Welcome to the DC area, from a fellow Washingtonian. There are so many neat, interesting things and places to see and photograph around here. Drop me a line when you get settled in and I'll be glad to play photo tourguide to the area. Many highlights have already been mentioned, but there are tons of cool off-the-beaten-track places that can yield hours and hours of shooting time.

Much of DC is accessible by public transit, but there are lots of places worth the visit that are not, so having a car locally would be a good idea. Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is a prime example of someplace you don't want to go without your own transportation. It's one of the hidden gems of DC, a little wilderness oasis and wildlife sanctuary tucked between the Anacostia River and a major freeway.

Baltimore is rife with opportunities, but MOST of them you don't want to explore without personal transportation, and ideally, not alone. Not that Baltimore is per-se dangerous, but if you're not from there, you can easily miss the transition point between an ok and not-so-ok area, especially when your head is buried under a focusing cloth. Rawlins Conservatory and Cylburn Arboretum are two great spots for nature/landscape photography there, and the Mount Vernon neighborhood has lots of great architecture.

There are some rental darkrooms available such as at Glen Echo park in Maryland (just outside DC), VisArts in Rockville (a little further out in Maryland) or at the Smithsonian Institute (they have a darkroom for both color and black-and-white printing in their education center, and it is quite nice). Chrome lab in DC will do custom printing, but not on fiber paper that I'm aware of. I'm sure there are some small independents still around (you might try up in Baltimore as well, they have a very active photo scene there). To find some of these kinds of services, sign up for things like ArtDC.org, which has a bulletin board for artists' services.

Join the Smithsonian Resident Associates program, because they offer a tremendous variety of cultural programs from lectures to seminars to full-blown week-long excursions, and the programs are significantly discounted for members.