The beautiful (in my humble opinion) images that you see below are my submissions to the 2010 DCist Exposed photography show. This is my third year submitting photos to the contest – fingers crossed! The entry pool for the show this year includes 1,130 photos from 435 photographers. Tough competition would be an understatement. Exposed will open on March 6th at Longview Gallery (1234 9th St NW). It is a great showcase of local photographers and most certainly worth visiting.
This image is taken with a Holga at the Dupont Circle North metro station. I love how the long exposure was able to pull a fire out of the evening sky.
We watched the fireworks from Meridian Hill park this year. The gentleman that climbed the Joan of Arc sculpture had the best view in the house. His focused gaze up towards the theatrics is the sky is eerily similar to the look on Joan of Arc’s face as she charges into battle.
My final submission was snapped during my morning commute. It is taken with a Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, a junk camera with a wide angle plastic lens. Even in the blustery weather that we have had recently, my morning rides always put me in a good mood. I think this photo captures the pure enjoyment of a leisurely ride.
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lori [at] juxtaexposed.com
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it’s a long walk through the city in the rain, it’s a long walk from train to train
October 15th, 2009
The melancholy lyrics of “BMX Bike” by the Bouncing Souls always ring through my ears as the seasons take the swift change from cool, crisp, and pleasant to cold, damp, and dreary. For DC I think that switch might have officially happened yesterday. Rainy day bike commutes (woohoo fenders!) and bundling up has become a thing of the present.
Rain, however, does have the photographic benefit of providing lots of opportunities for glistening reflections at night. As I left the grocery store last night I snapped the photo above of the liquor store neon sign shining bright and casting a ethereal purple glow upon the sidewalk.
On the way to work today I got the coveted back seat of the rear car on the metro. This is probably not cared about by most commuting folk but I like it because it allows me to pass the time by taking fun photos as we pull away from metro stations. This one is the view exiting Judiciary Square headed towards Union Station. Also, it kind of reminds me of sitting in the back of those old station wagons that had the seat pointed backwards (which allowed you to make faces and incite road rage on the drivers behind you).
BARACK O’ RAMA (a tri-photo post)
January 17th, 2009
I figure I’m going to be taking about a bazillion photos in the coming days so I thought I’d do a tri-photo post instead of a stingy single photo post…enjoy!
Lori and I met over at Tryst on Friday night for a few post work drinks. This minivan pulled up on 18th St. and started opening up shop. They had Obama signs, posters, hats, shirts, pins, and American flags all for sale at presumably obscene price, the one thing that they didn’t have, and keep in mind yesterday was the coldest day DC has seen in something like a decade, was customers. Hats off to them for their entrepreneurial spirit but sometimes you just need to bow to mother nature and realize that people are not, 5 days before the actual inauguration, going to stop in the freezing cold and buy patriotic paraphernalia (and don’t you need a permit for that sort of thing anyway?).
We watched the less than successful street vending from our comfortable perch at the window bar in Tryst. Special on the menu for this chilly January evening were three pleasantly warm drinks:
The Vermonter – Irish Whiskey and Irish Cream with hot chocolate topped with whipped cream, the Hot Vanilla Russian – Vanilla Kahlua and Vodka with hot coffee and steamed half n’ half topped with whipped cream, and the Caramel Apple – fresh steemedhot apple cider and caramel with Captain Morgan Spiced Rum. These are all delectable…very very delectable (we made sure to try each one…a couple times). If you happen to be in Adams Morgan I’d whole heartedly recommend stopping in for a pleasant winter warmer. Tried to figure out if the selection of drinks had any thing to do with President – Elect whose, now famous, Shepard Fairey portrait is prominently featured on the menu but could not come up with any particular connection. Anyone more politically in tune think of any relation of these drinks?
Just up the hill at the corner of 18th and Columbia Adams Morgan Mainstreet/Adams Morgan NOW are hosting a series of Republican Elephant pinata bashings. This photo is from the 1st of the bashings that occurred last night at 5:30p. Since then they have hosted 3 more bashings but don’t fret there are still opportunities available for those in need of getting out some pent up political anger. The schedule for the remaining times is as follows:
So go, get angry, shout into the mega phone about how Bush disappointed you in the last 8 years, smash the elephant pinata, subsequently eat some candy, stop by the kiosk and write down your hopes and message for the incoming administration, and generally enjoy yourself while doing so.
I’ve seen this truck a couple of times in the last 2-3 years while driving around the city. In the past the timing was never right, I’d catch a bad light cycle, or be stuck behind someone going a solid 15 mph as the truck would zip down the road, or the truck would turn right when I really needed to go straight, and I was never able to actually read the message in it entirety. The truck had always made me laugh, particularly the signature – so very clever, and intrigued me a bit so you can imagine how pleasant a surprise it was to find the once elusive truck parked over near Metro Center. I don’t know anything about the driver/owner of the vehicle, I don’t know if it is associated with any business (there was a street vendor set up to the side of the truck), and I don’t know what the motive was for the paint job in the first place but I like it.
While I do not believe that gorillas are a species indigenous the the great District of Columbia wilderness otherwise known as Rock Creek Park that is what the view from the Taft Bridge this morning at circa 6:45a reminded me of. Very weird remnants from the intense storms that we had last night (which incidentally downed a large portion of a tree on the southwest side of the bridge).
On a separate Rock Creek wilderness point, last night while I was waiting outside our apartment building for Lori to come back from her test ride on her new bike (!) I saw a small raccoon fall from about 45′ up in a tree all the way down to the ground taking a fair bit of tree branch with it. I have to give it to the raccoon though, he/she/it shook it off and scurried right back up the same tree. There must be some good eats up in those limbs somewhere.
1: not engaged on either side; specifically: not aligned with a political or ideological grouping
2: of or relating to a neutral state or power
3 not decided or pronounced as to characteristics
4: produced with the tongue in the position it has when at rest
While I don’t know that these definitions apply to the Swiss Embassy Residence in NW DC, the designers responsible for this elegant structure most certainly managed to make a dynamic composition using neutral colors and basic forms. Designed by Steven Holl Architects and completed in 2006 the Swiss Embassy Residence takes on the iconic form of the Swiss Cross and sets up dramatic view from its back patio down to the Washington Monument.
The primary elements of the buildings are rough formed charcoal colored concrete walls, structural frosted channeled glass, and more traditional clear glazed windows. The materiality was chosen to evoke images of the dark stones and and frosted tips of the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately I can not speak from experience to opine if this was successfully done but the whole structure did feel vaguely alpine.
I attended a garden party tonight here for the American Institute of Architects DC awards ceremony. My time at the Residence ended before nightfall but as I understand it the character of the building changes dramatically at night when the openings behind the frosted glass walls begins to glow and the massive, dark concrete walls fall out of site. The Residence can’t be more than a mile from my apartment so I think I’ll make it a point to swing by an try to get a glimpse one evening.
The Swiss Embassy Residence is located on Cathedral Ave NW between Conneticut Ave and Wisconsin Ave. It is easily visible from the street and worth a look if you are in the area.
Tonight we finished the infrastructure of my display at Artomatic. I was unable to get to the site selection process early enough to get one of the true walls that were reserved for the 2-D artists and was asked to be “creative” with my display area. I ended up grabbing a smallish wall that was divided a 10′ wide window. After looking at things for a bit I decided that there wasn’t going to be enough true wall area to display my photos how I wanted to….so I decided to build more. After toying with the idea of a rather complicated wire/tension system I opted to go with a grid of 2×4’s which seemed a bit easier. Lori was so excited that we finished the wall that she decided to do some star jumps.
Still a bit in recovery mode so my deepest apology for the belated post. We attended a beautiful wedding in Leonardtown, MD over the weekend. I tried to show off by doing a head-first flip into the dance floor during our “spin the bottle” dance party. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well…
Good times had by all and congrats to Mark and Kristy.
I have a buddy who has run 10 laps of these things every week for the last 2 years. He goes fast; I cannot keep up. These so-called “Exorcist Stairs” are seriously intimidating and quite an interesting off-the-beaten-path DC landmark. After blowing your last 5 pay checks while shopping on M St. in Georgetown, a quick visit is a nice (free) way to spend some time.
I get too scared to actually watch the Exorcist all the way through, but from what I understand the scene with the stairs is pretty good.
