The Old Post Office Pavillion

The Old Post Office Pavilion is located on Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, D.C.

It's a really interesting and beautiful building that was built between 1892 and 1899.  It served as the post office for only 15 years before a new building was built.  Interestingly enough, there was a huge outcry that the building should be torn down.  The reason?  People then absolutely hated the building's look and design.  Pretty amazing considering it is such a spectacular old building.  Proof that tastes are ever evolving.

Anyway, the building was saved due to efforts of certain people here and there to preserve it, but also because of the Great Depression that stalled efforts to demolish it.  In the end, the building survived.  It is a very famous building in D.C.  It houses government offices, shops, and even has a bell tower that is the third tallest structure in D.C. (coming behind the Washington Monument and the Shrine of Immaculate Conception).

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the Old Post Office.


(Entrance.)


(Front of building and statue of Benjamin Franklin who is considered the father of the Post Office.)


(Front.)


(Front.)


(Side angle.)


(Side angle.)


(Looking out towards the street from the entrance.)


(The sidewalk and plants outside of the building.)


(The amazing ceiling inside the building.)


(One of the views from the bell tower.  That's EPA buildings below and pennies on the ledge thrown by visitors.)


(Another view out of the bell tower showing the Washington Monument and Arlington beyond that.)


(I took this shot of the sun setting from the bell tower.)

Old Town Alexandria in black & white

Old Town Alexandria is one of my favorite places in the Washington, D.C. area.
I've been there many times and during the past week I've had the opportunity to work a job there.

I took these pictures while strolling Old Town last Friday night.  I love black and white photography.  I love the depth and emotion it brings.  A friend of mine recently remarked that black and white photography is so great because the viewer isn't distracted by colors.  I agree.  Sometimes you can truly see what the photograph is really about when you aren't overwhelmed by various colors that fight for your attention.  Black and white has a purity that color cannot match.

Grandpa

Most of my grandparents passed away several years ago, but I do have one grandparent that is still alive.

Grandpa (as I call him, wink) is an interesting character.  When I was a young child, he was a teaser and brought me to tears many times, but as an adult, he and I have a very close relationship.  He's led an interesting life, loves Chuck-O-Rama, and is always fun to be around.

He lives in Utah, so I don't see him often anymore, but I did get to see him in December.  He was gracious enough to let me photograph him.  Here are some of my favorites.

Cherry Blossoms

The Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. is world famous and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.  Matter of fact, I have never (and I mean never) seen as many people in downtown D.C. as I have during this past week.

The trees blossom only once a year and the blossoms stay open for just about a week.  While I knew they'd be pretty, I didn't know how I was going to photograph them with so many thousands of people gathered around.  So, I picked an unusually cold evening that was windy and quite unpleasant, and went when the sun was setting.  The cold weather combined with the after-hours time made for zero crowds and a beautiful sky that made an amazing backdrop.

I know that many of the pictures are similar, but the Cherry Blossoms are located in a part of D.C. known as the Tidal Basin which is, well, a basin.  It's a big, round circle so there isn't a lot of variance.  However, even if some of the pictures look similar, there are differences in position, angle of the camera, the timing of the sunset, etc.  Interestingly enough, most of the pictures in this sampling have literally zero editing done to them.  The conditions were just that beautiful.

I'm also including a couple of pictures in this sampling of some other trees in blossom that I found quite stunning.  These pictures will be the last two in the sampling and were taken in Old Town Alexandria.

Here are my favorites.

Harpers Ferry

I recently had the opportunity to go to Harpers Ferry.  Harpers Ferry, which is located in West Virginia, is a famous/historical town for several reasons. It's where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers come together; it's a place that was surveyed by George Washington; visited by Thomas Jefferson; one of the few towns that the Appalachian Trail goes directly through; and was where John Brown attempted a raid that ultimately failed, brought about his execution, and was a contributing factor to the Civil War.

I really enjoyed photographing Harpers Ferry.  There was so much to photograph: the rivers, the buildings, the old church, the graveyard, and little shops.  Here is a sampling of my favorites.