First film venture in Washington, DC

I had a long afternoon of walking in DC last week, which was the perfect opportunity for doing some street photography with my Yashica Mat 124G twin lens reflex camera. Here is a sampler of some of the photos I made. All were with Ilford HP5 film.  All photos ©2015 - Andi Wolfe; all rights reserved.

In the Metro station. Long exposure and aperture open as wide as possible. The shallow depth of field, combined with the long exposure gives this an impressionistic feel.

I love these kinds of opportunities - when a group of tourists are doing a self portrait with a cell phone. The Washington Monument is a dominating landmark of the National Mall.

The Vietnam War Memorial. This monument is always an touching place to visit. Over the years, fewer and fewer visitors have emotional outbursts as they find the names of loved ones, but there is always a touch of the wall as a name is recognized.

Birding on the national mall

I was in Washington, DC last week on business so I took an opportunity to spend Wednesday afternoon walking around on the National Mall to do some birding. I had done my homework to find out where the birding hotspots were in the area, and the mall near the Lincoln Memorial was on the list. That was great, because it's so easy to get to the area via the Metro from where I was staying.




The information I got off the web said to go to 19th and Constitution and enter the garden there by the pond. Ooops! What pond? It's under construction right now and it was a big, muddy mess. It didn't smell all that nice, either.








It's kind of hard to see waterfowl and other birds attracted to water when the pond has been drained and there are heavy trucks and dozers mucking about.








However, it didn't seem to phase a lot of the birds. Here are some ring-billed gulls.












A Bonaparte's Gull in full breeding plumage.










This Spotted Sandpiper seemed pretty content to walk about on the edge of the mud.










I had a good view of it as it flew from one edge to the other.











I was also pleasantly surprised to see a green heron fly in to check out the muck.











Fish crows took advantage of the mud and trash to gather material for a nest.









I went from the pond over to the grassy mall, and especially explored the edges where the trees and shrubs are pretty dense. I saw quite a few different types of sparrows, including this Savannah Sparrow,











and Chipping Sparrow.












Throughout this area of the mall I had the company of a hermit thrush.











I like this species - it has a lot of personality, and it's fun to watch.


















Their songs are also beautiful to hear.











This was a treat - a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. I'd not seen one before and this one obliged by landing very near me to give me a good look at it.








I did some sight-seeing as well. This is Glenda Goodacre's sculpture for the Women's Vietnam Memorial.








Here's the one most people come to visit. Everytime I've come to this memorial I've felt sad about the losses we incurred due to political decisions. Kind of reminds me of today's scenarios, but don't get me started on that topic. . .








A mourning dove - how appropriate to the sentiments I felt that day.









A European Starling in full breeding plumage. I can't believe someone introduced this nuisance bird to Central Park in New York so that Americans could have the birds of Shakespeare. There has to be a special place in Hell for this kind of thoughtless stupidity.












Here's a nice view of the national mall - the Washington Monument and our nation's capitol in the background.













The Lincoln Memorial.











World War I memorial, tucked away on the south side of the mallway.









The garden next to this memorial had two Brown Thrashers throwing the leaves around in their search for goodies to eat.








I went over to the tidal basin for the last bit of my walk. The Jefferson Memorial is across the basin from the mall and I had intended to walk around the entire area.








Mallard ducklings were cute to see. There were several more out of the frame of this image.









This is an example of how not to drive, and the reason I didn't get to finish my walk around the tidal basin. The emergency vehicles, traffic snarl, and news reporters completely blocked the path. So, I called it a day and hiked over to the Smithsonian Metro station to catch a ride back to my hotel.







This was the last bird of the day for me. It's usually very difficult to identify a bird from this AHV (- the particular anatomical perspective). . .

If it's singing, you can identify it by song.








If you get to see the entire bird, it's easy to identify it as a Northern Mockingbird.


I did enjoy my birding afternoon, and it was good to have that time before settling into a couple of long days sitting in a room with a group of scientists.

Washington DC - part I

A couple of days after the Dublin Irish Festival I was back on the road again (isn't that a country song title by Willie Nelson?). This time a woodturning trip to the Capital Area Woodturners. I'm doing two one-day hands-on classes and an all-day demo before returning on Sunday morning.

I came in early on Wednesday to give myself time to go see the Smithsonian art museums and I sure did take in a lot of sights between 10 am and 5 pm. I hopped on the Metro at Huntington station and got off at Farragut West for short walk to the Renwick Gallery.

Unfortunately, they're between exhibits on the first floor, but the selection upstairs rotates often enough that there were a lot of differet things for me to see compared to my last visit a couple of years ago. The main gallery is featuring the work of George Catlin who traveled throughout the US to paint Indians in their traditional garb prior to being caught up in the great European migration westward. This exhibit is an important snapshot off what we've lost on this continent.







