DC Archives - Page 17 of 31

Surrendering to Serendipity: My Year in Photography

I like wandering the city taking photos. I’m a chronicler, a recorder, pursuing the things I am interested in – city life, the arts, travel and strong horizontal lines.

And in 2012, I got to do so much of what I love – taking boozy Instagram shots of art gallery shows, capturing photos of bike culture and recording life in this city, from protests to performance art.

Here are my favorites from 2012.

iPhone Impressionism

It was the year of iPhone impressionism, where I used Instagram, Flickr, Slow Shutter and other apps to capture the city around me. When I take photos, I’m not looking for realism – I’m looking for symmetry and beauty in the urban environment. I’m showing an idealized Washington, a place of warm tones, strong lines and order.

Late in the year came the controversy over Instagram’s odious Terms of Service. That inspired me to check out the newly updated Flickr mobile app, which has great filters like Narwhal (seen below) and doesn’t shrink your pictures down to tiny squares.

My New Year’s Resolution is to use Flickr more and Instagram less.

Continue reading “Surrendering to Serendipity: My Year in Photography”

DC Shorts – Early Deadline Jan 31

filmmakers at the DC Shorts City View party — Filmmakers at the DC Shorts City View party

Enter your short film or screenplay in DC Shorts! Early deadline is Jan 31, 2013.

The DC Shorts Film Festival and Screenplay Competition is the largest short film event on the East Coast. Now in its tenth year, DC Shorts will showcase 150 films from around the globe — including the largest collection of Russian short films to ever be screened in the U.S (new this year). Hundreds of filmmakers and thousands of audience members to mix, mingle and explore the art of short cinema. DC Shorts takes place over ten days in September.

I’ve been a film judge, screenplay contest judge, screenplay competition manager, post-film Q&A moderator and photo coordinator. You name the job, I’ve probably done it. And the term I would use to describe this festival is “Quality.” Attendees and filmmakers have all remarked on what a professionally produced event this. Festival director Jon Gann prides himself on treating filmmakers well – it’s really a festival for them.

If you’re a screenwriter, getting into the festival means seeing your work performed before a live audience. Plus, you could win $2000 to turn your short script into a film. (Here are my tips on how to win the screenplay competition.)

Filmmakers can count on premieres before sophisticated cinephiles, as well as making connections with fellow directors. And some great parties.

It’s no wonder that MovieMaker magazine called DC Shorts “one of 25 festivals worth the entry fee”.

I strongly encourage local screenwriters and filmmakers to enter the competition. We love to highlight talented people from the greater Washington area. American University students have done particularly well in the competition.

So save yourself some cash and take advantage of the DC Shorts early deadline of January 31. Enter your short film or screenplay and good luck!

Friday Photo: The Ring Edition

While it looks like a scene from The Ring, it’s actually Bryana Siobhan, a senior at Corcoran College of Art + Design, performing Center of Five, a ritual and repetitive work that explores personal memory and mental barriers within a constantly changing society. I took the photo at the Hillyer, my favorite small art gallery in DC.

And it’s an iPhone shot, modified with the narwhal filter in Flickr’s great new app. It’s about time that Flickr developed a decent mobile app. What I like about the app is that it doesn’t shrink photos down like Instagram and it’s tied into Flickr, which I use every day.

Murder in Ocean Hall – The Reviews!

I’ve received some very nice reviews of Murder in Ocean Hall. This murder-mystery set in DC seems to have struck a chord with appreciative readers. Here’s a selection of reviews from Amazon:

Joe Flood is a find! One can only hope that this is the beginning of a series. As others have noted, DC is a character in the book, and Flood has his detective consider the changes that the passing years have brought to the city. The inimitable Marion Barry is a character, as of course he should be. The other characters, both central and peripheral are quite rounded–and watching them evolve along with the unfolding of the mystery is a pleasure.

How could you write a book about DC and not include Marion Barry? And I’ve thought about making my book part of a series, but Murder in Ocean Hall literally contains everything I know about Washington.

Back to the reviews:

The time spent reading “Murder in Ocean Hall” is time well spent. I feel disinclined to share what the story is all about. Ostensibly it’s a murder mystery, but that doesn’t explain the half of it. Having hinted that there are numerous fish-to-fry in this story, suffice to say that the important characters are exceedingly well developed…

I tried to make my characters interesting, well-rounded people with their own stories to tell. I come from a background in literary fiction so I wanted to write a genre book that felt like a traditional novel. Which is perhaps why one Amazon reviewer called it “flowery and long-winded,” complaining that:

It was an OK read, but very descriptive in a lot of parts.

Guilty as charged! My version of Washington is the real city, not merely a flimsy backdrop for some far-fetched conspiracy tale.

More typical of the response to the book was this review:

Read this book if you think you’ve been to Washington, DC. The author will take you behind the scenes of places you’ve been and tell you how they function then give you insights into people in power and how they fail to function.

That’s a pretty good summary. Murder in Ocean Hall is about Washington beyond the monuments. In addition to an entertaining murder-mystery, the novel demonstrates how the city fails its residents – and the country at large.

Snapseed is Free!

snapseed interface — Snapseed interface on iPad

Snapseed is a dream of an app on the iPad – and now it’s free!

Snapseed is like Instagram’s bigger and more powerful brother. In addition to scores of faux film filters and frames, Snapseed can perform the kind of adjustments that you’d need Adobe Lightroom for. Crop, white balance, saturation, contrast, color correction, center focus, selective adjustment – it does much of what the Adobe product does but with a radically simpler interface. And a much smaller pricetag.

