A photographer friend invited me out to the McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area to capture the fields of sunflowers. They're at their peak this weekend and next.
I've been meaning for a long time to join Rena on photo shoots. I love her work, and I knew it would be helpful to see the world through her eyes. And to get some photo tips.
I'd seen her sunflower photos from other years and definitely wanted some of my own. So I met Rena and her friend Amy out at the fields in Poolesville, Maryland. At 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday. We beat the crowds but not the heat.
Two nights before New Year's Eve, I was at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., learning (but clearly not perfecting) the art of night photography.
For the past several years, the National Zoo has strung up a good show and visitors wander through delighted by the spectacle.
I didn't see any real animals. If I were them, I would have stayed inside too. It was freezing out there. But a handful of us had signed up with PhotoTour DC to learn the basics and we braved the elements to wander through the ZooLights display. (Sorry, it ends today.)
We all had different levels of camera - mine being the least fancy. The minimum requirement was to have manual controls and a tripod.
In fooling with the shutter speed I discovered this is overexposed (too much blue-light bleeding):
Somewhere along the line I traveled with someone who taught me the fun of photographing silly signs documenting the hilarious mangling of the English language by non-English speakers.
No, these photographs never get blown up, matted or framed. But they're good for a laugh and for showing other people. I'm sure many people would appreciate being amused by someone's vacation photos, more so than having to ooh and aah over some beautiful sunset that they didn't experience.
NOT that I'm saying I make others view dozens of sunset photos they don't really want to see...
At first, I didn't think of this as something to write about on a solo travel blog. But scanning (or should I say "spanning") the photos stirred up so many memories of my travels.
I thought maybe it would do the same for you, even if you haven't been across or in view of any of these particular bridges. For instance, seeing the bridge in Venice - one of so many you cross as you walk the quiet, carless streets - reminds me how special a place that city is.
If you've never gone because you haven't had someone to travel with...not a good excuse. You could wander for hours on your own marveling at the uniqueness of the place and stopping for pizza, gelato, cappuccino (what's not to like about eating in Italy?!) Bring a camera and a book and take your sweet time exploring any which way you'd like.
I didn't see too many other bridges I'd actually visited represented on the 50 Fantastic Bridge Photographs post. But as my mind wandered, I remembered Chain Bridge in Budapest. I got to visit that one because I had gone to Club Med alone, met someone I became friendly with and a couple of years later she moved to the city for work and invited me to visit.
The cherry blossoms are coming! Very soon now. I happen to be highly aware of the impending pinkness (pinker as buds, then very pale pink as blossoms) because I was immersed last month in writing a cherry blossom guide for a hotel magazine.
While a lot of the cherry blossom events are for kids and families, several would be perfect for solo travelers looking for company while in D.C. I'm thinking about doing one or two of these myself, even though I've been to the Tidal Basin's beautiful cherry trees many, many times. And even though I might visit at other times with friends.
Washington Walks offers a "Blossoms Secrets Stroll" that teaches you all the cherry tree lore you could possibly want. I just learned that the 17th-century Japanese stone lantern near the Tidal Basin, where a veritable forest of cherry trees resides, is the oldest manmade object in the country that's not housed in a museum.
While you're traveling, you'll likely have your camera on board as you wander new cities and tromp down exhilarating hiking trails. But should you ever be out and about without your camera and see a fabulous sight you'd like to capture, keep in mind that a mobile phone can do a decent job.
And, as a solo traveler, you might be out at night, not planning to take photos of the sights, and end up meeting some fun people. That often turns into a mutual photo-snapping session.
1. Use both hands to hold the camera as steady as possible. Good cameras have a feature that helps with that imperceptible shake of the hands. Phones? Not so much.
2. Avoid using the the zoom. Move closer if you need to. Using the zoom is going to degrade the quality of the photo.
3. Choose your phone camera's highest resolution. If you can't figure out how to change it, pose the question online.
If I were to ask you to name cities around the world that are home to some of the grandest and most beautiful cathedrals would you name Washington, D.C.? If your answer was "no" you might want to revise your list.
Normally we in Washington take the Washington National Cathedral for granted, driving past it on Wisconsin Avenue or Reno Road, hardly taking a glance. If we were to fly to Europe and see a similar edifice, we'd be snapping photos and buying postcards. And writing home about what a grand sight we'd seen.
Funny how most of us look past what's in our own back yards.
But a few weeks ago, I stared the cathedral in the facade. I was going around town looking for photos to take for a photography contest I wanted to enter (Sure! Feel free to vote for "cathedral"). I wound up at the front doors of the sixth-largest cathedral in the world.
The "Space Window" contains a moon rock from one of the U.S.'s lunar missions.
The dream of a national cathedral dates back to 1791 when George Washington was president, although plans for building it didn't get traction until 100 years later.
"Learn to take great pictures while touring DC's favorite locations." What a cool concept for solo travelers from out of town.
Lynford Morton of PhotoTour Excursions offers two, two, two events in one. (okay, only the older among us will remember that chewing gum commercial. Or was it mints?) Photo lessons and a tour of the area at the same time.
You meet up either at the Lincoln Memorial for DC monuments or in Annapolis (think Chesapeake Bay, U.S. Naval Academy, boats) or in Adams Morgan, a neighborhood in DC full of ethnic restaurants and funky buildings.
Then you get to hang with locals and visitors who show up for the class and talk photography, where you're from and anything else that comes up during your wanderings. So it's fine to go solo.
I chose the Adams Morgan class. Eight of us met on a sunny Sunday morning. Most had pretty nice cameras but didn't know much about them. Two had point and shoots.
The best part of the tour was that Lyn gave personal attention to each of us, looking at our photos and showing us how to use various settings.
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