Night Shooting at National Harbor, MD

Thursday evening had me driving through rush hour traffic to meet with friends at the National Harbor to take some night photos. It was bitterly cold, (what's new?), and I had some hand warmers in my pockets which turned out to be utterly useless and were cold by the time I left my car. I got there early and decided to head straight for the Gaylord Hotel which would be nice and warm. Feeling a bit conspicuous I crept round to the fountain and pulled out my tripod and camera fully expecting a member of staff to move me on. There was a large area cordoned off for a private event so I kept to the secluded areas and started snapping.

Actually all the staff I came across were very nice and I began to feel a little more confident. The one above is me zooming into the serving area of one of the restaurants.

The fountains were beautiful with their changing colors and I was really enjoying myself but good things never last and before long my phone was ringing with Tom a group member who had arrived and James who just wanted to chat.

So I packed up and pushed through the doors back into the bracing chill, grabbing a last shot of the hotel as I left.

We had four members turn up and a surprise visit from Andrew so it was going to be a fun evening. We wandered to the water line where The Awakening lay in the sand. We all agreed he looked far more comfortable at his original site of Hains Point in DC.

The cold was getting colder and creativity was ebbing yet I still wanted to try something different.

I'd read on line of some cool images taken by zooming in while the shutter was open, so had a go while taking photos of the shop lights. They weren't too bad but the cold gave me a bit of a shaky hand while zooming so I gave up. 
We decided to call it a night after 10:30 and I was grateful to get into a warm car and then later into a warm bed with a purring Kota already on his pillow. One more day to the weekend, Yay!!