First things first – Today I’m doing a “guest post” photography tip on the very cool blog life with my 3 boybarians. Sounds kinda like a sit-com – I think it is at times. Darcy is running a very sweet, extremely well designed blog, check it out. Also, be sure to subscribe to her blog and to my blog to get the latest updates. That way you don’t miss anything. Thanks Darcy!
Remembering our spring break trip to Washington D.C.
Always the contrarian, a couple years ago I traveled north with the boys for spring break. We had been to Washington D.C. with our pop-up camper when the boys were much younger. This time my wife had some things going on and I decided to do the D.C. trip with just the three of us, myself and my two sons in our RV towing our “dinghy” (a now 10 year old Saturn).
The boys and I loaded up and headed out. It was a Saturday and we spent the whole day doing the 13-hour drive north. We arrived a couple hours before sunset, with dark gray overcast skies. Arriving from the highway I could see the cherry trees, more like sticks in the mud, lining the basin at the Jefferson Memorial – no flowers. The trip was starting out bleak.
We had stayed at a very nice RV park in Maryland on our first trip, Cherry Hill Park, and decided to stay there again. The RV park is connected to a bus route, that goes to the train station, which arrives at the downtown Mall. Being raised in Illinois, in between corn rows, I was a bit (actually very) apprehensive the first time about the D.C. public transportation thing. But after seeing the efficiency and all the lines of not moving traffic out the train window, it was actually a very good thing.
We went to bed Saturday night, after watching National Treasure on DVD, with a gloomy rainy forecast for the next day. I figured I’d simply scrap the photo shoots planned for the next day. I decided beforehand, Sunday would be the only day I’d drive into town, since the streets wouldn’t be too crowded. At least we could drive around and give the boys a peek of some places and spend the day in museums, I figured. As we approached the mall area, the sky became lighter and lighter until beams were breaking through the clouds. I got so excited, we should have been wearing helmets. I whipped the car into a space, threw gear at each of the boys and yelled at them to keep up. I don’t even think I locked the car.
The reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial was awash with golden early morning light diffused by the parting clouds. Steam was rising from under the Washington Monument. The weatherman didn’t mention anything like this, imagine that. I couldn’t shoot fast enough.
The day cleared and continued to offer great opportunities for sight-seeing, photographs, and a fun time. One shot I had seen, that I really wanted to get was Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the Capitol building all in one image. Doing my homework on Google Earth, I concluded the vantage point had to be between the Iwo Jima Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery – it was.
Luckily for me, my wife and boys are great at patiently waiting for me while I wait for a shot. Here the boys burn off their last bits of energy after a full day of visiting the National Cathedral, Mt. Vernon, Vietnam Wall, Georgetown, Arlington National Cemetery, and other places I can’t remember.
This is the photograph I had in my head and that we waited 3 hours for “blue hour” (the time right after sunset when the sky still has light). Ten minutes later and the sky goes completely black.
The trip continued to offer one great photo opportunity after another. The boys had reached the magical age where they had plenty of energy and could keep up. Needless to say we pushed each day from sunrise to sunset. The guys were real troopers!
Here the boys wanted to photograph us in the reflection of the Vietnam Wall. We debated whether we should smile or not. It was decided, yes we should smile as a thank you to ALL those who gave themselves for our country. Call me old fashion or whatever, but I consider teaching my boys our American history and heritage very important. Today especially, too many of our freedoms are taken for granted and the true history of our wonderful country is being glossed over, or worse – rewritten. OK, enough of that for now.
Another evening shot I really wanted was the Jefferson Memorial. Again we arrived early to set up. We walked what seemed like miles to get to the Memorial. Unbeknown to me, the center bolt in my tripod had loosened up and worked itself backward into the tripod. When I went to attached my camera to the tripod, the head simply fell off. With shock I looked at the tripod, realized I couldn’t get the shot without it, and verbalized some phrases that would have been better off non-verbalized. It looked like the main bolt had broken off. But my ever handy and mechanical oldest son said “no Dad I can fix it”. With no tools it was nearly impossible to loosen the set nut locking the bolt in place. Looking at the scene in front of me developing into some great evening light, I forced my finger tips to undo the lock nut. It worked, we moved the bolt back up to the right height and reattached the head. Here is the resulting image.
From the Jefferson Memorial, we walked over to the Lincoln Memorial. I thanked my oldest, for helping fix the tripod, all the way as we walked, and for much of the rest of the trip, for that matter. Washington D.C. at night is beautiful. If you ever get the chance to walk around in the D.C. at night, do it.
The one thing that was alluding us were the cherry blossoms. We needed to leave Saturday in order to be back for school on Monday. Some buds were out at the beginning of the week, but no flowers. On Thursday, the weather warmed a bit and, as if scheduled just for us, the buds started bursting into flowers. We spent the whole afternoon walking around the tidal basin at the Jefferson Memorial. With the clear blue sky as a backdrop, the flowers were stunning.
With the cherry blossoms in the bag, I couldn’t have been more happy. We had a great time, saw an amazing amount of our nation’s capital, and my boys learned a bit about history, sacrifices, heritage, and American exceptionalism. It wasn’t a warm sandy beach, but it was a perfect spring break!
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by Kent Weakley
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