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This is the Old Supreme Court Chamber inside the U.S. Capitol Building. It took a very long time before the court could successfully argue to get its own building. Until that time, they met in this chamber. Some of the most historically important cases before the U.S. Supreme Court took place here. John Quincy Adams argued the Amistad case here, as was the Dred Scott case.

I really debated whether to show this photo or not. It has a bit of noise because I had to resort to a rather high ISO, but my love for the room itself won out. The room has great ambience and I asked if I could use my tripod here, but the Capitol Police are no longer providing tripod permits to visitors. You either need to be credentialed media or working for the Capitol in some capacity. So, I cranked up my ISO, opened my aperture, and slowly exhaled as I snapped off my shots.

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Wormsloe Plantation’s Oak Avenue – it’s a popular place for photographers and you can find many images similar to this one. Even so, each one is a bit different. Some like to shoot through the main gate. Others like to head down the road a bit to include a white fence on the horizon. The seasons affect the color & mood. It’s all the same place with a few different twists.

I couldn’t help but think what it must be like to ride down this road on a horse & buggy, just slowly loping along while surrounded by the oaks. It’s a very peaceful and serene place when there are no cars whizzing down the road. It reminds me of the neighborhood where I grew up on Oak Island Road. Just a dirt path, a few houses on the side, all surrounded by plenty of oak trees. I almost expect to see some of my childhood friends run barefoot down the road to take me fishing.

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One of the things I regretted about my previous visit to the Udvar-Hazy National Air & Space Museum was that I really wasn’t into HDR at the time. While I could go back and make an HDR out of a single RAW file, I wanted to see how the images would look if I had a decent bracket of five exposures or more. Then I discovered that you can’t take a tripod into this museum.

Sometimes it’s a bit confusing knowing where you can and cannot use a tripod in the D.C. area. This is a Smithsonian establishment and it doesn’t allow tripods or monopods. On the other hand, the Smithsonian National Zoo proudly proclaims on its web site that you’re welcome to bring your tripod (and many people there were making good use of them). Knowing I couldn’t use it, and failing to get any special dispensation to use it in advance, I fell back on my Manfrotto Magic Arm.

Once again, a security guard scanning my bag looked askance at my arm and told me tripods were not allowed. I explained that it wasn’t a tripod, he accepted, and all was good. I started clamping down the arm and taking my exposure brackets on a stable platform (no high speed winds here, like up on the Stratosphere).

Good things never last for long, though. Another security guard approached me and informed me that tripods weren’t allowed. The conversation repeated about how this was not a tripod. He was quite nice to me, but a bit unsure if this was permitted or not. The guard called his supervisor down, I showed him how it worked. I think it could have gone either way, but everyone was friendly and so was I, and I believe that good attitude is what helped them decide the Magic Arm was OK.

Awesome! I got to spend the next several hours shooting everything in sight with a stable platform. Suffice it to say I’ll get a chance to play with a lot of material for some HDR images.

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I think most photographers enjoy getting an elevated view of a city skyline. Las Vegas has a few different places to do that, but the Stratosphere is the tallest. In my opinion, though, it's not the best view of The Strip. You have a few challenges shooting up there.

The wind at that altitude can be exceptionally strong. You'd think a tripod would help, but they do not allow a tripod or even a monopod up there. You have to pass through security and they aren't joking about it. A guy in front of my had a 6" long table tripod and they took that away from him. I have my own opinions about people confiscating my property (that I won't let them do it), but the other side of that is you don't go up. I'm OK with that. Private property, they can make their own rules.

That's why I brought my Manfrotto Magic Arm with me. I called ahead and the guy on the other end of the phone said it was fine. Of course, the woman working security scans had no idea what it was and she wanted to deprive me of it. I asked for a supervisor. After some time dealing with a voice on the other end of the phone and explaining that it doesn't touch the ground, doesn't cause a safety issue and so forth, they finally approved it. The upper deck has a railing all the way around, so I had plenty of places to attach the clamp.

Of course, that wind was blowing it all over the place. It held my camera up, but it was shaking hard in that wind. I ended up taking some shots with it, and some handheld at higher ISO. It was a reminder to not feel too clever. I could keep it somewhat still by pressing my face close and holding the sides with my hands, but I really missed my tripod up there.

When I explained to the security guard that it didn't post a safety hazard, she said that wasn't the problem. "They just don't want anyone taking professional photos up there and selling them."

OK with me. I'm not going to sell it. I'm giving it away. As I've mentioned before, my photos are freely available under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license. If you want to use this photo for personal use, all you have to do is give me credit and provide a link back to this my blog at williambeem.com

That lonely surfer out there must’ve been praying for some waves, but they just never came. I know a bit how he feels, except that I was praying for some clouds during this sunset at Blind Pass, between Sanibel & Captiva islands. You can’t always get what you want. However, he’s proof that you get what you need. Without that silhouette, there wouldn’t be a reason to show this photo.

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