DC Shorts Laughs featured local comedians with some of the funniest films from the DC Shorts Film Festival. Short flicks alternated with comics Jon Mumma, Brandy Reece and David Miller from the Funniest Fed competition (yes, there is such a thing). The show played to a full house at the Navy Memorial Theater on May 18.
The comics were great but First Date from Steven DeGennaro is probably the film the audience will remember most – it is horrifying and hilarious at the same time.
I was in the front row, shooting for DC Shorts. See the complete set of photos to get a taste of the evening.
Coming up next month for DC Shorts is Popcorn and Pasties – “short flicks and even shorter skirts in a debauched evening of cinema.” I wrote that memorable line of copy. So proud… 😉
Honorable Mention in 2013 Cherry Blossom Photo Contest
Digital has taken the guesswork out of photography. After all, you can check the screen of your camera to see if the photo came out. No more wondering if everything is in focus and properly exposed.
Even with these advancements, you still don’t know if the photo really works.
I biked to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. As a jaded Washingtonian, I’ve seen innumerable perfect cherry blossom pictures. I wanted something different.
Across from the Jefferson Memorial, the late afternoon light was perfect – soft, warm and with a hazy quality to it. I liked how sunset was coming through the trees. And I’d been thinking of silhouettes.
I took the photo above with my iPhone 5, before moving on to take lots of other pictures with my “real” camera, the Canon.
Once I edited the photo in the Flickr mobile app (using my favorite Mammoth filter), I knew that this photo just worked. There’s a romantic quality to it, capturing how the cherry blossoms are a beautiful, shared experience.
This photo is an Honorable Mention in the 2013 Cherry Blossom Photo Contest. Sponsored by FotoDC, the contest was judged by Carolyn Russo of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and Professional Photographer Frank Van Riper
I only submitted one photo to the contest. I had lots of other photos of blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial. They were pretty but looked like a million other pics. So I submitted my iPhone pic – it was different than the others. It popped. It worked.
Look for this photo, plus lots of others at the opening reception. Here’s the details:
Due to a sequester-related contracting snafu, I get a spring break of an indeterminate length! Hopefully, I will be back to work at the National Weather Service in a week or two.
They call it a “gap” as they move people from one contract to another. I’ve got a job with the new company on a new contract. Who that company is, when the work starts and even how much I’m paid – all that is unknown.
Letting the contractors wander off and then hoping to sign them up with a new company is one of those “only in government” moments. It only makes sense if you work there. But if you think about it logically, and count up all the costs in managing people this way, it will drive you mad.
I was a Communications Manager for the Weather-Ready Nation initiative, which is about making communities more resilient in the face of extreme weather. In this role, I developed communication plans, managed web site content and coordinated social media efforts. We were making good progress too – see this presentation I gave to the Federal Communicators Network for more about my work.
DC is gorgeous this time of year. In addition to enjoying the delights of the city (food trucks, bike trails, museums), I have my own projects to work on:
Judging screenplays for the American University Visions contest
I’ve had two photos recently in Flickr Explore, which selects the most interesting photos from around this photosharing site. Both are mobile pics, taken with my iPhone 5, and edited with the Flickr app.
The first appeared in Explore on April 8 and is a shot of the cherry blossoms by the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. I went after work and the soft late-afternoon light was gorgeous. I used the Mammoth filter in the Flickr app to give it a distinct look.
My second Explored photo came a week later. Coming up the escalator at the Ft. Totten Metro, I saw this:
It was surreal to see a train full of Bradleys next to the Metro tracks. I framed this photo with the Metro station sign because I thought it was so bizarre. In addition to Explore, this photo appeared in the local blogs DCist,Greater Greater Washington and PoPville. Plus, another photo I took of the train was published in the Express, the free paper by the Washington Post. That was nice – I read that paper every day on the Metro.
DC is filled with the beautiful and the bizarre, if you will keep your eyes open.
I love walking in DC. On Monday after work, I stopped off at Macy’s and then walked home, taking a little detour to go by the White House. It was darker than this photo appears and the absence of light caused the iPhone to do a bit of a long exposure, allowing me to capture this cyclist in motion. She’s on a Capital Bikeshare bike – these bright red bikes are a common sight in DC, and are used by everyone, from tourists to businessmen.
What do the life of Steve Jobs and photographers have in common? Find out in Steve Jobs: Life Lessons for Photographers, a new post on my Steve Jobs – Life Lessons blog. I’ve been fascinated by how much creative people can learn from studying what Jobs did in his life.
This is the new L St bike lane – also called a cycletrack, according to WABA. I took the photo with an iPhone 4, right around sunset, before editing it in the great new Flickr mobile app. I’ve come to love the Narwhal filter – it creates such an interesting, distressed kind of look, as if this print was just discovered in some antique chest of drawers.
14th St is rapidly becoming lined with condos and apartments. Where once stood a KFC and other low-rent retail establishments, another new building rises.
Shot with an iPhone 4 and edited in the Flickr mobile app. The photo also appeared in PoP in a post on, appropriately enough, hating DC.
The more interesting the work, the less it pays – that’s the rule I uncovered in 2012. It’s the reason why technical writers are paid well (you want to write a help guide for Sharepoint?) while film reviewers are paid poorly (you get to see movies!).
However, it was a great learning experience to meet so many creative folks. Truly inspiring to meet people who had written books, made movies and created web sites.
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.
DC Shorts Laughs featured local comedians with some of the funniest films from the DC Shorts Film Festival. Short flicks alternated with comics Jon Mumma, Brandy Reece and David Miller from the Funniest Fed competition (yes, there is such a thing). The show played to a full house at the Navy Memorial Theater on May 18.
