Category Archives: Places

Thoughts and photos from various places in the world.

Places

Reagan National Airport

As you read this, Ligia and I are supposed to be in Florida. Instead, I’m back at work. We were supposed to fly out yesterday. Everything was set. We were really looking forward to it.

We got to the airport, checked in, went to the gate, and noticed that our flight was listed as leaving at 6 PM instead of 4:50 PM. A few minutes later, an elderly lady came by and asked if we’d heard that the flight was canceled. No, we hadn’t. Five minutes later, the notice was posted — the flight was canceled indeed, because of bad weather in FL.

To make matters worse, there were no other outgoing flights. All were full. The earliest available flight was on Saturday. No thanks. We went around to all the other airlines and checked. They had nothing, unless we were willing to pay Monopoly prices and fly tonight or on Friday. That would have been okay if only we could have paid with Monopoly money…

What were we to do? We could have gotten angry, but that would have been pointless. So I took out my 5D and started taking photos of the airport. I’d always wanted to do it and never got around to it. Isn’t DCA beautiful?

Travelers

The main floor is shown above. I love the pillars and arches supporting the roof.

Repetition

Light

Radiate

The ceiling is made up of repeating cupolas, as you can see above, and each cupola has a skylight in its center. It’s such great design!

Skylight

I think I could spend a few days walking around the airport and taking photos. There are so many possibilities with the light, as it comes through the wall of glass or the skylights and reflects off the floor… It’s just beautiful, and if you get the right mix of people walking through (not too many, not too few), it really makes the place look great!

Arrivals

Steps

Departures

I leave you with an outside shot of the control tower, taken from the Reagan National metro station. It felt pretty painful to get right back to it a few hours after we’d just left it, on our way to FL…

White tower

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Places

Grosvenor metro station

There’s a neat tunnel that goes under 355 (one of the main roads in our area) and surfaces right at the Grosvenor-Strathmore metro station, under a beautiful canopy of curved glass, framed with steel ribs and anchored with pillars.

Descent

Ascent

If you’ve ever seen one of the old classic cars (early 1910s and 1920s) that had the pull-down roof which folded in the back, the glass canopy follows the same concept, except (of course) it’s anchored in the up position all the time. Come to think of it, the design also recalls the large, see-through fuselages of the big bomber planes of WWII. The effect is a successful combination of post-modernism with industrial-age design elements.

Fuselage

Radiate

The same canopy design (initially restricted to just a few metro stations) has now been extended to all of the stations I’ve visited. The canopy sizes are varied based on the size of the tunnel that leads down to the metro. I’m glad to see a good design philosophy being consistently applied and adapted to existing conditions, and I congratulate WMATA on making sure the work was carried through to completion.

This is my Week 6 submission for the 2008 Community Challenge.

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Places

Waves at Hollywood Beach

This is a video I recorded a couple of years ago at Hollywood Beach, Florida. It was early morning, the sun had just come up, and Ligia had gone into the ocean for a swim. I stayed on the beach and recorded this. It starts out wide, then gets progressively closer to the water until it ends up in macro mode. A couple of days ago, I re-edited it, and I really like the way it plays now.

You can watch it below or here, and you can download it as well. Just press play, stay with it, and relax.

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Places

Watching the skies

I count myself blessed for living where I live. Our community is a beautiful place, and even though it’s in the middle of a city, surrounded by major roads, great care has been taken in its planning and maintenance over the years. It feels more like a park than a residential community, and the fact that we’re bordered by forests on either side helps a lot. We have an open view of the horizon that looks out toward Rock Creek Park, and as a result, I get to see a lot of beautiful skies. Here are a few recent photos taken right from our terrace.

I couldn’t believe how beautiful these clouds were. They look hand-painted, don’t they?

Quilted for extra softness

A recent dusk featured a gorgeous light show that painted the clouds in all sorts of hues.

Heavenly light show

We had a full moon last week, and I “captured” it.

Shoot for the moon

These two buildings are quite far apart, yet the long focal range compresses the distance between them, making them look as if they’re superimposed.

Superimposed

Planes often fly above. We get plenty of supersonic jets and military aircraft, since we’re very close to Washington, DC. Sometimes we also get these planes. I think they’re doing aerial photography that later makes it onto Google Maps.

Aerial photography

Lots of Canadian geese choose to winter in our area. I see them in the nearly frozen water, swimming along as if it’s summer. I don’t know how they do it. I guess it’s warmer than Canada, but still… These three geese (one of them is obscured by the tree) were flying in to bed for the night.

Sojourners

This is my week 4 submission for the 2008 Community Challenge.

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Places

January snowfall

We had a snowstorm this past Thursday in the Washington, DC area. It started snowing around noon, and it continued to snow until about 4 pm. The snowflakes were big and fluffy, and they were coming down in thick waves. In the end, we have about 3 inches of accumulation, which started to melt overnight. By now, there are patches of snow here and there, but if this warmer weather continues, we’ll have nothing.

Here are photos taken during and after the snowstorm in various locations such as McLean (VA), Potomac River (MD side), and North Bethesda (MD).

Twigs weighed down by snow

Glass building in snowstorm

Road at Tyson’s Corner during snowstorm

Evergreen branch covered with snow

Here’s how my car looked during the snowstorm.

MINI covered in snow

MINI during snowfall

Visibility was (understandably) greatly reduced during the snowstorm. This tall crane normally dominates the skyline at Tyson’s Corner. Not during the snowstorm…

Tall crane during snowstorm

Always interested in shapes and abstracts, I couldn’t help photographing the tracks left in the snow by vehicles and people.

Bend it

Footsteps in the snow

Tracks in the snow

The fresh snow afforded me a different look at a spot I often visit: Lock 10 on the C&O Canal, which is located on the Clara Barton Parkway, somewhere between Great Falls and Glen Echo (MD).

C&O Canal at Lock 10 during snowstorm

Forest path at Lock 10

Potomac shoreline during snowstorm

Island

A bend in the river

Potomac River during snowstorm

A is for Abstract

Ice covers the buds

Finally, photos from my neighborhood. I’m glad I live in such a beautiful place.

Snowman rests on bench

Trees during snowfall

Branches covered in snow

During the snowstorm

Since this post includes photos from my community, let’s call it my Week 3 submission for the 2008 Community Challenge. My other submissions can be found under the “2008 community challenge” tag, right here on my site.

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