Spring 03/29 - 04/04 (Scott)

I ventured down to the cherry blossom festival Sunday morning, arriving around 9am. Unfortunatley the sky was semi-cloudy then, but it was all sun by the time I left around noon. Overall, I didn't like most of the shots I took of the blossoms as they tended to blur into the cloudy sky. They had quite a bit of greenery to them as the leaves had definately sprouted by sunday, however i'll leave you with a series of festival sights I think few people captured.

The first is from a bridge on the south end of the tidal basin and one of my favorite spots to shoot the washington monument. I enjoy the fact that you are close of the monument yet show the water, trees and flowers. I think it really beautifies the mall and shows that DC isn't just a metropolitain area, we have a large park in the center too, just like NY. I feel like this is a 'postcard' shot.

This second shot proves the existance of the eastern bunny as this was taken on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately he had no basket with him, as far as I could see, but he does have a carrot for a heart - update your anatomy books please.

The next shot took me a while to capture - on the western side of the tidal basin the wind was picking up and was ripping petals off of the trees. It was very hard to capture the frenzied effect on film, but I think this picture did it best. I think this best captures the spring feeling as you have the couple with stroller, almost out of frame, taking a walk under the cherry trees.

The last shot was a woman who stood on my picnic table where i was eating lunch in order to grab a shot. I thought this captured the essence of my festival experience - tons of people taking pictures - not of the usual washington monument, but of the blossoms - as seen in the reflection in her sunglasses. I wanted to crop in around her sunglass to emphasize the cherry trees, but then you lose the washington monument.

Spring 03/29 - 04/04 (Melissa)

Sorry for posting so late
The office was closed on Monday and I didn't have access to non-blocked internet untill today
Here is my pic! I took it on Putuo Monuntain.

Spring 03/29 - 04/04 (Jaime)

I hate to sound like a broken record, but here's another pic of a spring flower! :)

I don't believe this one is a cherry blossom, i found it in the sculpture garden next to the Natural History Museum.

Enjoy!

Spring 03/29 - 04/04 (Pere)

So I did make it to the festival, and I get the bonus points as per Scott's email :D

To not disappoint the group here you have a couple of shots from the blossoms...



Yes you’ve guessed right it was busy, very busy and I think that every single person there had a digital camera so I’m pretty sure that the two pictures I have posted you have like millions of copies out there from all possible angles.

I wanted to post at least a couple of pictures from the event that hopefully not many other people saw, well the shadow of the monument most likely was snapped by other people but definitely not a shadow of Maraea and I

Spring 03/29 - 04/04 (Sara)

This topic was one of my favorites because I love flower photography! I know spring isn't all about flowers, but when I think of spring, I think of flowers (and pollen).

I took a few pictures in Reston, and a few in NC when I was there for the weekend. I even arranged some flowers with Jeff's mom, but those pictures came out too dark because we took them indoors. I can't help it that my favorite lighting will always be outdoor lighting :)

When I took this picture, the sun was so bright, so I couldn't see the exposure meter inside the view finder, but I think it turned out ok with post processing. These flowers (what are these? they're outside MicroStrategy too and they smeeeell) are so cute, but they smell disgusting:

Another one of my favorites from this weekend was a random shot outside an REI. This was one of those circumstances where I hate carrying the camera around but this time I'm so glad I did. Jeff and I went to 4 different bike shops so he could find the helmet he wanted to buy. He did not find the helmet due to poor selections in NC, but I found a great shot :)

I love the bokeh in this picture.

Spring 03/29 - 04/04 (Josh)

Seems like this year it's going to be all about extremes.

The largest amount of snow (per inch) recorded in DC.

And now it seems like we're going to have a really warm summer ahead of us as it's supposed to be in the 50s right now during the day as a high, and instead for the past week, we've been pushing 80. Therefore, it was only fitting that with the warm weather comes blooming, emerging, sprouting.

Most people think of tulips, cherry blossoms, lillies, etc. However once thing that I always like to examine, because at a world of it's own it has it's own type of forest is moss. As I went home to good ol' Johnstown, PA for Easter then I noticed that although it was really warm and almost 80, it hadn't hit up there as soon and therefore everything was still pretty dreary. But the moss was starting to grow like crazy because of the amount of moisture still on the ground left over from all of the snow.

So go explore the forests (thanks to macro) of moss:

As a bonus since I didn't have time to go see the Cherry Blossoms, this one is of a close-up of a Hyacinth (commonly known as baby's-breath) and it was one of the few plants that was growing around my mom's house. I like it because if you look at the pollen anthers (look at the full size), they remind of the small Aliens that would burst out of the chests of people in the Alien movie series. :-D