The weekend of Christmas, 2007. A walk down the National Mall in Washington DC. New friendships formed, old friendships from college -and older still from high school- are rekindled. Bonds are formed and many revived. 7 people at my place from around the country - Oh, what times!
Varun (school friend) and I try to imitate this statue outside the Gallery of Modern Arts. No marks for guessing who did it better :-)
Waah, innovation at its best. A roadside mirror for drivers, to help them see merging pedestrians, is put to better use.
Friends outside the White House with the
National Christmas Tree and the
Washington Monument (very faint - click to enlarge) in the backdrop.
Bush ka adda - aka the front side of the white house.
F.R.I.E.N.D.S. outside the Smithsonians - Some, Shantana, UNK, Giri and Luei.
Men in Black wearing new leather jackets with the Capitol in the background (nice pic Isha).
The Capitol, its reflection and the Christmas tree. Scenery at night is amazingly hard to capture with night vision on. The
shutter speed should be greatly reduced and the least of movements can reduce the picture to a hazy shab.
Another view of the same.
The Capitol at 5 PM EST. The sun has gone down on most of the National Mall and is kissing good bye to the country's legislature.
"
You won’t see any skyscrapers in Washington, DC—by law, no building may be taller than the 12-story-high Washington Monument—but you will find world-renowned museums, first-rate restaurants and shopping, captivating monuments and memorials, quaint neighborhoods, grassy parks and tree-lined streets, a modern and efficient mass-transit system, a thriving arts scene, and a zoological park housing not one, but two giant pandas. So if you want skyscrapers, head elsewhere. For everything else, pay a visit to Washington." - Online search result
I have not seen this scene in any picture before. The idea of Manu Kant, this amazing shot is captured by Isha. The picture is a perfect example of a mirror image - the Washington Monument, streetlights and the moon are being perfectly replicated on the
Reflecting Pool. In the absence of a tripod, all night shots have been taken by keeping multiple cameras on stable base - lawns, rocks, pedestrians, statues - whatever it took to get the best view.
The
Lincoln Memorial at night. One can see the Capitol from the top of the stairs and it forms one end of the
National Mall.
Another difficult shot - it was tough to include the fountain, the monument and the moon (hiding behind the tree) in one shot. It needed extremely solid base and 6 retakes before it came off as it did.
Night view of the fountain at the
World War 2 Memorial.
Front view of the fountain with the Lincoln memorial in the background. This was the most satisfying shot of all - there was no solid base and the camera was hinged on a metallic pole. If you enlarge the picture and see carefully, you would see a similar pole just left of the fountain on the right.
View from the top of the Hill - the Capitol Christmas tree, the Washington Monument and the DC skyline in backdrop.
Another view from the same spot without the Christmas tree. This shot took 10-12 retakes.
They say the world is run from the Capitol (in pic), the White House and the agency across the Potomac river - CIA.
Night view of the Washington Monument from the Oval (opposite the Red Cross).
And finally, the National Christmas Tree in the Oval right opposite to the White House.
After attending the 4th of July fireworks as well as the Christmas-New Years celebrations in the Capital, I am convinced that Diwali in most Indian cities is celebrated with much more grandeur and lights.
