1,001 Words: I Won't Repeat Myself Again. I Will Not Repeat Myself Again.

Saturday, April 21 - 4:30pm - Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial, Washington Monument, and Lady Bird Johnson Park - Washington, DC

I remember back in high school when I took 9th grade photography class. Probably the best elective I ever took in all my schooling, and I wasted it when I was 14. Oh well. I do remember the time I spilled a whole bunch of fixer on myself, then passed out in second period because of the fumes. Well, honestly, I don't remember a lot of that. It's hazy.

Anyways, one of the lessons I remember from that class was repetition. Parallel lines, repeating elements, things like that all make good photos. Draws in the viewer's eye and stuff. So I decided to take a few photos like that while walking around the Mall Saturday. Tell me what you think. First come the explanations, then come the photos. Enjoy.

1. A Whole Mess of Tulips at Lady Bird Johnson Park - I actually walked past this flowerbed twice before walking back to take a photo. All of the tulips looked huge, the flowers were wide open, and they were all pointed right at the sun. It looked pretty cool. I took a few shots, but I like this (slightly cropped) one the best as the flowers fill the whole frame. The big green patch in the center isn't so hot, but I didn't want to touch the flowers. They're on federal property, you know.

2. The Back of the Lincoln Memorial - sometimes you can walk on the backside of the Lincoln, sometimes you can't. It probably has to do with the amount of park police around. I thought the shadows of the columns were interesting on this one, and how they cast repetitive shadows on the already repetitive wall. I turned this one to black and white because I thought it looked classier that way.

3 & 4. Half-Staff Flags at the Washington Monument - the flags were at half-staff for the Virginia Tech shooting. As soon as I heard about the flags going down through Sunday, I wanted to get a picture from the Monument as you have a slew of flags there and it just looks more...I dunno...impactful? I know that's not a word. The first picture is from the west side, and you can see the Lincoln Memorial in the distance. See how the flags move down from top left, drawing the eye? The second is from the east side, looking at the Capitol. I like how you can see the shadow of a flag in the foreground. I don't like that doofus in the orange shirt who wouldn't get out of my way.

5. Washington Monument and the Crescent Moon - That freaking monument makes any normal blue sky look awesome. If you look closely, you'll see a sliver of moon. Again, repetitiveness of the bricks, heading up the picture and away from the viewer.

6. Kids at the Korean War Memorial - Okay, this has nothing to do with repetition. I just happened to catch these kids before they got yelled at by their parents. And I really like taking pictures with reflections. Just looks cool.