Photo tips: Washington monuments at dusk

Dusk is a perfect time to visit the National Mall. If you visit during the summer the cooler temperature will be a welcome relief plus the light is fantastic for photos.

Tripods Tripods are pretty much essential for dusk and night photos. Tripods are allowed in the areas outside the monuments on the National Mall but not inside any monument or museum. Very small tripods like GorillaPods are not as versatile as full tripods but they are a lot lighter if you are walking around all day.

Also modern cameras are much more sensitive and often have built in stabilization allowing photographers to shoot in veery dark situations without a tripod.

If you don’t have a tripod look around for something to brace your camera - a park bench, a railing, light pole, etc….

Make a plan Since the great blue sky of dusk doesn’t last long I’d suggest planning which monument you want to capture. The monuments not very close to each other and the sky will be dark by the time you reach the next one.

Don’t forget the telephoto One alternative is to use a telephoto lens to capture a distant monument. One example is taking a photo similar to the one above of the Lincoln memorial then turn around and use a telephoto to capture the Washington Memorial.