Jefferson

Going to the Jefferson Memorial to get a good image for me is a bit like going to the refrigerator repeatedly throughout the day hoping each time I'll find something enticing that I didn't notice the time before.  The troubles I have is when I'm at the monument, I'm sorta on an island occupied almost entirely by the deceptively large monument.  And if I want to shoot from across the Tidal Basin, I need a much better telephoto lens than what I've got.  But some weeks ago I took a portrait of a friend of mine at the monument and it really turned out well, so I know something up close can turn out well.

I shot this with my iPhone 8s Plus, then fiddled a bit with the basic color adjustments available on the phone's native software.  While a few people have wondered if the pillars were lit up with green lights, it was just the minor adjustments I made that brought out the four layers of coloring that I love so much about this image.  I also took the exact same image with my Canon SLR, and played with the colors on it as well; and was completely unsuccessful in coming up with anything as dynamic, yet "real" looking, as this one.

Jefferson

Sometimes it is more about the framing than it is the angle.  Although, the angle didn't hurt with this one.  Shot from across the Tidal Basin, I didn't think the base level telephoto I was using had the reach I was hoping for to get a decent shot of Mr. Jefferson.  Indeed, it couldn't zoom in as far as I hoped.  That shortcoming, however, turned out to be a good thing, as I was forced to rely on framing it properly to get this shot.

Taken with a Canon Rebel XS with an EFS 55-250mm telephoto lens, this was the first photo I captured, proving that sometimes the ones you think are stinkers turn out to be the best when you view them on your computer.