame. And the lanterns? Well, I found those while I was cleaning out the studio closet (did I mention that hair and makeup takes hours?) and I thought they would be a fun addition.

Arlington National Cemetery

It took me years to go there, but now it's one of my favorite places to go for a walk in DC. And today was a perfect fall day. We've been lucky in DC this fall with warm weather and vibrant blue skies.

Somebody left hero rocks on several of the head stones in one section. I'm guessing they all served and died together in Vietnam. I know they were heroes even without the stones to tell me, but I wonder what made somebody leave the hero stones behind.

And it seems that I'm big into photographing reflections lately. This is outside of the Women's Memorial.

This is taken from the top of that building looking towards JFK's grave.

Blue Water

Today I had to meet a model down by the Smithsonian so I got there early to take some landscape pictures. I was completely surprised by how blue the Tidal Basin was photographing. It's always a hideous shade of brown/green. Here's what it looks like when you shoot it straight on:

And here is how it photographed when I took in the whole scene. Honestly, I didn't have a polarizing filter on my camera, and I didn't edit the sky or water in photoshop. It was really shooting that blue. I guess the water was reflecting the perfectly blue sky. I just kept taking pictures because I couldn't believe how blue everything was! I thought it was a fluke.

And those trees are the Cherry Blossom trees. They look amazing in the spring and also in the fall.

Caught in the Act: Dodging the Question

I managed to get another photo in this series. We shot in the men's room at the train station. It was harder than I thought it would be, especially since it was rush hour. Perhaps my timing was not the best. But it was a little funny to see the looks on the men's faces as they came rushing into the bathroom to find me in there with a camera. I'm sure if it was a man in the ladies room with a camera, security would have been called. I sometimes think I'm very lucky to look like a short, harmless woman.

I like this shot. I'm liking the on-board flash look. It was a fluke that my first shot was taken in the dark, but I think it's working for the series.

I still think my images are a bit composed, but I can't let go of that.