"Reaching II" © Nicholas Barton

1. I took this at the foot of the National Cathedral in D.C. It was a pretty bright day and the cathedral caught my eye because of how the sun caught the marble and the stain glass windows. I waited to take this picture until there was a cloud directly above the bell towers to emphasize the white on the cathedral's walls. In retrospect I realize that I could have centered it a bit more, and taken it from a smaller angle so as to capture the base of the cathedral. I used Photoshop to adjust the brightness and exposure, because in the original there was too much of a contrast between the shaded areas underneath the arches and the rest of the wall. Another reason this picture stood out to me is how the colors are in sections. All of the white is pretty much right down the middle, while the blue is off to the upper left and right. This building has always caught attracted my attention because of its gothic architecture is so out of place in the middle of so many modern buildings.

"Butterfly in Garden III" © Nicholas Barton

2. This photo was taken at the National Cathedral's Garden. The garden is filled with a variety of plant's and flower so there were a lot of butterflies and insects. I followed around this guy in particular though because he was so big and bright. It took me a couple of tries to take this photo because the butterfly kept closing its wings or flying to a new flower. Anyway I selected this photo because of the vibrance of the colors. Another reason I think this photo stands out is the way the sunlight bounces off the plants. I used Photoshop to make the photo a bit brighter and also to center the photo on the butterfly. The butterfly makes a good centerpiece because its yellow wings complement the flowers. I focused my camera on the butterfly so some of the foliage in the back blurs together a little too much. I took a bunch of pictures around the garden but this one stood out to me the most because of the how clear it came out.

"Kayaking in Patomac II" © Nicholas Barton

3. This was taken right at the northwest entrance to D.C, by Georgetown. The river that the kayakers are on is the Potomac which runs perpendicular to the road that goes to DC and through it. It is a pretty popular thing to do for people to go down the river on yachts, crew boats, and speed boats. I decided to take a picture of these girls in particular because they were the only people I have ever seen go down the Potomac in sea kayaks. This picture also spiked my interest because of the how the sun reflects off the water, but just barely lights up the kayakers. I was standing on a bridge when I took this so it took me awhile to get a good angle. I also had to zoom in a lot because there was a yacht directly behind them. I adjusted the offset in Photoshop to make the kayakers a bit darker and I also changed some of the coloring to make the water bluer. The Potomac, especially around D.C is a pretty dirty river so it took a lot of coloring adjustment to make it look like water, instead of sewer sludge.

"Pegasus 2.0" © Nicholas Barton

4. This photo is one of my favorites from this bunch. This statue is on a bridge directly behind the Lincoln Memorial on Arlington Memorial Bridge. The statue is a replicate of Pegasus on the entrance to the bridge. I positioned myself so the horse was silhouetted against the sun and decided to put the horse on my left and let the clouds be in the center. I decided, since it is a statue of Pegasus, that the sky and the clouds should be a prominent part of the picture. I had to cut out some of the space in the picture because there was a bird right in the middle of the sky. I like how the sun is just barely visible behind the statue and also how the clouds are lit up. I think it is a nice contrast of light and color from the sky to the dark bronze statue. There are four statues on the Arlington Bridge and I took a similar picture of all of them but this one came out the best in my opinion.

"Entrance to DC II" © Nicholas Barton

5. This is actually directly behind where I took the picture of the kayakers. This is the entrance Georgetown in Downtown D.C.  It's kind of hard to see but you can see the steps in that were filmed in the final scene of the Exorcist between the red building and the moss wall. I actually took two pictures of this scene, one as it is, and one without the hat and backpack. I decided on the backpack and hat because it seemed to fit in better with the graffiti and bridge. I selected this picture because I thought it was interesting how each level is different. The bottom level is messy with graffiti and moss growing through the stones, the street level is filled with street lights and trees, and the upper part of the photo is dominated by the clock and the clouds. I decided to take the color out of the photo because as with the hat it I thought it fit the mood better. I also cropped off a good part of the photo on the left because there was gas station that was too commercial for the photo. The path in the middle of the picture is the C&O Canal.

