Burnside's Bridge at Antietam

These photo were taken on a September morning, almost 150 years after the Battle of Antietam. Both photos are five-frame high dynamic range, with exposures separated by steps of 1.0 EV. Both photos have been sharpened in post-processing and they were shot with tripod and cable release.

Spring Ephemerals by Janet

This is the glorious season of spring ephemerals, like these Spring Beauties at Turkey Run.

It seems to me that one of the true spring ephemerals is not a flower but a color, the vivid green of early spring, which will darken in days but is absolutely glowing now. Here are two shots of that green, from Scotts Run.

For the single leaf, the wet rock provided contrast. The other was trickier. I struggled through a patch of Jack-in-the-Pulpit to try to find a dark background that would make the green plant "pop." Dissatisfied with the backgrounds I found, I decided to try an all-green background to repeat and reinforce the spring green.

TR Island & cherries

Bits and Pieces

Fellow Potomac photographers might be interested in this article on wtop.com:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=920&sid=2325996 The story covers some autistic children who are expressing themselves through photographs of the cherry blossoms.

Cherry Blossoms 2011

The challenge of the cherry blossoms, for me, was how to convey their cherry-blossom-ness without falling into cliche. I wanted to avoid the hunt for the perfect blossom, and look for loveliness in the imperfect -- in this case, blossoms already past their prime. The brown adds a nice color to the pink and white, I think.


Drizzle and overcast skies also meant some built-in imperfection when compared to traditional cherry-blossom shots. Though this photo is a bit soft, I like the raindrops and the gray background of the Tidal Basin.






Again, I like the quietness of the colors.










I swore I wasn't going to take any shots of the monuments, but couldn't resist how much warmth the light at the Jefferson Memorial brought to an otherwise cool, gray scene.






I took dozens of shots of blossoms and buds against the dark, gnarled cherry trees, but struggled technically to get shots in which the white blossoms weren't washed out, or surrounded by the dreaded purple fringe. I think I needed a smaller aperture and longer shutter time, or to wait for better light, to do better on these shots. I welcome your advice.