You may wonder why there aren't people in these photos... If you get up so that you arrive at the tidal basin at 5AM (before the crack of dawn) on a Saturday morning. This was after DST happened, and I think that last time this was better. I guess at that time, you'll find there are maybe two dozen people in the area. This makes for easy setup of tripods, or anything else. Like last year, you get maybe half an hour of this, then the people walking dogs show up. About ten minutes later, the early riser crowds show up. By 6:30 people are everywhere but you can still move freely, by 7-7:15, go home, people are packing the place.

The monument was bizarrely lit this year, with the the two bands around the dome. This meant that longer exposure photos across the basin looked wrong because the Jefferson Memorial was odd and lit "wrong."

Also, most of my shots were before the crack of dawn using a tripod, so the color seems off. When the sun came up, people were already there and moving about. If you go before DST happens, 5am crack of dawn is "earlier" than people want to go (with dawn close to 6am). After DST, 5am gets you there, but dawn (as most people think of morning) is closer to 7, so more people get there. If you want to beat people, you get less light, unlike last year. This was disappointing. Also, the cold was happening, there were scheduled storms before peak bloom, and so it didn't really work out for good blossoms, no people, and enough light... d'oh.

We got good parking though! ;)