These are photos I took during a Washington Photo Safari that featured the moonrise over the Kennedy Center and a walk through Georgetown to take architectural photos at night. The safari was excellent! It was a gift from my daughter. Thanks, Stephanie!
Kennedy Center, as viewed from the Washington Harbor, Georgetown, Washington, DC
Waterfront on Potomac River, with Kennedy Center in the background. A brisk wind was blowing that chilly fall night. We played with camera settings like f-stop, shutter speed, and white balance. Tripods were definitely required!
Rosslyn skyline with cloudy white balance setting.
Same view with shade white balance + enhanced red.
Another view of Washington Harbor boardwalk, with a warmer tone.
Washington Harbor just after sunset. This short period of time yields photos with a brilliantly sapphire sky, not the dark blue or black sky of later evening.
A beautiful stone church in Georgetown.
Another view of the church.
I added the moon with Photoshop. The tiny dot of light in the sky under the moon is Jupiter, which has been brightly visible all month. If you have a telescope, check it out. You may get a glimpse of some of its moons.
Black and white version, with high contrast. Again, courtesy of Photoshop.
Georgetown shops at night. Our gaggle of about 8 photographers with tripods attracted attention from the nighttime denizens of Georgetown. One guy had fun with the folks who asked what we were taking pictures of. One of his responses: "We're waiting for Brad Pitt to exit that building, but he might not make an appearance tonight. We may have to settle for Angelina." Ha ha ha!
David Luria, from Washington Photo Safari, gave us tips on architectural nighttime photography. Avoiding the 'keystone' effect of vertical lines slanting upward is challenging.
Nice Ferrari!
Cool old bank building
Those of us with Nikons learned how to take a double exposure of the moon combined with a scenic view. The camera merges the two together into one photo. This was an early attempt. I tried it about 5 or 6 times with this scene. It took patience and persistence, figuring out the right settings for each scene (different for the moon and the building) and changing several settings and the composition within the 90 second window the camera alloted for the double exposure. My persistence paid off, as you can see in the next photo.
Golden! ISO 200. Building: f8, 4" shutter speed, WB: incandescent light. Moon: f11, 2" shutter speed, WB: shade. Hint: use a remote shutter release or autotimer to avoid camera shake from your finger. A sturdy tripod is very helpful, especially on a windy night.
The moon by itself. The tricks to moon photography are: tripod, f-stop, shutter speed, ISO.
This was a cool store front. I was intrigued by the many vintage sewing machines in the windows. I 'googled' the store name later and found out it is a European clothing company. Clearly, I don't shop there.
Another nice architectural scene. I want to go back to Georgetown for more nightime photography. Maybe I'll take my bodyguard... or gather a group of fellow photographers for another outing.
Banana Republic
So many interesting scenes at night!
Another double exposure. If I were to re-take this one, I would zoom out a bit, so that there's more sky and the moon won't be so close to the building.
Apple store in Georgetown. I wonder if they sell honeycrisps; that's my favorite kind of apple!
Get your iPhones here!
A little fun with 'light painting' using a flashlight. I took a long exposure photo and 'painted' the firehose connection with light from an LED flashlight.
One of the key objectives of the safari was to photograph the moon rising above the Kennedy Center, but cloud cover and a slightly later moonrise precluded that. In addition, we didn't get the full moon because the safari had to be postponed from last Friday, due to heavy rain. That's okay, though. I just Photoshopped the moon into my Kennedy Center shot. Ha!
