Starry, Starry Night

Metropolitan Police Department Dispatch Tower

During the lunar eclipse on Wednesday night, I tried my hand at photographing the moon, but my camera just wasn't up to the challenge. It's a fabulous little point-and-shoot from Canon and I love it, but it's not good for things like clear, full moon pictures (like these or these or these.)

The Tower is Blue: Starring William Holden, David Niven, and Maggie McNamara...
Oh, wait. I'm mixing up my movie titles.

However, all was not lost. As I stood on the corner of 9th and Peabody freezing my gluteus maximus off, I turned my attention briefly from the vanishing moon to the Metropolitan Police Department dispatch tower on Georgia Avenue and captured a lovely, but rather dull shot. (That would be the first picture at the top in this little collection, just so's ya know.)

Homer! Don't you think it's time to take down the Christmas lights already? It's nearly March!

I played with it a little in my photo editing software and came up with three other versions that are a little more interesting. (Amazingly, my camera didn't do a very good job of photographing the moon, but it did a great job of picking up the stars! Go figure! To see the stars, click on the pictures and they'll open as larger images.)

Doesn't this look like an old photo out of an issue of National Geographic from the 1930s or earlier?
(Or am I just flattering myself?)

I can't decide which of the three edited pictures I like best, so I decided just to post them all and let you decide!


Photo copyrights: D.C. Confidential

Two Things Challenge: Empty / Full

Empty archways leading to the north portico

Washington National Cathedral

Empty (adjective): containing nothing; not filled or occupied.

This niche, with the bright winter sun as backdrop, seemed to represent empty. Although, I suppose you could turn it on its head and say that it's "full of light." This was taken at the bottom of the stairs leading out of the Garth and into a portico with doors going into the cathedral proper.

Full archways from the north portico
Washington National Cathedral

Full (adjective): containing as much or as many as possible; having no empty space.

This is the same niche, but shot from the top of the stairs in the portico looking back down into the Garth. I like how the arches cascades into more arches ending in the garden. This picture seems very full to me. By the same token, you could also turn it on its head and say it's empty because what's a garden without people in it?

(Not bad for someone who's still laid up with whatever gunk this is I have, so I'm using pictures I took a couple of weekends ago. These are also from Washington National Cathedral. If you haven't noticed, I'm working my way from the outside to the inside, so this won't be the last of my pictures from this beautiful structure.)

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

Blue Ridge Parkway

Labor Day 2007: Part II, Saturday

Appalachian Farm Building, Humpback Rocks, Blue Ridge Parkway.

Common weeds, but when they're backlit by the sun, they acquire a halo-effect and are quite charming; Blue Ridge Parkway.

Vista just north of Whites Gap Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway

Once you exit the Shenandoah National Park at Rockfish Gap and cross over I-64, you then enter the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs from I-64 in the north to just north of Cherokee, NC, approximately 470 miles. Saturday's drive covered about 1/10 of that and brought me out between Whites Gap Overlook (2,567 ft ASL) and Indian Gap at Buena Vista (pronounced Bwee-na Vista in these parts), 11 miles east of Lexington.

Near the entrance of the Parkway is Humpback Rocks Visitor Center, which features an Appalachian farm. In the 1800s, the government paid settlers to move out and settle the Appalachian ranges, thereby creating America's westernmost settlements at the time.

The parkway--like its sister, Shenandoah National Park--features beautiful vistas and winding mountain roads.

Zip: 22945

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential (09/07)