The weather was pretty dreary and grey at first – I was a little disappointed about the lack of blue skies, but it makes for some nice monotone black and white images.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Some seals hanging out on the rocks.

The lighthouse – it’s all fenced off so you can’t get too close to it.

Finally some blue skies!

Near Hearst Castle. I think these animals are soooo ugly that they’re fascinating!

I took the train into DC around 4:30 am – I had to catch the third train because the first two were completely full. Here is the crowd trying to get out of Metro Center at 5 am.

All the streets leading to the mall were blocked off until 7 am, so I stood around with these people. ↓

There were cops standing in one of the buildings, waving at us and taking pictures. ↓

I stood in the same spot for a loooong time – from dark to daylight. The barricade didn’t open and no one moved anywhere. ↓

So I gave up on this crowd and went to stand with another crowd. ↓

There were lots of colorful characters around, like this Uncle Sam on stilts. ↓

An ambulance was trying to drive through the crowd – this meant some serious shoving and crushing to allow the ambulance to get through. ↓

I stood with these people for a while, but after an hour I had barely moved anywhere. It was after 9 am – that’s four hours standing around in freezing weather – and I was afraid that I wasn’t going to get into the Mall. People were on their cell phones with friends who said that they could see the Mall on TV and it looked full. Others said that this checkpoint was closed and they weren’t letting in more people. So I left this mob and joined another mob and started walking. ↓

And by 10 am I could see the Washington Monument – I made it! So happy and so relieved. ↓

This was my spot in the Mall – waaay back by the Washington Monument. I couldn’t see the Capitol at all, but did have a nice view of the jumbotron. I was also a bit off to the side because I wanted some breathing room. I was tired of being crushed up against other people. ↓

Everyone leaving the Mall. ↓

There were no trash cans on the Mall for security reasons, so you can only imagine how much trash there was. There were crews waiting to pick up all that garbage. ↓

The lake behind the Washington Monument was frozen over. ↓

And here are all the crazy people walking on the lake – you can see in the above pictures that there are parts of the lake that weren’t frozen. I thought all those people running around on the lake were completely crazy! ↓

After the inauguration I followed the masses out of the Mall. I didn’t really know where I was going, I just kept walking. ↓

When I started walking across this bridge over a giant river, I realized that the road I was on was not going to loop around and go back into Washington DC. I was headed for Virginia! ↓

And this was the end of my odyssey: Rosslyn, Virginia. I found an Italian place that had some very delicious pizza, drank two glasses of wine, and then hopped on the Metro to get back into the city. ↓

By the time I got back to my friend’s apartment in DC I was wiped out. When I flew back Wednesday morning I had a sore throat and felt like I might have a fever. But it was more than worth it – a once in a lifetime experience!

I saw this sign on a light pole; I didn’t really understand what it meant but it struck me as anti-Obama. ↓

Traffic was a mess – I was curious as to who would attempt to drive in DC the day before the inauguration. ↓

Too bad I couldn’t be standing in this spot the day of the inauguration! ↓

The National Archives. ↓

There was an army of street sweepers out that night. ↓

Lots of flashing lights – cops, firetrucks, ambulances. ↓

Metro Center station. ↓

I met my aunt and her family in Baltimore. We went to a friend’s house for brunch on Sunday afternoon where I took these pictures of my cousin.

She also wanted me to take pictures “really fast” – a little model in the making! Here are her moves: (The pause button is in the lower right-hand corner, in case things are a little too fast and furious for you.)

After brunch we went to dinner at the waterfront in Baltimore. The Baltimore Ravens were playing that night in an ultimately failed attempt to win a Super Bowl berth, so restaurants were packed. While we were waiting for a table I took a few night shots.

Stay tuned for some pictures of DC the day before the inauguration!

Here’s wishing everyone a great new year!

I’m already planning which lenses I want to bring with me. While I would love to take my 70-200mm f/2.8 beast, I do not want to be lugging that around with me all day. As of now I’m going with my 10.5mm fisheye and my 50mm f/1.4, both of which are quite compact.

And I’m finally going to get Nikon’s 18-200mm VR II lens. This lens was all the rage when it first came out. It was sold out for months. It’s not a professional lens, so it isn’t really suited for portrait or wedding work. But from what I hear it’s a great walking-around lens.

I can’t wait to walk around DC with it!

Now, even a camera as light and fun as the Nikon D40 is not so easy to go jogging with. While I’m debating whether to go with a Canon or Sony little pocket camera, I’m making do with my camera phone.

And the junky little camera is all right – the digital equivalent of a plastic toy camera. A little toying around with Aperture yields passable results. The following two pictures were taken just walking around my neighborhood.

And the following two pictures were taken along the equestrian trails in Walnut, CA. This was the first time I have ever gone running on those trails, and they are a really wonderful place to walk or jog. The wide dirt path is much better than concrete, and there is a good amount of shade thanks to the very fragrant pine trees. Check out the trail map here.

Well, now I can say that cars driving fast in a circle is actually kind of cool. They are incredibly loud – I had to buy earplugs after I got there. And they go really fast (duh). The above shot was taken at a shutter speed of 1/100. I still need to edit the pictures I took, but so far this one is my favorite.

Yeah, it’s a blurry mess. But it’s one of the few pictures that I didn’t have to try to shoot through a fence. I could have bought a Super Photo Pass for $250 (!) and stood in special bleachers that were above the race track and fences, or bribed one of the press photographers to let me wear their silly blue vest for 20 minutes.

No, instead my brother and I wandered around the track, trying to get views of what we could. We ended up near the hairpin turn, which was the place to be when they had the drifting competition. I held my camera up above my head for this picture, meaning I only had to shoot through one fence instead of two.