One of the best parts of my job as a freelancer is that I get to make two trips to Washington DC each year. One of those jobs happens each year in June when I travel with about 60 high school seniors from all over Kentucky, spending a week in DC on the Washington Youth Tour, which is sponsored by the Kentucky Electric Cooperatives. This year marked my 14th trip. I mainly document the week with photos for the state's electric cooperatives to use of their students, but my main job is to create a magazine cover for each co-op to run in Kentucky Living Magazine later in August and September. We usually switch up the location on the cover photos and this year I did them at my favorite site in DC, the World War II Memorial. Good photos tend to create themselves there, regardless of the light or angle. I'll admit, I don't necessarily enjoy riding a bus that many hours because it usually makes me sick, but I thoroughly enjoy being around a group of 17-18-year-olds for a week because it helps to keep me young at heart.

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Photo by Tim Webb

The trip always starts with a visit to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. Locals pronounce it Monti-chello, but I have yet to find the H in Monticello. I'm sure the folks in Wayne County could correct them on the proper pronunciation of Monticello.  

Photo by Tim Webb Next on the agenda was George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. 

Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb

Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb The Sunset Parade at the Marine Memorial (Iwo Jima statue). 

Photo by Tim Webb The Kentucky students come together with several hundred other students from all across the country during the NRECA Youth Night. Our Kentucky kids never disappoint!  Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb

For years, I sat up a complete light system to do the cover shots, but the last couple of years I've gone with a small speed light (a flash) on a remote and used one of the other chaperones as a human light stand, which you can see Joey Frakes' shadow on the ground in front of me. If I start early enough in the day while the light is calm it works. 

Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb I have photographed the WYT for several years with my good friend April Burgess, who works for Inter-County Energy in Danville. She brought her husband Rudy along on the trip this year. They were so funny, and really good people to hang out with! April is easily in the top five of my favorite chaperones (inside joke, ha!).

Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican...what a great moment when Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader takes a few minutes to come outside and talk to you on the steps of our nation's capitol. I told the students that they will appreciate this photo more and more as they get older in life.

Photo by Tim Webb The Great Shoe Exchange of 2024: Blisters are a real thing when walking 5-6 miles in dress shoes. 

Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb Photo by Tim Webb If the World War II Memorial is my favorite site in DC, then the Holocaust Museum and the Pentagon 911 Memorial are right there with it. Maybe someday I'll do a blog post about these two sites because it would be hard to do either one of them justice here in this post. If you ever go to DC these two are definite must-sees! They both are made up of so many moving parts, but yet, so well-done, so intimate, and so sad!   Photo by Tim Webb Back home six days later at Base Camp at East Kentucky Power in Winchester.