Washington, DC

The memorial was officially opened last Fall, John. ; It was a hard one to photograph in the bright Sun. ; Would like to go back in the evening next time.

 

Thanks, Jeff! ; More to come after I get back home.

 

You are going to have a ball there, Gary. ; I will be posting a review of a way to stabilize your camera without a tripod. ; Though it's kind of iffy how legal it is. ; Not that it ever stopped us! ; ;D

 

Those HMs show up everywhere! ; Thanks for your comments, Doc!

 

great stuff Scott

 

Here's another from the Stephen F Udvar-Hazy Center. ; This is the first view you get upon entering and passing through security.



Got back home earlier today and will be posting more as I edit and process the keepers. ; Until then, here are a few more from DC:

Washington Monument


Vietnam War Memorial


Capitol Dome


The Great Hall inside the Library of Congress. Used a bean bag to steady the camera as no tripods are allowed in any of the buildings and museums.

 

Wow Scott! ; You save the best for last! ; all these shot are outstanding! ; Great work, looks like you had a great trip!

 

Thanks so much, John! ; It was a great trip. ; I hope to find some more gems as I really start to look at the rest of the images.

 

that HDR with the SR-71 is awesome Scott.


a little trivia.
We can thank the Peregrine Falcon for the cones on the front of the engines. Peregrines have them in their nostrils to keep the air flowing into the nostrils instead of around them so they can breath at their incredible speed and aircraft engineers got the idea from them

 

Excellent fact, Howie, and not surprising since birds have been flying a lot longer than Man. ;

 

Nice stuff Scott, really like the SR-71 shot.

 

Ooo, the SR-71 is at the top of my favorite a/c list. Neat about the Peregrine falcon nostril, I've never heard that before!

The inlet spikes on the SR are very unique, in that they actually help produce thrust at speeds above Mach 1. Conventional jet engines cannot handle air moving too fast, so at aircraft speeds approaching or above Mach 1 the air coming into the inlet has to be slowed down. Because of the large speed range of the SR-71, those spikes actually move up to 3 feet fore and aft. The cones are computer controlled to manage the shock wave of the air around and within the inlet. At top speed, the management of that air actually produces more thrust than the engine itself, making it function more like a ramjet than a turbojet.

Erich

 

In trying to re-shoot a photo I took 4 years before, I had to re-think the composition and waiting for blue hour added more impact.


Blue Hour on the Mall by Scottwdw

 

In many ways, I wish NASA had continued developing this kind of technology. ; I would rather have planes like the SR-71 going to Near Earth Orbit than having expensive rocket technology with little reusable components. ; Even the shuttle was way too expensive to operate.

 

Here's a closeup of the Blackbird.

 

Scott the last 3 are great

 

National World War II Memorial facing the Pacific Theater.

 

VERY nice Scott!

 

Thanks, John.

This is the only reflection photo I got last week. ; It was too windy otherwise. ; This was a thin layer of moving water behind the WWII memorial an even it had "waves" on it.

 

Still a pretty cool reflection. ; Thanks for sharing all these!