Tag Archives: vpickering

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Chinese New Year parade vpickering

Though DC’s Chinatown is routinely dismissed as inauthentic, the DC Chinese, and larger Asian community, still considers it their heart. And a good demonstration of that is the Chinese New Year Parade, which is always a fun time. Performers, firecrackers, and children; it’s always a good time with a parade. And from a photographer’s perspective, it’s a rich field for work.

Take Victoria’s picture above as an example. Finding one of the Lion dancers in a nice, cute moment, and focusing in as close as possible, gives a sense of intimacy. As well, by having the center focus on the girl, but keeping the full face of the lion costume in frame (click through to Flickr to see), you get the scale of the scene. Simple a wonderful sight and a great photo!

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Snow in the Capital vpickering

DC (Maryland and Virginia) may not be able to handle snow events, well, at all but that doesn’t mean the city’s not a gorgeous backdrop when the white stuff falls. Victoria Pickering braved the obviously terrible weather conditions yesterday and captured this wonderful shot at the Capitol Reflecting Pool. You can almost hear the quiet; the sound of the snow falling and the crunch of it under your feet. Many of our fellow Americans make fun of our ability, or lack thereof, to handle inclement weather, perhaps rightly so, but I can think of no other major city in the country that looks as lovely as Washington, DC in the snow.

Take a look through our Flickr group for more snow photos and be sure to post some of your own.

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Escalator vpickering

Escalators; in this town, they both fascinate and annoy us. The fascination comes from being an almost steampunk era machine, constantly clicking and clacking, tucked away in mysterious low light areas. The annoyance, well, that comes from the people who use them; the clash of local vs visitor. Everyone has their way of getting clueless tourists to the right side; whether it’s a polite “excuse me,” or a more impolite “EXCUSE ME” followed by some choicer adjectives. Yep, escalators bring us all together.

Victoria certainly captures the fascination of these machines with her picture above. The low angle provides a unique point of view; after all, most of us don’t hunch over while riding up one of these things. This perspective captures the forward motion of the escalator, making the viewer feeling like they are rising up into the light. As well, the dark, almost black and white, coloring gives the photo a gritty look. This gritty look is complemented by the orange lights, flowing upwards to the vanishing point, helping to make this picture by providing a vivid splash of color into otherwise two toned scheme. Put simply, this is a great photo.

Fun factoid: did you know Metro has the longest single span escalator in the Western Hemisphere? I want to walk up that thing.

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Photo courtesy of vpickering
Woodrow Wilson bridge
courtesy of vpickering

With the reflective surface of the Potomac, Victoria was able to get the colors of the Wilson Bridge’s lights in the river. And since it’s a long exposure, the movement of the Potomac gives the reflection a fascinating blurred look which draws the eye upward to the structure; all those vertical lines in the water point to the horizontal line of the bridge. Truly a fascinating shot, of a relatively simple form.