Washington Monument & Jefferson Memorial Sunrise I

The Washington Monument is among the most well-known landmarks of Washington, D.C. The massive obelisk dedicated to the first president of the United States stands over 500 feet tall. Construction began in 1848 and didn’t finish for nearly 40 years due to lack of funding and the American Civil War. Made of marble, granite and bluestone gneiss; one can see the different shades in color of the stone between the bottom and top sections of the monument as the quarry stone couldn’t be matched after a two-decade long gap in construction. Fifty flags surround the base of the structure, symbolizing the fifty states of the Union.

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial on the National Mall is located at the southern end of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. This memorial is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, an integral American Founding Father, one of the main writers of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress and third president of the United States. The neoclassical architecture commonplace in Washington, D.C. is evident in this memorial with its circular marble steps, ionic order columns and shallow dome. It is open to the elements and managed by the National Mall and Memorial Parks division of the National Park Service.

I shot this single-row panoramic stitch at sunrise in the late summer of 2016. The Tidal Basin Bridge (Ohio Drive Bridge) provides sweeping views of the Tidal Basin, lined with nearly 3800 Cherry Trees. In September, at a distance these trees could be mistaken for the myriad deciduous trees with their beautiful green canopy. In late March/early April these aged cherry trees burst with new life. During the peak bloom of the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., their canopy and flowering blossoms happily hang over the edge, engulfing one in a flowering tunnel as they walk around the Tidal Basin. Washington, D.C. is not a large city like New York City with the plethora of tall buildings as far as the eye can see. Rather it is filled with many unique sites and monuments which make up the cohesive whole; one of those iconic sites being the Cherry Blossoms in D.C. along the Tidal Basin on the National Mall. This is the place to go to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and enjoy views of the Washington Monument, White House, and government buildings, such as the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as seen in this photo.

While I sometimes obsess over weather forecasts to decide whether or not to make a trip out to shoot, I’ve found that you really never know until you get there. When the weather doesn’t work out, I always still take photos to experiment with location, setup, and camera settings so when comes the day for “the shot”, I am not left scrambling to figure that out and miss my shot. When I saw the blanket of clouds covering the entire sky, I chalked this morning up to be one of those times. Before I knew it, a small hole in the clouds opened up behind the Jefferson Memorial. It expanded to reveal a brilliant sunrise which lasted only a few minutes before getting engulfed again in clouds. This photo reminds me to always get out and to be ready. You have to be in the right place at the right time to get a chance to catch these special and fleeting moments in time.