In all my time doing Photo of the Day, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of the outside of the U.S. Botanic Gardens, like this one by mosley.brian. Usually a lovely reflective night shot like this is the Kennedy Center, but we’ve been happy to see quite a few of our photographers head towards the gardens once the weather turns cold. It’s open all year long and a fantastic way to get…

I love holiday photos like this, warm with just a hint of sparkle, rather than the garish no-holds-barred plastic Santa light display preferred by those with the festive spirit in overdrive. DC Jeff took this postcard perfect image somewhere on the Georgetown campus. Happy holidays indeed. Have you submitted your application for DCist Exposed 2008 yet? No time like the present! The 2007 winners are all over the place: mark your calendars for 6…

This is actually the first snow-covered Photo of the Day for this season. Clearly I was just waiting for something monumental. Oh, what do you want? It’s Monday. And Flickr user *Toshio* does, in fact, have an impressive photo here — I’m even more surprised by daytime photos of D.C. cultural sites that don’t have a single person in sight. EXIF. Speaking of impressive, last night we reached 15,000 photos in the DCist Flickr…

We were taken aback by this beautiful photo by Samer Farha in the DCist Flickr pool this morning. After only a quick glance at the tag “Library of Congress,” I was trying to place this building somewhere in the city, but then realized this is a shot of the gorgeous architecture of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, out in Culpeper, Va. Tucked in the Blue Ridge Mountains, both American and international film, television, and…

Sure, our beloved United didn’t get to play in the final showdown, but every time I pass this picture in the DCist Flickr pool, I want to stop and give this dude a high five. Aziz Yazdani caught this elated fan after the Houston Dynamo beat the New England Revolution last Sunday at RFK stadium. EXIF….

This goose just looked at me in the DCist Flickr pool, clearly very concerned that he was going to be featured in Photo of the Day. Looks like Flickr user andertho took advantage of the nice weather this weekend to catch this bird’s inquisitive and, frankly, hilarious expression. EXIF….

If the DCist Flickr pool is a good indication, many of you decided to spend part of your Labor Day weekend the good ol’ fashioned American way — at the ballpark. Flickr user Scott Ableman perfectly caught Ryan Zimmerman’s game winning RBI against the Giants on Sunday night, in a nail biting moment with the count full in the bottom of the ninth. The Nationals inched out for a final score of 2-1….

When this photo popped in the DCist Flickr Group, I assumed that epmd had gone on a trip out west somewhere — Texas, Utah, something like that. But no, this is our very own Anacostia River! As furcafe notes in the comments, it looks like one of those natural history museum dioramas. We almost expect to see pronghorns having a drink. And adding to the wackiness, the shot was taken by a camera from…

A flurry of frantic, angry emails began around 6 p.m. last night on the Cleveland Park Listserve and moved seemingly all over town by 8 p.m. It was the end of civilization as we know it! A catastrophe of epic proportions! Alert the National Guard! The Uptown Theater might be closing! Thankfully, cooler heads have now prevailed. Turns out the rumor got started because the Jews for Jesus outfit McLean Bible Church put up…

One of the things we love best about the DCist Flickr Group is its ability to give us viewpoints from so many different people all at once — no single news outlet in the world likely had as many photographers taking great shots of the fireworks display in D.C. last night as we did. We put together a short slideshow to share some of the images you were all kind enough to send in…