Variations on a Theme: Early Morning at the Lincoln Memorial

Today’s theme is the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. I present three variations on that theme, all created on the morning of October 18th, 2008. Each was created with different focal lengths at different times and from different locations, though I captured the same basic perspective of the memorial in each.

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Lincoln Memorial in blue

The first photo was captured during blue hour, before the sun rose, at 6:59 am, giving the sky a beautiful blue glow. The memorial was lit up at that time, and I was fortunate to capture one couple sitting on the steps waiting for sunrise. This photo was created with a wide angle lens at 12 mm, so I was standing on the lower steps very close to the monument. There is some angling to the building as a result. I chose a very wide aperture of f/4 giving me a shutter speed of 1/13 second.

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Early morning at the Lincoln Memorial

The second photo was captured at 7:30 am. The sun was high enough to begin lighting up the area, though it was very overcast so still a bit dark. The statue of Lincoln was still lit up. I was using a different wide angle lens at 18 mm and was standing further back from the memorial, so there is less angling to the building. I chose a long exposure of 2 seconds to get a small aperture of f/22 and this resulted in motion blur around any people who moved during that time. The couple from the first photo are still sitting on the stairs, and a small number of other people have arrived.

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Sunlit Lincoln Memorial

At 9:06, well after the sun had risen, and during a brief moment when it peaked through the clouds and illuminated the memorial, I captured the third photo. By this time we’d walked away from the memorial so I was using a longer focal length of 200 mm, eliminating any of the wide angle distortions. I had the aperture set to f/9 giving me a shutter speed of 1/800. The lighting is more contrasty than in the previous two. And by now many more people had gathered on the memorial grounds. The statue of Lincoln was no longer illuminated.

I found it interesting seeing some of the differences between these photos, all of the same subject but at different times with very different lighting, different focal lengths, shutter speeds, and distances from the subject. I also found it interesting seeing how more people gathered at the memorial as the morning stretched on.

What did you think about the differences between each of these photos?

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Overcast Twilight on Neabsco Creek Boardwalk

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Neabsco Creek Twilight

On the final morning of 2021 I joined my father as he opened the Neabsco Creek boardwalk. We arrived at the parking lot while it was still dark and by the time we’d walked to the boardwalk entrance there was just a slight hint of color beginning to show in the sky. I don’t often get out this early, not being much of a morning person, so I tried to take advantage of the opportunity and set up my tripod to capture some images as we walked to open the other gates.

It was a completely overcast morning, so I had no expectation of any pre-sunrise fireworks lighting up the sky with brilliant colors. And yet, even completely overcast you can still see some of those lovely blues of the twilight hours.

For the first image, seen at the top of the post, I set up the tripod and pointed the camera towards the marina and the trestle bridge in the distance. I liked how the lights of the marina were making the fog glow. As I was setting up we could hear the sounds of an approaching train, so I was fortunate to capture that in the exposure. Granted, this was a long exposure (5 seconds) so the train was nothing but a light blur, both because of it moving during the exposure and because of the light mist that slightly obscured anything at a distance.

As I mentioned, I rarely get out before sunrise, which is unfortunate as it’s a great time for photography. The light changes very quickly and provides a range of colors not typically seen. Before sunrise there are virtually no shadows so you can create some soft and delicate images. Just after sunrise you get some incredible lighting on subjects because of the extreme angle of the light, often straight on at the subject.

In this case the longer exposure allowed me to capture some of the blue so common at this time, which is why twilight is often called the blue hour, though it typically lasts far less than an hour. I really should make an effort to get out more at this time, but with work it can be a challenge. Thankfully I had December 31st off, so took advantage of the opportunity.

Eleven minutes later we’d walked a bit further down the boardwalk when I decided to turn around and photograph the way we’d come, still facing the marina and trestle bridge. I zoomed out a bit to take in more of the scene. I liked the look of the boardwalk with the wet planks reflecting the blues from the sky, and curving over to the left, with the marina over to the right.

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Boardwalk Blues

The light changes quickly this time of morning, and it wasn’t much longer before it took on a more typical overcast grey. But I was happy to have created at least a few interesting images under the light of early morning twilight.

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