The Capitol Columns at the National Arboretum

by tagermer

I have wanted to shoot the a spherical panorama at the Capitol Columns at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC for some time now. These are Corinthian columns that were removed from the US Capitol during a renovation and were moved to their current location. The towering columns give me lots of of vertical material to make the cube sculptures interesting and would lend well for making stereographic projections, as well. So, last Saturday, I headed to the Arboretum and was in line for the gates to open at 8:00. I was a little disappointed in the weather. It was overcast. Because the park was not open before sunrise, though, I didn’t mind not having to compete with the sun, which can be hard to deal with in these panoramas. As I was driving there, it sprinkled some, which worried me more. But, alas, when I got there, the drizzle stopped and I was able to shoot the Columns. A rogue, unpermitted wedding party showed up after I took a panorama at the center of the empty fountain, so I moved over to a corner, where one large column hid the party from my view. Afterwards, I shot three more panoramas in the herb garden and the azalea grove.

Below are material from the Capitol Column shots. I relied on high dynamic range (HDR) techniques to process these. The sky was bright and otherwise had very little contrast. By using HDR tone mapping, the sky came out much more dramatic. I can’t wait to make these into my spherical photographic sculptures.

Here is the first shot, shown as a flattened cube: