Despite living in the D.C. area for almost 20 years and being involved with photography for most of the last decade, I had never photographed the monuments on the National Mall at sunset before this week. Watching the light change from daylight through dusk to twilight from the base of the Lincoln Memorial was quite spectacular. For more photos from the Mall, check out my Flickr set here.
The first test for my brand-new D700 was the U.S. Botanic Garden, located on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. In the rush to play with my new toy, I pretty much forgot to take notes on the names of the flowers I was photographing, so I have no idea what these little pretties actually are. For more photos from the gardens, check out my Flickr set here.
We’d planned on going to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park for days in advance as part of Chris’s D.C. sightseeing tour, but it was a bonus to learn that the Fujifilm Giant Panda Exhibit, home to the zoo’s three pandas, was reopening just hours before our visit. The exhibit had been closed for several weeks due to the annual “let’s try and artificially inseminate this panda and then wait three months to see if we’ll have a cute baby panda” experiment. Result: Fail, for the third straight year.
First home-grilled meal of the summer!
Burger with cheddar cheese, bacon, red onion, leaf lettuce, tomato, pickles, dijon mustard and ketchup on a wheat bun.
After flying into Baltimore from St. Louis, we took a little side trip to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, D.C., where the annual Joint Services Open House was taking place. The weekend event showcases miltary equipment, planes, parachuters, and several aerial demonstrations. We arrived just in time to see the Air Force Thunderbirds perform their routine.
