Shooting Monuments Early or Late in the Day

The monuments and buildings in DC are so pretty at night. I did not have my monopod with me on this evening, but often you will find a fence or railing of some type that you can use to stabilize your camera for a low light situation. It was still dusk in the shot above of the White House, so thus, that pretty blue sky. There was actually a pink tint to the sky, but it doesn't really show up much. Using a flash in this situation will not help. You need to take the photo with existing light. Fortunately, most monuments and buildings have a lot of light on them, so that helps matters. It was a little later below, by the time we made it over to the Washington Monument. It is not the sharpest image, but I think the colors look kind of neat. It was very cold and Jim was ready to get back to the hotel! He said it was snowing....I told him he was a whimp!

You can still see some of the pink tint in the sky on the shot below...either that or there is a glow coming off the beautiful tulip magnolia!

The shot below was taken across the street at the Supreme Court early in the morning. Once the sun did come up, the Capitol reflected the pink glow of sunrise and appeared pink itself. I included a shot of that on my Supreme Court posting.

Another cool shot to get at night is the lights of cars with the camera set on TV (time the shutter is open is longer). I took a couple shots looking down at the Capital at night but without a monopod or tripod and with a husband determined on hurrying, I didn't have time to experiment. That is one reason I love to stay in the heart of downtown if possible. I can go out at all my crazy times and do my own thing. We were staying at the end of the yellow line of the Metro in Alexandria, so I couldn't run the streets like the street urchin that I am! LOL!