Hi y'all, my name is Sherry, I live in TX, hope you don't mind me posting here but you were suggested by someone in the MINI Owner's Lounge.

My husband and I are taking a road trip to DC over Cherry Blossom Festival weekend in our EB/W '03 S. I grew up in the DC area but moved away before I had much chance to drive in the city, so I'm familiar with locations, but not with roads, or more importantly, parking.

I'm hoping to get suggestions on where we can take the car to get pics of it with monuments or cherry trees in the background. So far the only place I can recall driving to easily is the end of Haynes Point, and while I was always fond of the statue of "The Awakening", that's not exactly what Texan friends expect to see in photos of DC. =)

Ideally I'd love detailed directions about where there IS parking (if you get there early enough in the morning, etc), or the hows and wheres of letting the passenger out with a camera and where they should set up to take a drive-by pic of the MINI in traffic as the other guy drives around the block. I'm guessing that a drive-by pic like that might be the only way to manage it in a lot of places. Though I'm really hoping for a way to get at least one good, non-moving shot with the Jefferson Memorial or cherry blossom trees in the background. I'm just hoping our luck is in and that the park service pegged the "peak blossom" time this year.

Oh, if any of your local MINI dealers have t-shirts with the store location printed on them, could you let me know? That's a better souvenir than a Hard Rock Cafe shirt any day... the motorcycle shops all have 'em, can't quite figure out why MINI dealers don't seem to. I bet we could've gotten a whole new wardrobe if we hit every dealer between TX and there.

Thanks for any ideas you might have!

 

You are going to have a good time, what fun and nice timing. I hope the blossoms work with you, it has been a bit cold the last few weeks for the trees. I would suggest picking up a tourist map to get the lay of the area before the drive into town. I am lucky enough to drive near the blossoms almost every year. It is not uncommon to see a car pool make a side trip on the way to work. In this DCish fire drill, a car load of people in business dress jump of the car each with camera in hand, snap a bunch of shots, load everyone back in the car and off to work with speed, timing and grace that would impress the best NASCAR pit crews. I hope you will have more time for shots.

While there are a bunch of good tree and gardin shots in the area I think the best "Washington Landmark and cherry tree" shots for your MINI will be found driving around the Tidale Basin near the Jefferson memorial. The best time to shoot pics happens to be in morning or eve rush hours (I prefer morning). The best days for a tourist to find the parking places you want are during the week days when the locals can not spend the time they would like in this part of town (to far away from the office buildings). In general in the afternoon hours the high sun will sometimes wash out the stone in the monument. Also later in the day more tourist show up to take the limited parking. With patience, you can find a parking place near a nice tree for the near background, the and the Washington Monument further away in the background. You may luck out and get the Jefferson Memorial in but I do not recall the trees and parking places being in a good line up for that shot without getting a bunch of cars and other people in the shot. Looking on a city map you can access this area from Independence AV. For reference that street runs due west from the south side of the Capitol building south of the Mall. The area you want to look at on the map is immediately south of the Washington Monument.

You might want to make a post in the NAM’s MINI Camera and Video forum asking about the best way to take the pics. Mention the camera you are using. There are some amazing photo hounds on this board. At the very least read the sticky ( How-to: Making better MINI Photographs ) on shooting a car.

I hope this helps and let us know a dinner get to gether.
John

 

Keep in mind that the reason John mentions rush hour as the best time to shoot those pictures is because NOTHING will be moving very quickly in the area during rush hour...

 

True, true....all together way to true.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv.../cb_guide.html
The trees tend to follow their own sked. I do not know if you are already here or on the way. Hope you have a good time.

 

Yeah! I wanna see pics of Mini Blossom pleazzzz :smile: