The Mayor

So, I woke up this morning to find a bunch of Mayor Adrian Fenty's campaign volunteers and staff members waving signs and wielding clipboards in front of my apartment building.  I had to wade through all of them as they asked me if I was registered to vote in the District. "No. Leave me alone, please." Well, one of the volunteers pointed out that Mayor Fenty was standing on the corner.  The sight of him waving a sign absolutely had to be photographed, so I went back for my camera and decided I didn't care if I was late for work.  I took a few pictures, told him I wasn't registered in DC, and he told me to wear sticker. Small price to pay for some funny photos. I thought it especially hilarious that he continued to hold the sign up as talked to people passing him on the street.  I was only two minutes late for work.

Tourists

I know we all love to hate tourists in this city, but they make for some decent street photography because they are so obliviously unaware to anything around them. I also took this photo as part of the NYT Moment in Time project. On May 2 at 15:00 UTC, people around the world took a picture of wherever they were to record a simultaneous portrait of out entire world.

Saturday Night

She'll kill me if she sees I used this photo, but it was my favorite picture of the weekend.  While a bunch of my friends were over at my house for some beer pong, I decided that I needed to get everything on film. I didn't expect to really get anything good, just some photos of my friends to put up on Facebook. As it turned out, I got several fantastic shots, including this one of my friend taking a sip of her drink before it was her turn to throw.  There are so many elements that I just love about this photo. The plain curtain background, the vignette, the arm extended with the ping pong ball at the tip of her fingers, the cup covering her face, and just the overall sense that she had no idea I was taking a picture.  Without further ado,

 

The Sydney Opera House

Hello again. I'm sorry. Here's a picture.

I went to Australia for a little while and made my way to Sydney.  I took a couple pictures of the Opera House and then pretty much gave up because it is so difficult to take a unique picture of one of the most photographed buildings in the entire world.  I was talking about that with my friends as I was walking along the boardwalk when I turned and saw this reflection.  It was about as good as I was going to get.

Boston

Eye candy for you all since I haven't updated this thing in way too long.  It's a bar.

Leaves

Leaves I found on the ground in DC. There were a lot of them. They were pretty.

My Best Friend

So, on Monday, my Dad called me with the call I had been expecting for over a month but one that I had been dreading.  My Dad called to tell me that they would be putting Mick, our 15-year old Australian shepherd to sleep. We got him while I was still in kindergarten, and we would have never dreamed that he would make it to my senior year of college.  I still remember picking him up on St. Patrick's day of 1994 from a farm just outside of Des Moines. It was puppy-love at first sight.

Mick would sleep in my bed with me, sometimes under the covers.  He would usually stay there until I fell asleep, but then the next morning, my dad would let him into my room to jump on my bed and wake me up for school.  As I got older, there wasn't room for both of us on the bed, but I still started everyday by getting jumped on and licked by a relatively large dog.

We had a lot of fun growing up together. We explored the woods behind my house. He would chase after us as we sledded down snowy hills and would steal our hats and gloves from us once we got to the bottom. When I played catch with friends, it turned into a game of keep-away from Mick, and when he eventually did get the football/baseball/whateverball, it turned into a game of catch-the-stupid-dog-so-we-can-get-the-ball-back.

I could go on and on about Mick. How he chased the deer in the park, and how the deer weren't scared of him at all. How he used to greet my family with a special bark and how his left ear was always perked in the air. How he hated to have his paws touched and how he "played guitar" when I scratched him on his chest just below the neck.

Mick was simply the best dog a boy could ever ask for. I'm gonna miss you, buddy.

So without further delay, from about a year ago, here is a self-portrait of me with the best dog ever to grace this earth.

Octuple Stuf

All I really wanted to do was show you this Oreo. Look at it!

Row House

While walking around the Shaw-Howard area, I found this old section of row houses. The red brick and teal tops were an interesting contrast, so I decided to show it. One of my favorite parts of this scene is the old sign. I love old rusting signs like that, but unfortunately it's kind of lost in this photo. From a couple years ago, this was one of my first experiments with Photoshop Lightroom.

Fall

It's definitely fall in DC. Took this picture last weekend, but now the trees are more gorgeous than ever. Lent my camera out to someone, but should be getting it back tonight or tomorrow.