Flags at the Washington Monument

[Mike Buckley]

My wife and I walked most of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. today. We went from the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial to the National Museum of the American Indian. On the way, we came upon these two scenes at the Washington Monument.

[wilgk]

I love the flags, excellent.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[bnnrcn]

Nice shots, I especially like #2

[ashcroft]

Good shots. I like the isolated flags in shot #2.

So... can anyone name all 50 states without looking it up? And if you are that clever, what were the original 13 colonies? I don't have a clue.

[wilgk]

No!
But in a totally unrelated piece of historical, geographic trivia, NZ has 3 Islands, known now as North, South & Stewart... Supposedly, previously known as... New Ulster, New Meister & New Lunster....

[FootLoose]

I like the 2nd shot of the flags: good composition, there.

The first one makes me think of a a religious ritual - something like Stone Henge.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

So... can anyone name all 50 states without looking it up? And if you are that clever, what were the original 13 colonies? I don't have a clue.

I think I can name all 50 states (plus the District of Columbia, which is not a state). I doubt that I can name all 13 original colonies despite that I have read everything I have been able to find about Benjamin Franklin.

You are from the UK. So, it's understandable that you and others who aren't Americans can't. I, like almost all Americans, can't name the 13 original colonies.

[ShaneS]

Count me in as another fan of #2. In the first I think that we either need to see the full monument or less of it. (I will note that I understand that if the full monument was included that the people and flags would likely be specs unless this were printed VERY large. If I move it in the lightbox so that it is an extreme panorama of the flags and people (green horizon pretty much centered) I like it much better and think it makes a great companion piece to the flag image.

[Mike Buckley]

an extreme panorama of the flags and people

When I strongly envision a particular image as I did in this case, it's almost always difficult for me to adjust to the possibility of a completely different aspect ratio. For whatever reason, I immediately like this revision a lot. Thanks for the suggestion!

[ShaneS]

I'm glad you liked the idea Mike and I completely understand how difficult making a change to an image can be once it is 'in your head' a certain way.

[Manfred M]

Mike - I'm another fan of the #2 image, and your rework of the first one works better for me than the second one, but I somehow still find myself a bit too detached from it. I do think it is a nice establishing shot that gives more context to image #2, and helps with the story line.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for the ideas about context, Manfred.