Monday, January 14, 2008

Happy Mistake

Evening clouds overhead, Foxhall Road

Getting out of the city and into Virginia on a Friday after 4:00 p.m. is always a problem. Unless you have two or more people in your car, you can't use I-66 until after 6:00 p.m. because of HOV restrictions. Rock Creek Parkway is one-way northbound from Connecticut Avenue southward until almost 7:00 p.m. This leaves you with traveling through the city to I-395, or taking Virginia's Route 50 or Route 29, or heading up to the Beltway and going around the long way. None of these are desirable, especially if you want to keep your sanity and be a pleasant person by the time you arrive at your parents for dinner.

I took Military Road to Nebraska Avenue to Foxhall Road to Canal Road to Chain Bridge Road to Route 123 to I-495 to I-66. It took about twice as long as it normally takes to get to my parents, but the important point is, I kept moving and wasn't doing the lurching stop-and-go, stop-and-go that I'd have encountered otherwise.

How does this relate to today's picture, you ask? I was on Foxhall Road and looked out my window to see a beautiful bank of clouds in the waning sunlight. I grabbed my camera and snapped this picture, which I then only slightly enhanced in Apple iPhoto. I forgot that I had my camera set on ISO 80, but the result is, for me, a happy mistake. (And I have five more happy mistakes I'll post over the next while.)

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 1/08

3 comments:

Bobbie said...

I love this happy mistake. The clouds are so dark and ominous. I've taken a few of them before and turned one them into photoshop art :)

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

Yes a nice ominus looking (sp) happy mistake! That would be a contridiction ofcourse but you know what I mean. It's very dramatic!

Janet Kincaid said...

Bobbie: Interestingly, the sky was a deep, dark blue and the clouds were a heavy gray, and yet there was just a tinge of pink which gave it all an underlying warmth. But this result was rather dark and ominous, I agree.

Lisa: I think the cars behind me were more ominous than the clouds. They weren't that thrilled that I was snapping pictures. Oh well. It's not like I held them up. We were all sitting at red lights at the time...