We rose early and made the drive to the Lincoln Memorial, arriving about 45 minutes before sunrise. First benefit of leaving early is that you can park within blocks of the monument at this time of day this time of year! We were fortunate to have a very nice sunrise. But not a great one, as I will explain in a bit.
The major monuments and iconic buildings are well lit at night. You have to experiment with your focus and exposure, because the white marble objects are so reflective that if you use matrix metering your camera may overexpose the highlights trying to 'average' the very dark surroundings with the very bright building.
Here are some of my favorite images from the morning
The first two images are as shot, with a little help from ACR 7.2 and Photoshop CS6. The image of the Lincoln statue is a composite image to bring up the visibility of the exterior of the building without blowing out exposure due to the spotlights on the statue.
All were shot at ISO 100 with a Nikon D7000 and the 35-70mm f/2.8 at various exposure times.
Oh, the rest of the story... My plan for the shoot was a morning light image of the Lincoln Memorial. And it was developing nicely. I have a great image of the upper two-thirds of the building bathed in golden light... At which point the advancing shelf of clouds cut off the sunrise light. Oh, well ! Photography is a lot like fishing... Getting shut out on a photo outing is still a lot better than a day at work ! Enjoy the images !!
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