It's cherry blossom season in Washington, DC. During my career as a faceless bureaucrat, I traveled to DC and northern Virginia many times, and on a few occasions my visits coincided with the annual Cherry Blossom Festival around the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial. The first two images are from decades ago but I just posted them today. Image #1 was scanned from negative film and was taken the weekend of April 1-2, 1989. Image #2 was taken with one my first digital cameras, the Kodak DC290, on April 4, 2001. The third image was taken with the Powershot S95 (a camera I still use) on April 10, 2014.

As I have said before, I do not miss film or scanning. But if I had to go back in time and advise my 1983-99 self about film photography, I would have said, "Shoot slides. Color negatives suck." Maybe the negatives have deteriorated over the years, but scans just look blotchy, particularly in the sky. Before I conclude that "Maybe it is me," new scans of well-exposed slides from the 1970s look pretty good for the most part.

My travels to Washington gave me the opportunity to see a lot of things I probably wouldn't go see if I was paying for the trip myself. As far as I'm concerned, the highlights of a trip to the District are the Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Castle, and the Cherry Blossom Festival (late March-early April). And of course as you are roaming around the National Mall you can take in the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, whatever other museums that interest you, and the places where the thieves work, aka the White House and the Capitol.

Click on an image to get into my DC slide show with images from 1989-2014.

April 1, 1989

April 4, 2001

April 10, 2014