This painting was interesting to me with the depiction of the face paint of this chief (of the Iowa tribe, I think).
















I always enjoy seeing Wendell Castle's "Ghost Clock" sculpture. This is carved from walnut with the drape part of the carving having been bleached. You can see the grain lines in the drape, which is your first clue that the whole thing is carved from a block of wood.












Here's the backside of the sculpture. It's one of my favorite things to see in the Renwick.















This is an interesting cabinet called, "Ghost Boy" made by John Cederquist. I would like to see this all opened up to find out what's inside the doors and drawers.

















Another of my favorites is "Portal Gates" by Albert Paley.

















This is Binh Pho's "Journey to Destiny," which was donated by Jane and Arthur Mason. It depicts Bihn's escape from Vietnam in the 1970's.
















This one is called "Monkey Settee" and was made by Judy Kensley-McKie.









Plate #753 by Robert Sperry. I draw a lot of inspiration from ceramics - especially the surface enhancements used for decorating the vessels.











This interesting cabinet is called "Bureau of Bureacracy" by Kim Schahmann. It's a personal narrative of growing up in South Africa and there are documents placed inside that track his biography. I know this because the guard for the gallery told me all about a letter he wrote to the artist inquiring about the piece. So, I had a personal tour for this one -- another piece I'd like to see inside of.










After visiting the Renwick I walked over to the Washington Monument and took photos of the White House (Pennsylvania Ave side here).









Constitution Avenue side here.

I didn't see any big protests going on today. The last few time's I've walked past here there's been some activity out front or back protesting war, the economy, conservatism, name what you want to protest against. . .

The lack of such displays makes me wonder if tightened security is impacting our society's propensity for free speech.






Here's the Department of Treasury.














The Washington Monument.
















A view of the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pools.












Next I walked up to the Freer Gallery and toured through the Freer, Sackler and Museum of African Art - they're all connected underground.










The Freer Gallery is interesting because there's a nice collection of Whistler paintings as well as Asian Art and artifacts. This is Whistler's "Orange Note - Sweet Shop."











Here's a Syrian artifact - probably an incense burner - from the 15th century. I found this interesting because of the Celtic weave design.










Here's a detail - I think this type of design is common in cultures other than the Celtic ones, but I always think of it as a Celtic design.










This is a Korean ceramic urn from teh 8th century. I found this interesting because of the impressions that make up the surface design.

















It reminds me of branding patterns we'd see in contemporary woodturning surface enhancements.















This Korean bowl was made sometime between 1150 and 1200 AD. The form is one of my favorite ones to do in woodturning.












Here's the courtyard garden at the Freer. It was a little warm on Wednesday or I would have sat here for a while and enjoyed the sound of the fountain.








I enjoyed the Sackler Gallery collection, too, as well as the African Art collection. I didn't get any photos from the latter - photography isn't allowed there.

This is a ceremonial wine bottle and bowl in bronze from ancient China.













A ceramic ritual wine container from 1300 BC China. I found the surface features to be very attractive.















I really liked this three legged bowl.














And this small pot, too. One can really find a lot of ideas for surface enhancement from these ancient vessels.











Here's a collection in one of the display cases.












This is a 14th century vessel from Iraq made from brass with silver inlay. The surface design includes an inscription in Arabic.











After visiting those three museums I walked across the mall to go to the National Gallery of Art. This is the Smithsonian Castle from the mall side.












A view of the US Capitol building at the end of the mallway.










The natural history museum, which I didn't have time to visit. I like this museum a lot, so I'm sorry I didn't have time to walk through it. I've been in the back rooms to use the herbarium a few times - the behind-the-scenes research areas is pretty interesting, but I understand they've moved the research collections offsite now.








The West Wing of the National Art Gallery. One of my alltime favorite places to visit in DC.












Walking into the rotunda to see the sculpture of Mercury is always a welcomed sight.
















I'll post pics of some of my favorite paintings in the collection starting with "Young Girl Reading" by Fragonard.
















Twatchman's "Winter Harmony."














Monet's "Japanese Footbridge."













"Four Dancers" by Degas.
















"Oarsmen at Chatou" by Renoir.












One always finds a painter copying one of the masterpieces in the French Impressionist galleries. I always enjoy seeing this.












The water sculpture near the walkway to the East Wing.














The walkway to the East Wing connecting the two museums.










Number 1, 1950 by Jackson Pollock. I don't understand modern art, but I do like a few of the paintings I've seen. This one is visually interesting to me. Most of the paintings in modern art are ones that make me say, "huh? I don't get it."







This is the main atrium of the East Wing.













I have no idea who made this sculpture on Pennsylvania Avenue near the metro stop I found at the end of the day.










This is a view of the National Archives building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

I've been pretty busy since Wednesday, but will try to post more pictures later this week.