Images From Washington DC
But I came away with mostly business photos from those trips. Instead, I thought I'd share with you some photographs I took in Washington DC towards the beginning of the summer. Not many people have seen them, and it really was an interesting trip. As always, click on any image to enlarge it-

I was hired to document a business group's legislative trip to DC. I'd been there before, but not like this. I really enjoyed seeing some of the behind the scenes stuff, like the underground passageways that connect many of the official buildings surrounding the Capitol, allowing the senators and congressmen to move quickly from one place to another without fighting traffic.

The group I was following met with everyone they could, both Democratic and Republican. This is Congresswoman Judy Biggert, who was very friendly and engaging considering she had just flown back from an all-female Congressional delegation to Afghanistan, and only had a few hours of sleep before she met with us.

At one point I had an opportunity to get on to the roof of the US Chamber Of Commerce building. It has an amazing view, and many of the news organizations use it when they are reporting from DC because of the perfect backdrop. I also had along my telephoto lens, and captured some images where you can see the four guys dressed all in black on top of the White House with their rifle bags and telescopes. BUT, I suddenly realized that there might be somebody important out there that wouldn't like it if I posted those :) And I'd rather not have the guys in black outfits knock on my door at 3am, ya know?

I was very fortunate to have about 3 hours to myself during one of the mornings. So I used that time to roam around the Capitol, checking out the Smithsonian and many of the highlights. At one point I found myself by the Washington Monument. I decided to amuse myself by trying to photograph it in a way that made it difficult to tell it was the Washington Monument. I put the 15mm fisheye lens on my Canon 5D, and gave myself over to the distortion. I have some interesting ones where it just looks like a giant pyramid. But I like this image as well-

And I kept the 15mm on my camera as I strolled over to the Lincoln Memorial. It's challenging when you photograph something that has already been photographed a million times before.

Labels: Judy Biggert, Lincoln Memorial, Monument, Naperville, politics, Washington, Washington DC, White House