The Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is one of those things that you just have to see when in Washington, DC.  I was not at all familiar with the downtown area, but knew everything was pretty closely situated.  I drove down there and (finally) found a place to park, and headed out to The National Mall.  It’s an interesting place and is certainly popular with the tourists.  There were groups walking, groups on busses, and people everywhere.  I can see why - these are our National Monuments, and they are cool.  So I strolled around for quite a while, waiting for the light to fade and just enjoying the scenery (and taking lots of photos all along the way!).  At some point I meandered over here to The Lincoln Memorial.  It’s a fairly imposing structure when you get up close, but it is beautiful.  I enjoy architecture anyways, so things like this are always interesting to me.  Good old Abe was sitting there, big as you please, and stoic as ever.  I guess that’s expected though.  The only downside was that the reflecting pool that sits in front of the Lincoln Memorial and stretches to the WWII Memorial was drained, and the sidewalks all around it were closed.  I guess there was some “national improvement” going on...so, my hopes for cool shots with reflections in them will have to wait for the next visit.

By the way, I normally like my shots to be free of folks, but at places as busy as this, that becomes very difficult to arrange.  I didn’t have my bullhorn with me, so I couldn’t really yell for everyone to move.  After looking at this on my computer however, I liked the sense of scale that having a couple of folks in the shot gives to the image.  I especially like that person sitting off to the left side, apparently watching the sunset.