Cherry blossoms

Monday was a beautiful but brisk day, and after work Thom and I met up at the Tidal Basin for a little photowalk among the cherry blossoms. It had been early in the blooming period, so most of the trees weren’t completely in bloom. (Right now is the peak time, I think.)

One thing I like about my new digital camera is its ability to get a shallow depth of field (where only a small bit of distance is in focus), something I couldn’t control on my older, more basic camera. The photo above has the Jefferson Memorial in the background. The sun was near setting, so we had precious little light to work with, but the sunset did make for some nice shots. The rest of my photos are up on Flickr.

Afterwards we walked through the new-ish World War II Memorial, but unfortunately none of my photos there came out very well. By then it was very dark with little ambient light on the Mall, and I was having trouble changing the settings to get the proper exposure. (Thom has some neat photos of it in his batch.) I like that memorial; with its open space and fountain surrounded by columns and arches, it has the feel of an old-world town square, like an Italian piazza.

By the way, after a lengthy hiatus from blogging, Thom has relaunched his website. It’s minty fresh!