Albert Einstein Memorial

We have been spending more time by the Lincoln Memorial lately for our twice a week morning walks away from our northern Virginia neighborhood. Primarily we have been staying on the side by the tidal basin along independence avenue. But the last two times we have ventured over to the constitution avenue side. There are the constitution gardens, but also a tiny treasure that is tucked in a bit off the avenue. We went there over ten years ago when we had visitors from the midwest who had to see the Albert Einstein memorial. When we returned it looked different from what we remembered. We had a hard time finding it the first time around. I think it was hidden by trees and shrubs that have since been cut down. It is an impressive structure at 21 feet long and 7,000 pounds and sits on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences. In his hand is a paper with the famous equation E=mc2. The nose is a different color than the rest. People have a tendency to want to touch it. One doesn’t get a feel for the size of it when the image stands alone. But when photographed next to someone it’s quite obvious. After taking a few photos for last week’s photo challenge we continued down the avenue and a walk through the White House neighborhood. There is always something to see here. And my husband loves it. 

52Frames Rule of Thirds

Well, it’s another week and another photo challenge. I’ve been participating in the 52Frames photo contest since October 2020. It’s a great excuse to head outside in search of a particular topic. Many of the subjects are things I really never heard of before, but have practiced inadvertently as a very amateur photographer with an iPhone as my tool. Last week’s subject was “rule of thirds.” Not knowing what I was looking for in particular, we drove to the Lincoln memorial to see what might come up. It was Presidents’ Day and a lot of people were out and about. But there was also an exhibit between the memorial and the reflecting pool of three of the presidents pooches - Fido Lincoln, Pushinka Kennedy, and Bo Obama. Fido Lincoln served as the entry. Though not a particularly great technical image, it was the idea of it. We walked about and found a few other things - like the DC WWI monument, geese flying by the Washington monument, and reflections in the pool. We drove in again later in the week and the dogs vanished. They were only there for one day. It seemed kind of odd that they would be there anyway given the “hallowed place.” This time we walked over to the Einstein memorial. There was also a mother with her child and some Capitol police on bikes. We used to spend all of our time near the Capitol when we lived on Capitol Hill. Now, we seem to be parking on the other end of the mall to explore even more of that end of town. There is always something to see - even bronze statues of the president’s pooches.