I like Drama. It’s one of the unique filters in Snapseed. It creates highly stylized images by pumping up the contrast and saturation. Grunge is another one, adding a beat-up texture to your image, as if it had been stored in a drawer for decades.

Over the summer, I did a photo shoot in Georgetown, using just an iPhone to capture the images and then Snapseed to edit them. My model was Lauren, a friend of mine. We started at the graceful Q Street Bridge over Rock Creek and then explored Georgetown side streets.

After the shoot, I edited from the comfort of my couch, using Snapseed. I cropped, fiddled with levels, tried and untried autocorrect, experimented with different filters, applied selective focus and, in less than an hour, I created some photos I was really happy with.

Here are some examples of the fun you can have with Snapseed.

Lauren on the stairs — cropping, temperature and color adjustments in Snapseed

Lauren with her Holga — cropping and subtle color, temperature adjustments

Check out the whole set and get Snapseed today.

DCist Exposed Wants Your Photos

media storm — Media storm - 2012 DCist Exposed Photography Show

DCist Exposed is looking for photos of our nation’s capital for their annual show at Long View Gallery. The deadline for submissions is January 9 and the show will be in March of next year.

If you’re a photographer, it’s a great event. I’ve had photos in the show twice. The opening night parties are always packed and it’s a thrill to see your work framed and hung in a gallery. Plus, you get to meet lots of other photographers and learn how they do things – that’s been the best part for me.

So, what is DCist Exposed looking for? Well, check out DCist to get an idea of what their photo editors like. I’d say that they look for gritty, non-touristy and unusual looks at DC.

The photo above was in the 2012 show. I think it got in because it’s a different look at a familiar landmark. I took it during the post-earthquake inspection of the Washington Monument. There’s a strange symmetry between the antennas of the TV trucks and this iconic structure. I made it black and white to make this obvious. And if you look carefully, you can see a figure at the top of the Monument, rappelling down as he checked for earthquake damage.

Below is my photo which was in the 2007 show. There’s a nice contrast between the playful girl and the graffiti. It’s innocence in an urban environment.

rose runs — Rose runs - 2007 DCist Exposed Photography Show

So pick out your best three photos and submit to DCist Exposed today!

Friday Photo: Locked-Up Edition

This is a fascinating old lock that I encountered in Blagden Alley, a historic alley complex near the convention center in Washington, DC. Check out the rest of the pictures from this city photowalk with photogs from the InstantDC meetup group. They were a great group of fun and creative folks who made the most of this cool alley.

Mount Vernon Trail Photo in Virginia Biking Map

I have a photo in the Bicycling in Virginia Map, a publication by the Virginia Department of Transportation. The above shot is from the Mount Vernon Trail, just across the Potomac from the Jefferson Memorial. I took it on a beautiful spring morning, when the flowers along the bike path had just began to bloom.

You can order the map for free. It’s a handy guide to the state’s numerous bike trails and routes. From the monumental views of the Mount Vernon Trail to the fall foliage of the New River, the Old Dominion has some of the most scenic bike trails in the nation.

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After months of winter, that spring morning was so pretty that I waded into the daffodils to get the photo below. It’s a little Instagram picture but was published earlier this year in Momentum, a biking lifestyle mag.

“Being there” is 90% of photography. Within a few days, the daffodils were gone and the light wasn’t the same. I’m glad I got this picture when I did – it’s one of my favorites.

Behind the Screens – Read it for Film Festival Secrets

Do you dream of walking down the red carpet? Want to see your film on a big screen?

Then get Behind the Screens, the new book by Jon Gann that uncovers what film festival programmers really think. Gann, the founder of the DC Shorts Film Festival, has interviewed the directors of top festivals from around the country, including:

• Ashland Independent Film Festival
• Byron Bay International Film Festival
• CineSlam/Pride of the Ocean
• DC Shorts Film Festival
• LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival
• Napa Valley Film Festival
• New York Film Festival
• Prescott Film Festival
• Razor Reel Fantastic Film Festival
• Scottsdale Film Festival
• Seattle International Film Festival
• SILVERDOCS
• Sonoma International Film Festival
• Sundance Film Festival
• Tallgrass Film Festival
• Washington Jewish Film Festival

Every film festival is different. Rather than blindly submitting your film to every festival you’ve ever heard of (and paying hundreds in submission fees), spend $20 to get this book. Do some research and target the right festival for your film. Behind the Screens reveals what programmers are really looking for, in their own words.

Full disclosure – I’m a friend of Jon’s and have been a judge for DC Shorts for years. DC Shorts is unique in that anyone can volunteer to be a judge. The films selected reflect an urban sensibility and a preference for comedy. A lengthy documentary on deforestation wouldn’t be a good choice for DC Shorts while a “meet-cute” flick set in Dupont Circle would be ideal.

Other festivals have their own unique attributes, shaped by the festival director and the audience. They have their own culture. Which is why it makes sense to get a book like Behind the Screens, where you get narrative information beyond what you will find in a directory of film festivals.

Give Me Pizza, I Will Give You a Quote

No one can resist free pizza. That was the idea behind a novel recruitment effort by Vocus, a public relations software company out of Beltsville, MD. They sponsored a food truck on the streets of DC and gave out pizza in return for a resume or card.

Not only did I drop off a card, I got my name in a Washington Post article on the effort with a quote on how this tactic was good at reaching passive job seekers.

I’ve been quoted in articles before. My secret? Pithy ten-word statements of opinion that reporters can easily copy and paste into an article. Being a writer myself, I know what I like in a quote – something clear, direct and short – so I try to do the same when I’m asked for a comment. And bribing me with pizza doesn’t hurt 😉