Over the weekend I went to Georgetown and visited the National Arboretum, a very expansive garden in D.C. I thought this would be perfect for the backyard safari photos assignment as my backyard is not interesting and the Arboretum had so much to offer. There were many different sections to the vast park: a bonsai garden and Asian gardens, a Dogwood garden, the National Herb Garden and my favorite, some of the original Capital building columns.

The entire place was just a sublime experience, but seeing the columns set up as they were, almost as if outlining the remnants of a Roman ruin, reminded me of Italy and put me in a different place. Likewise, the herb garden moved me with its various scents and innumerable flowers, the last of the season. The entire place told the story that there is a different world placed on the outskirts of a large city, that there is life in a city of concrete.

I showed both the dark and light of the columns, and then from farther away, where I thought they looked like one of those ruins upon an Italian hillside. Then I move into the herb garden where i traipsed around smelling lavender and rosemary, the same plants Michelle Obama gets in her home, the White House. I ended my sequence the same way I ended my day, by staring at a groundhog, a life feeding off of the life around it. I named him Herbert and watched while he lazily ate grass and plants laying down.

There was too much beauty in this place not to share and there was more of a story to tell than my backyard. In fact, this place is the backyard to all of D.C. and is therefore more fulfilling in its story because it is shared by so many.

I took these photos with my iPhone and uploaded them to iMovie. It was a simple enough movie to make, but I wanted to make the photos move to zoom in on what should be looked at most deeply, as well as give the viewer more time to soak up what they are seeing. I hope everyone can see my story and the beauty that the small outings in life can bring.