World War II Memorial at Night

By day it is a sea of gray cement teeming with visitors, but by night it is a magical wonderland for the nighttime photographer.  Designed by architect Friedrich St. Florian and inaugurated in 1994, the World War II Memorial comes to life at twilight as the sun goes down and the lights come on in the fountains and the massive Atlantic and Pacific towers.

Rising to the east above the dancing white fountains is the illuminated Washington Monument, stark white against a deep blue sky. To the west, reflected in the long Reflecting Pool, is the golden temple of the Lincoln Memorial framing the pure white statue of Lincoln himself.

Along the sides of the memorial are bas-relief scenes from the war in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, which make dramatic photographers when rendered in monochrome!

Architectural photographer and Washington Photo Safari director E. David Luria will show you how to capture these and many other images in your camera as he teaches you the techniques of long-exposure nighttime photography on Manual Mode without flash, and how to achieve good composition, exposure, and proper white balance/ color filtration, using all the white balance option of your camera’s menu.

Any camera will do, but you must have a STURDY, good-quality tripod. Our safari begins a few minutes before sunset and ends two hours later.