The National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum has a few nooks and crannies that you can easily miss if you're not paying attention. That little doorway at the end of the hall that appears to be a dead end, for example, opens up into this wing that lets you into this room. Three floors of marvelous marble pillars, and artwork around every corner like it were a library. The natural light coming through the skylights cast a cool glow into the room. The settings on the camera must have been for the wrong type of light source; but, no matter, I like the glow of both the blue and the warm yellow lights hanging down.
Taken with an iPhone 5s with the wrong settings, I wouldn't have found this room (and the massive courtyard in the middle of the building) if I didn't have a bit of explorer in me that wasn't afraid to keep looking until a security guard told me to stop.
I passed by this the other day noticing somewhere in the empty corridors of my mind at how odd it was that the coins tossed into this fountain - undoubtedly from 3, 2, and 1 floors above it - seemed to be evenly dispersed from the center of the fountain outward, in all directions. Just a passing thought in my mind. But 15 minutes or so after I left the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, it dawned on me that this could be a good photo if I could lean far enough over the 3rd floor balcony without falling off. So, I returned today.
Taken with an iPhoto 5s, I learned that sometimes our subconscious sees the beauty before our conscious eye can.
This is the only photo of the Washington Monument I've taken that I sort of like. Everything else looks like every other tourist snapshot of the world's tallest stone structure. I've taken particular interest in the Monument, lately, when I learned that the Ryukyu Kingdom donated a stone intended for the Monument. Someone lost it along the way, and in 1989 the Ryukyu Society provided a new one that was installed at about the 310 foot level.
Taken with an iPhone 5s whilst straddling a bicycle, I am pleased with this.
Much like the underground stroll between the Galleries of Art, I didn't expect to find this gem of a room in the Smithsonian Castle. I really thought this building was the Administrative offices for the Institution, with little more than an information kiosk and small gift shop inside. But they do have some neat displays in here, worth taking a look at. As for the image, I think the birds (stuffed) flying past the windows are a nice touch.
Taken with an iPhone 5s, I count it as a blessing, these days, to be able to pull out a phone and capture an image like this on the fly.
On one side of this tunnel is the National Gallery of Art West Building, filled with works that are as uplifting as they are inspiring. On the other side (behind the photographer) is the East Building, currently undergoing renovations. The light show put on between the buildings, 1 floor underground seems to rise just enough to the level of amusing to qualify as art.
Taken with an iPhone 5s, the quality of the image is equal to the qualify art in the subject, earning it a firm place on the B-Side.
I like how this image is lit, and the weird balance issues the reach of the branch causes as it creeps into the frame. Not sure, to be honest, if it tilts the frame to the right, or balances the heft of the dark on the left. Someone who understands these considerations better than me will have to chime in. Either way, I like the image, even if it is a B-Sider.
Taken with a Canon Rebel XS with the stock lens, I may have to come back in the Spring and get a companion photo with blossoms on the branch.
It is hard to really capture on a camera how large buildings are in this town. The National Archives is grand in scale, cavernous inside, and has an unmistakable presence on Pennsylvania Avenue. Another B-Sider, worth a spot in a collaged frame on my wall, but not it's own frame.
Taken with a Canon Rebel XS with the stock lens, I just don't know that I can do justice to the building that holds our nation's treasures.
Sometimes (more often than I'd care to admit), I just can't seem to find the shot. But I'll still grab a few images that are worthwhile. Just not jaw dropping. Hence, "The B-Side". Ones that I like, but also those that I don't suspect anyone else will. This is the Department of Treasury at 15th and F, NW. If you want to see how quickly you can get a uniformed Secret Service to show up at your side (without actually doing anything threatening), pull out a tripod for your camera anywhere near the White House grounds.
Taken with a Canon Rebel XS with the stock lens, I actually had to show the Secret Service guy the picks I was taking. He wasn't impressed.
