Pentagon City

Month or so ago I was staying at the Ritz Carlton at Pentagon City. Yeah, the Ritz. Once in a while they have steep discounts and very affordable prices, maybe during the time when government in DC is not in session or some other reason, probably mainly to low influx of business travelers to the area during that specific week. This is the only Ritz I have ever stayed. It is nice. Rooms are equipped with nice furniture, comfortable business desk to work and all kind of little things that make your stay and room much more enjoyable than pretty much any other hotel that I had a chance to stay at. Not sure when and if I ever stay at this one or any other Ritz again. I read somewhere that Ritz customer service prides themselves by knowing all of their customers by name and when you arrive at the check-in they greet you by name and have everything ready for you. Well, not at this one. They didn’t know my name. Maybe it is not the super fancy shmancy Ritz like in some other places.

But I’m talking about Ritz? Well, it is about two hundred feet to the right of the entrance to this metro station.

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One Way Only

I have an old film camera from my childhood, called Zenit, it was made in Soviet Union in the early eighties. I have not used it in the last 20 plus years. Recently, after doing some research, I learned that the lens used on that camera can actually be used on my Sony camera with a special adapter. The adapter costs only $20 and now I can use my old Helios lens on the modern camera. Pretty cool deal. Of course it is manual only, but it is OK, actually gives me full control where I want it to focus. I’ve been playing with it when I get a chance, like in the following photos.

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Pentagon City Ice Ring

Its been a few month since I have been to the Pentagon City. Last time I was there, the entire middle part of the Fashion Center was under construction. So last night as I made my way there to find some food, it was a nice surprise to see finished ice skating ring. I might have to come back and see if they rent good quality skates and maybe hit some ice for a few spins and runs.

btw, guess what camera was used to take this photo? not any fancy DSLR, just my Nokia 1020 phone. Over weekend I installed latest updates and now it supports taking photos in RAW format. Now on top of the 42MPx censor it gives me the full power of the RAW image. I took this photo handheld and was very happy with what I saw later on my computer. To see all the details all you have to do is click on it to see in large.

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DC Views

DC is on horizon here, if not for the Washington Monument I bet no one would ever knew that it is actually DC right there across the river. If you are wondering where I took this photo from, well, it is not a secret, you can actually take the same photo as well, just make your way to the Key Bridge Marriott top floor – it is like a conference hall, with nice 200 degrees views of the surrounding area. If you are not staying there, then you have walk in and proceed to the elevators like you belong… you know what I’m talking about…well maybe you know…

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Purchase Limited Edition print of this photo

DCA Sunrise

Couple weeks ago I arrived at the Reagan National Airport right before sunrise and as we got out from the plane and waited for luggage we had about 2-3 minutes of this incredible sunrise. I had my carry around NEX-7 in my bag, so I quickly pulled it out and snapped a few shots of this light show. I always take photos in RAW format so I can do a bit more post processing in the photos. I decided to process this photo with HDR technique and without. So here are two photos, one is processed first with Photomatix and then finalized with CS5. Another one is processed only with CS5. Which one do you like the most? Poll is at the end of the post.

Photo 1:

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Photo 2:

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