"Vietnam" © Nicholas Barton

6. This is a picture of one of the statues at the Vietnam Memorial on the National Mall. You can actually see part of the Vietnam wall in the back of the picture behind the statues. There are something like 14 or 16 life sized statues depicting U.S soldiers in Vietnam, and I took a pictures of all of them. I settled on this one mostly because this statues expression. I thought it was a really cool statue because it captured that feeling of distress so well and it really came out on this guy's face. I also liked how the sun gave his eyes a realistic glimmer. I was thinking about making this a B&W photo for a long time, but I settled on color because I liked the contrast of the statues colors against the intense green of the trees in the back. I changed a lot of lighting in Photoshop to give the statues more shadows around their helmet's and hood's. I took a lot of time making the lighting right to give justice to how awesome of a statue this is.

"Castle in the Capital II" © Nicholas Barton

7. This is a picture of the Smithsonian Castle in the middle of the National Mall. I took it from behind the building because you can see the turrets much more clearly. The Smithsonian Stands out in the same way that the National Cathedral does, they both look completely out of place. However in the Smithsonian’s case it is right in the middle of Roman type buildings like the Lincoln memorial or the Capital. This photo also caught my eye because the sectioning of color's - green at the bottom, red in the middle, and blue on the top. I also chose the picture because I liked how the dead tree branches on the left and limp flag on the middle tower made it seem rustic. I took out some of the color on Photoshop and cropped out the very bottom because it did not fit in with the rest of the shot. Due to where I was standing when I took the shot it kind of looks like the castle is not in a straight line or the right part is bending slightly. I also thought that it was nice how it seems like the castle is coming out of the trees.

"Thinking in DC" © Nicholas Barton

8. This photo is at the waterfront in Georgetown. A lot of the more wealthy people in D.C. keep their yachts there. When I Took this picture there were a bunch of people on their Yacht's partying but this guy was by himself.  I also liked this picture because the bridge kind of frames around the man in the background. I cropped out a lot of this photo because there was so much else going on in the original around the edges. I was thinking about cropping out the rest of the boat that the man is on but I thought against it because I thought it added some perspective to the shot. I also made the man a lot darker in Photoshop and I put up the exposure to make the water brighter. I was thinking about centering the photo on the man but I thought it made the photo more thoughtful if there was more water in the shot. I don't really like how the trees in the back are blurry but out of the shots I took of this scene this was the clearest. I don't really know what the guy is holding but I'd like to imagine that he is in deep thought over it.

"River II" © Nicholas Barton

9. I took this photo at a more desolate area of the Potomac River near the C&O Canal. It was kind of hard to take this photo because I had to position myself standing in a stream and I was terrified I was going to drop my camera. I really liked how much all of the green and browns stood out in this shot and I made them a bit more vibrant in Photoshop. I Also liked how everything else in the shot is bright and lively except the dead leaves in the front right of the picture and the dead log in the center. When I first started trying to take this picture I was trying to focus on the dead leaf to the right but after seeing this shot I decided on keeping this one instead. I took this in the middle of the day and the sun was directly above me so it reflected off the water and trees nicely. I got sick of taking photos in the city so I walked down the Potomac river a couple miles until I got to this great section that was no were near any paths or roads. I thought it was interesting how this is only 3 miles from downtown D.C. I was somewhat unsure about adding this one in because it did not really fit with the rest of the photos in D.C but there are a lot of really nice spots like this in the area.

"OboList" © NIcholas Barton

10. I took this photo at the base of the Washington Monument. At first I was somewhat unsure about adding a photo of the monument because it seemed somewhat cliché, However I am pretty happy on how this one turned out. I took this standing in the middle of the mall in front of the monument. I tried to position the sun behind the monument while keeping the flags in the shot. I also wanted to get some of the clouds in the picture so I had to put my camera vertical. I thought it was nice how higher up the monument is in the picture the darker it gets. I also liked the flags get silhouetted. I wanted to take a shot closer to the monument so you could see the base; however there were too many tourists around to get a clear shot of the bottom. I messed with some of the color settings in Photoshop to give the sky a better contrast with the monument. I also made the entire photo a little brighter and fixed the contrast.