Photo Album: Shirlington

What was I even doing in Shirlington?

I have no connection to Shirlington, and I had no reason to be in Shirlington. Arriving at Dulles Airport around noon, I got in my rental car and drove to Arlington to meet a few friends for dinner. With plenty of time to kill, I spent most of the afternoon walking around the neighboring city of Shirlington. According to Google Maps, there was a decent walking trail where I could possibly take some good pictures...

To my dismay, the trail was a boring and unscenic snoozefest. But this forced me to get creative!

Actual garbage

Not saying that Shirlington is trash or anything. But I did get some cool pictures of trash. The plastic bag stuck on a tree branch prompted immediate comparisons to a certain pop song from my childhood, as well as a certain movie about "interviewing" the dictator of a certain country. If you know, you know.

The bokeh effect looks nice, but I neglected to reduce the shutter speed to capture the plastic bag's movement in the wind. Missed opportunity!

Don't fall in

The trail I walked on was right next to "Four Mile Run", a stream that dumps into the Potomac River. You couldn't tell that from the photos I took, though. While pretty, these photos lack any particular character or flair that would tie them to a specific place or a specific time.

These water shots provided a fun opportunity to experiment with different shutter speeds. For some photos, I wanted the water to appear smooth and blurry, and for others I wanted to capture as much detail and definition as possible.

Feet pics

My shoes and I have enjoyed many adventures together. A versatile pair of shoes can make all the difference when traveling; I need comfort for walking long distances, agility for sprinting to airport gates, and arch support for my disappointingly flat feet.

"Stepping Out" is one of the easiest photographs I've taken, and could have been taken anywhere (much like the other photos in this collection). Even so, it has quickly become one of my favorites.

The intense bokeh on the jeans and slight blurring of the pavement give the photo a dream-like quality and shift focus to our primary subject, the left shoe. As it steps out into the great beyond and drags the right shoe behind it, little is known about its destination except a tuft of grass in the image's corner.

"Stepping Down" is another "plandid" shot of my shoes, telling a different story while reusing the same subject. I appreciate this photo on its own merits, but the simplicity and abstractness of "Stepping Out" is far superior.

Freeze frame

I remember playing a video game called "Rhythm Heaven" on my Nintendo DS as a kid. It had a fun minigame where you take pictures of race cars crossing a finish line, timing each photo perfectly so the side profile of the car is centered in image.

While northern Virginia drivers are pretty terrible (almost as bad as Maryland drivers), they are certainly easier to capture on camera than a race car.

I am proud of how these photos are framed (especially with the movie poster quality of "NOVA Dog"), but I wish I could go back in time and use a slower shutter speed. Capturing these cars without any blur just looks unnatural... like they are "frozen."

The over-exposed sky doesn't help much either. Not my best work, but I liked the framing enough to include them on the website.

What did I learn from Shirlington?

1. Great photos can be taken anywhere. If your surroundings are uninteresting, you're probably not looking hard enough.
2. Capturing moving objects with a low shutter speed and a steady hand can lead to great results. So many missed opportunities here.
3. Framing is half the battle. If the camera settings or weather are suboptimal, there is only so much you can do in post to save the photo.

I leave you with one final photo from Shirlington:

Thank you for reading!