That all changed when I heard on the radio that our gossamer-haired candidate Donald Trump would be speaking at the fair. Because I have a morbid curiosity, I had to go and witness this…event. Here are some photos.

Mechanically, I don’t these photos are really that great. My zoom lens is super dark to begin with, so finding a good balance among ISO and focal length can be tough when the resulting image ends up pretty dark anyway. I also have a tough time grabbing sharp images with it because I generally end up forfeiting shudder speed for brightness, and while I like to think I am stone still, the reality tells a different tale. Such is life.

These images can also be viewed on Flickr.

Like last year, we were back over at the Jefferson Memorial to watch the goings on of Washington D.C.’s Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza.

Getting to the Jefferson Memorial was, like last year, an affair that included a couple of security checks and wading through multitudes of people. After a person stuck a clear plastic stick into my camera bag to ensure that I had to devices of mass destruction, I was able to get the second and third shots above. The 4th on the Mall is pretty neat because the streets that usually are humming with activity are shut down, and you can walk freely about without waiting for lights.

In these first shots I tried to get the Washington Monument in the image as well as the fireworks. I always forget how far away the fireworks actually shoot off from the monument, though, and my zoom lens (18-135mm) doesn’t have a wide enough angle to capture both really well. OH WELL. #firstworldphotographyproblems

There was a couple next to me with Canon 1D’s sporting giant lenses that made me feel woefully inadequate, but I was able to persevere, somehow.

After a while, with a ton of trial and error to get the correct shutter speed (I settled on something between 10 and 15 seconds per firework, if I recall), I refocused on getting some closer shots of the boom-booms.

This shot above is one of my favorites. I ended up with quite a few shots of the event, but not a whole lot of usable images. Having to refocus at night to a dark horizon is not one of my strong suits just yet, and several of my images just came out a little to blurry to do anything with. But I do like these photos that I was able to keep. Fireworks are challenging to shoot because they don’t happen often enough to get a ton of practice with. I know kind of what I am doing, but I do hope to get more opportunities to shoot such things.

While we waited for the people to clear out a bit, I snapped a few shots of the remaining smoke cloud that descended slowly on the Mall. It came out all right.

Overall my D.C. fireworks experience was fun. 10/10 would photograph again.

Side story: somehow I was able to trap a spider in my lens cap that night. I few days later, the next time I was going to use my camera, I opened it to find a spider husk and a stick, webby mess all over my lens. And here’s the weird part: I was getting my camera out to take a photo of another spider. COINCIDENCE? Yes.

I hoped that I wouldn’t spook the little guy (girl?) and force it to run away, so I tiptoed carefully about the patch of tall grass it was sitting in while it looked at me and sniffed the air. Once it decided I wasn’t a threat, it went about its business building a nest in the grass.

The rabbit starting pulling up grass and sticks from the ground and placing them in its nest. I hurriedly grabbed my camera from inside and took some shots. I ended up getting down in the grass with the bunny, just a few feet away from the nest. After gathering some grass, it was a little hesitant to return to place its goods because I was so close, but within about a minute or so it seemed to not care and just wanted to get the dirt out of its mouth.

I shot everything here with a 50mm lens, but realized too late that because the sun was setting, many of my shots were defaulting to f1.8 to let in as much light as possible. Some blurry and wrongfully focused shots came out when it was all said and done. That’s too bad.

Some of the exhibits in the museum did not allow for photography, so I do not have much to show for the insides, but here are a few images of actual pieces of the Berlin Wall and one of the guard towers that used to line the wall.

That’s about it for these shots. Nothing too special. Now that it is getting warmer, hopefully I’ll be able to get out a little more to shoot. But before I go, here is a fun shot of the inside of the Newseum. It sure was nice outside that day.

Coming in to the Mall from the south, the entrance everyone was herded to came in right next to the CNN and CBS MOBILE NEWS UNITS™. I decided to take a few shots of CNN’s booth while some people on TV were probably talking about Michelle Obama’s coat (seriously, they basically only talked about her coat during the parade afterwards).

I heard on the news there were upwards of 1,000 port-o-johns. Fun fact.

I happened by a group of cameras that I assumed was from some news organization, but I quickly learned it was from the fake news! Here was John Oliver from The Daily Show interviewing some woman, and I definitely walked into this shot before knowing who it was. And then once I knew, I walked into it again for good measure.

Interestingly, although it was very crowded, it didn’t seem like it was overly crowded. I guess that is the benefit of being in the far back. I am sure closer up it felt like you couldn’t breath.

I always enjoy looking at the Smithsonian Castle. At the top there were some people having a party. Surely that’s the only thing they could be doing.

From where I stood, just east of the Smithsonian Castle, this is about all that I could see. I never realize how short I am until I am among a million people.

I watched what looked like a teenage boy place this tiny flag in the ground. He seemed pretty proud of what he did, and I enjoyed the sentiment.

They were upset she didn’t sing “Single Ladies.”

On the north street of the Mall sat an army of news vans and their satellites. I probably cannot have children now because I got so close.

C-Span came through with a free button for anyone who happened to walk by. The girl giving them out seemed a little overwhelmed as the crowd swarmed by.

After the inauguration, we all had to figure out how to get out far away from the Mall. How do you get half a million people out of a place? Shove them down narrow barricaded walk-ways, I guess, because that’s what happened. For a quite a stretch on the road just north of the Washington Monument, no one could cross the street because the center lane was reserved for emergency vehicles. People loved to complain they that they had to walk to the end of the block.

In waiting for some of the crowds to disperse, I went over to the Lincoln Memorial to check out the reflecting pool. It was fixed late last year, but this is the first time that I have seen it full of water. It’s nice. Then I found a really creepy Einstein statue that from far away looks like a giant child.

And finally, before jumping on the train, I found this poster.

And that’s basically what an inauguration looks like.

For reference, here is the shot straight from the camera:

So now you know that that happens sometimes.

Full image

This photo was taken at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and is of the…something. I tried to find the placard that described the piece but couldn’t find anything. Maybe I am just terrible at finding those, I don’t know. In any case, I really enjoyed this mechanical globe thing, so I am sharing that with you!

Also, this is the first post using this new theme I put together over the past couple of days. There will probably be some things that are broken, and I am trying to update bugs as I find them. Let me know if you see anything crazytown.