We live in an area that is so easy to photograph, yet so difficult at the same time. Sure, anyone can point their camera at the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, or at the Capitol and come up with a decent shot, but it takes a good eye, good timing, and the right equipment to come up with that “postcard” shot.

My hope in contributing to Metroblogging DC is to highlight some of our local photographers who have what I feel it takes to come up with unique shots that make you see our town in a different light. I hope to share with you not only photos of our main attractions, but also of scenes that are off the beaten path.

For now my main photo source will be Flickr, so I encourage all of you to post your best shots to our pool for all of us to see. The shots I choose won’t necessarily be current either, I’ll be digging through the archives to see what I can turn up. Also, if you have your own photo site, I’d love to see it!

So without further ado, I’d like to start things off with this photo by Andertho:

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Now some of you may be thinking, “Great. An airplane. How exciting.” Others might be thinking, “Cool shot! I like airplanes.” But there are a few basic things that make this shot of a plane departing from DCA great:

– The composition. There’s a thing in photography called “the rule of thirds” which basically means that the focal point of your photo generally looks better when it isn’t centered. The nose of this plane is in the top left third of the frame which (whether you realize it or not) does a good job at catching your eye. That isn’t to say that things should always be off center.
– The color. I’m personally a fan of very vivid, saturated colors and probably would have tweaked them in Photoshop if this were my photo, but the pink sky and the lighting of the plane really give it some punch.
– The depth of field. Some shots benefit from having as much in focus as possible, but I like how the clouds are blurred out in this shot.
– The location. Andertho got off of his couch and made an effort to get a shot that most people wouldn’t. That’s a big part of photography, the dedication it takes to go out and shoot to get that view that no one else has seen.

Enough of what I think…what about you?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs