SHOOTING ON SAFARI WITH WASHINGTON PHOTO SAFARI

Dragging myself out of bed, I fumbled around getting ready in the dark as to not wake the others who were still soundly sleeping in my room.

As I made my way downstairs to the lobby I noticed others were just returning, calling it a night, but my day was just beginning.

Arriving at Tidal Basin, the sun had yet to begin to rise. Everything seemed peaceful, until I saw hundreds of others with camera in tow. There wasn’t even enough light to illuminate the cherry blossoms yet, but since they were said to peak today, everyone and their mom was already gathered around, tripods ready and waiting.

Beelining my way through all the tripods, I headed towards the paddle boat docks where I met up with David Luria and his colleague David Heckman.

David, a Paris-trained architectural photographer, founded Washington Photo Safari in the late 90s, giving DC tourists a crash course in travel photography.

While they offer all sorts of photography tours and private classes using Washington DC as their subject year-round, today’s class was special. Today’s class was all about how to get the perfect cherry blossom shot, and with blossoms in full bloom I couldn’t have picked a better morning to join.

Because our group was quite large, we divided into two smaller groups which ensured everyone got plenty of one-on-one attention from the pro photographers.

The great thing about Washington Photo Safari, is that it’s perfect for all levels. There were some in our group who had just gotten their cameras and had no idea how to use it past the little ugly green auto setting and others who were well-acquainted with their cameras, like myself, but just wanted to know all the secret DC shooting locations.

We started out our class with a lesson on the basics– including a crash course on the proper way to hold a camera. It was great hearing David talk not only about photo composition and what makes a great photo, but also the technical side on how to use your camera to actually achieve the look you want in camera.

For those new to photography, there’s a lot to remember! F-stops, shutter speeds, ISO… but David put everything into simple terms that made it easy for anyone to understand and implement in their photos that morning.

While I knew majority of what he taught our group from my own photography training, I loved the little lines and stories he used to help people remember all the little nuances and technical jumbo that most people find difficult to grasp– “An f-stop of 2 puts two people in focus, where an f-stop of 22 puts 22 people in focus” he continually reminded us. He really focused on making us the bosses of our cameras.

Once our crash course came to an end, it was time to take it to the field.

David led us around Tidal Basin, continually coaching and checking in on how we were doing. He asked all the hard questions (the right questions) on why we were taking a particular shot, who the shot was for and most importantly, what exactly is our subject?

These are questions all photographers need to ask themselves before taking any shot– and I’ll admit, I nowadays often forget and begin shooting away. David provided to be a great reminder to focus and go back to the basics of photography.

Now I don’t want to give away all his great advice and secret locations, because obviously you should sign up for one of his tours the next time you find yourself in the DC area, but here’s a little taste of some of the shots I got while on tour that morning: