Tide­pool Dawn — © Copy­right 2012 by William Beem

Wash­ing­ton DC Attractions

The best time to hit the Wash­ing­ton DC attrac­tions is sun­rise, or per­haps just before sun­rise. I love to stay up late and sleep in well past sun­rise, but some­times you just have to adjust your sched­ule to make the most of your time. I thought I would avoid the crowds by pho­tograph­ing some of the Wash­ing­ton DC attrac­tions later in the evening. Big mis­take. Every­one else has that same idea, par­tic­u­larly school groups.

It seems that most peo­ple pre­fer to be on some indoor tour dur­ing the day. They have good rea­son, because it gets swel­ter­ing hot in the DC area. Let’s face it, the place was built on a swamp. Some of those char­ac­ter­is­tics remain. Day­time is busy with the good folks who live there going about work and life, not to men­tion the tourists clog­ging the muse­ums and other indoor tours. For pho­tog­ra­phers, the mid­dle of the day is often a poor time for pho­tog­ra­phy in the harsh light. It’s a good time for a nap, though.

After being sur­rounded by school groups along the National Mall and the Lin­coln Memo­r­ial one evening, I real­ized that the crowds just never seemed to end. One park ranger explained the ebb & flow of the crowds to me, though.

Painful as it was, I got up a few hours before sun­rise, parked at Potomac Park, and made my way around the Wash­ing­ton DC attrac­tions in the area. It was beau­ti­ful! No crowds in the Lin­coln Memo­r­ial. I even got there before the Marines arrived at the mid­point of their morn­ing run. In fact, the only other fools peo­ple who were about at that time were other run­ners. As a pho­tog­ra­pher, I love run­ners. They don’t linger. They get the hell out of the way of my frame. Remem­ber that the next time you’re set­ting up a shot and some­one crosses into your scene. At least run­ners will be out of the way in a moment. Beats the hell out of tourists in your way.

I was able to hit sev­eral Wash­ing­ton DC attrac­tions in a very short time because there wasn’t any­one in the way. The Lin­coln Memo­r­ial, The Viet­nam War Memo­r­ial (includ­ing the Wall and the stat­ues), the Korean War Memo­r­ial, the MLK memo­r­ial, FDR memo­r­ial, and still had time to wrap up with a walk around the Tide­pool area before any crowds arrived.

Many pho­tog­ra­phers will tell you to get up early because that’s the best light of the day. Maybe so, but I like it because it’s the qui­etest time of the day. You can get a lot done while every­one else is sleep­ing another cou­ple of hours.