Photography by John Caplis
The Tidal Basin in the District of Columbia is world famous for it’s yoshino cherry blossoms in the spring. But did you know that the leaves on these trees turn a brilliant reddish-orange color in the fall? Sunrise in the fall is a beautiful time to experience the splendor of these cherry trees without the overwhelming crowds.
Morning sunrise at the Jefferson Memorial.
More trees along the Tidal Basin…
The walk approaching the Martin Luther King (MLK) Memorial.
I recently returned to the Lincoln Monument for another sunrise during the spring equinox. I really enjoy photographing this event, because it truly is about “light and landscapes”. My first time was in March 2019 and featured beautiful clouds during twilight behind the Washington Monument, followed by wonderful orange and golden light on Lincoln. It was very windy and there were actually waves breaking in the reflecting pool, ruling out any reflections on the water. However, on this morning in 2021 (Part II), the sky was cloudless and the reflecting pool was flat calm. I decided to photograph this Lincoln sunrise looking across the reflecting pool in order to include a reflection in the images.
During twilight, the monument remains illuminated, framed by soft blues tones, and the white statue of Lincoln stands out nicely. The windows of buildings in the background were nicely reflecting red light from the horizon behind me where the sun was preparing to rise. This vantage point is at the far end of the reflecting pool next to the World War II Memorial. Unlike the crowded steps of Lincoln, there was only one other photographer with me at this spot, a bonus in the midst of a pandemic. While I was using a 100-400 mm lens for these images, this shot was taken at 176 mm and a 70-200 mm lens would also work well from this spot.
The monument’s lighting is turned off just before sunrise, and the interior chamber goes completely dark. The equinox, however, is tailor-made for sunrises at the eastward-facing Lincoln Monument. As the sun rises at this time of the year due east (approx 090 degrees) on the horizon, the interior chamber is directly lit with an intense orange glow, and for a short time Lincoln himself is completely free of shadows.
As the sun continues to rise on the horizon, the entire scene is bathed in warm golden tones, and the sun’s reflection creates a starburst of light on the glass building in the background. Zooming in a bit to 250 mm creates a bit of an alternate composition, which emphasizes the details and golden lighting in the reflection and on the statue of Lincoln.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this Washington DC right of passage for photographers. I specifically selected these three images to show how the sunrise light changes and transforms this sacred American landscape every year at this time on the astronomical calendar. You can see more images taken from inside of the interior chamber by visiting my gallery at Lincoln at the Spring Equinox.
Capturing fall color is one of my favorite subjects in landscape photography. One of my “wish list” fall images has always been to capture sunrise at Bear Rocks when the heathland has turned to crimson red. The Bear Rocks Preserve is a series of rocky outcroppings along the Allegheny Front, an escarpment in West Virginia that forms part of the Eastern Continental Divide. Located at 4000 feet, it enjoys 2000 feet of vertical rise from the valleys to the east, and features a subalpine ecosystem of tundra like plants and stunted red spruce trees. My vision was to capture the ridge line of white sandstone rocks surrounded by glowing red huckleberry bushes, with golden trees on the mountainside leading down to the foggy valleys below.
Challenges include getting to this remote location in the Dolly Sods Wilderness when the foliage is peaking, picking a morning with the right weather conditions, and navigating the rocks to pick a spot in the dark that has the elements you are looking for in your photograph (along with the rising sun). I found The Photograper’s Ephemeris (TPE) app in virtual reality mode to be helpful in estimating the location of sunrise in my image frame. This image is a blend of several exposures in order to control the high dynamic range of contrast between the sky and foreground, as well as capturing the best lighting on the foliage across the scene. Using a very small aperture (f22) for the sky gives you a very appealing sun burst, while using f16 for the foreground gives you a good depth of field for focus and while keeping good sharpness on the landscape. Finally, you have to get up very early and dress very warm, but the view is definitely worth it!