Tag Archives: Photos

Faces of Memorial Day in Washington DC

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I had a field day with my camera on Monday along the parade route on Constitution Ave. I’ve found that going to the parade is one of the only ways that I can properly appreciate the significance and weight of Memorial Day. 

My neighbor and four time Purple Heart Ace Rosner used to drive his WWI Jeep in this parade, but he passed away earlier this year.

There are many things to love about DC, but the setting and backdrop here makes universal things like parades and fireworks, which probably take place in every other town across America, seem that much more impressive, stately, and unique.

Here are my favorite 30 shots from the parade – click slideshow / full screen mode.

And a sneak preview:

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Full set on Flickr >>

Sri Lanka photos. Mostly elephants.

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I was expecting something like South India — a place I’ve never visited but imagine to be hot, crowded, and poor from all that I’ve heard and seen. 

Sri Lanka was nothing like that. Instead it was green and lush, rapidly developing (no obvious signs of extreme poverty), and full of friendly people working to rebuild a country stunted by and still recovering from 26 years of civil war that only just ended in 2009. 

I was lucky enough to visit the island in September at the invitation of the US State Department / US Embassy in Colombo to help lead a digital activism training for students across South Asia (see WICPER Training for Trusteeship). My colleague Susannah Vila posted some of her thoughts on the experience here on HuffPo. 

We didn’t have time to see much while there, but we did cover many hours of rough roads from rainforest-like mountain regions (Kandy, Kigale) to capitol city (Colombo) to — briefly en route to airport — tropical beach. I have many more miles of Sri Lankan beach to explore in my career. The elephant photos below are from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, which was more like a park/refuge but seems to have started as an orphanage.

By the way, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka has an impressively active social media presence; here they are on twitter and facebook.

Highlights reel from Climate Ride 08

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Still busy sorting through photos and videos from our incredible 5 day Climate Ride, but here’s a great photo slideshow by Kip Pierson, our official photographer in the meantime. Kip’s local to DC and I’d definitely recommend him if you need a wedding or event photographer. I’ve put a few of my own pics up here and below, the ones I took from my iphone.But really you should check out Kip’s slideshow, which i don’t think i can embed here.

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Locked up in Miami — Amnesty International Guantanamo Cell tour

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During my final hours in Miami last weekend, i walked through Bayfront Park and stumbled into athe launch of a very smart Amnesty International USA campaign. Amnesty commissioned / built a full-size replica of a Guantanamo “Level 5″ cell and placed it in a very public place for anyone to come and visit.

I don’t know much about effective experiential marketing, but this is everything I imagine it to be. The best part came after I was already locked up, sitting there imagining what it would be like to live inside that hot, tiny box for months or years without being accused of a crime.

The tiny flat-screen above the sink implored me to touch the record button and leave a video message for our government. It’s exactly what Amnesty should have done to amplify their field work, but I’d be curious to know how many people actually felt comfortable recording a message there. Of course, the organizers also asked everyone to sign a postcard / petition in case you skipped out of the video.

I can only guess how much it might cost to construct something like this and ship it across the country with staff, but it was incredibly effective. Keep an eye for it as it heads up the East Coast.

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Adams Morgan Day photos

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Great day for a street fair. I think we were all worried that summer was trying to sneak out the back door without saying goodbye, but we were proven wrong. Got a little trigger happy and shot almost 200 pics during the festivities; just spent past few hours in the darkroom [that is my laptop] editing and culling them down to my Top 40. Check out the photoset here. Of all the photos I’ve taken this year, I think i’m most proud of these, so please just indulge me.Two of my favorites (for your appetizer):

hogs, carneys, and fried oreos

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… at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair today. Because after the last two sundays of tubing and amusement parks, it just seemed like the right thing to do.These are the sorts of events that make us Americans either especially proud or embarrassed by our country. And, more importantly, it’s the type of place that makes amateur photographers think that they’ve turned pro. So, ahem — check out my set from today. Warning: contains farm animals.

An evening with Kiefer Sutherland

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I can now comfortably stop being jealous of my friends and fellow Dittos down at SXSW right now. I could not possibly have gone to Austin this year, you see, because I had a prior meeting with Jack Bauer (photo) right here in DC, minutes from my apartment, at the DC Independent Film Festival. (Thanks to Catherine for the tip and Ginny for accompanying.)For the closing film, they screened I Trust You To Kill Me, a rockumentary about Kiefer and Rocco Deluca and the Burden, one of the first bands that his music label signed. Somewhat surprisingly for a music documentary, it was only half about the music. The other half was a very up-close and intimate look at Kiefer’s off-screen life (as well as Rocco’s) and his attempt at being tour manager for this [then] upstart band.In short, the film was awesome. It had all the ingredients of awesome-filmness:

  1. Band on tour
  2. Globetrotting to European and Scandinavian cities
  3. ‘Live’ rock and roll (accompanied by edgy music-video inspired scene transitions)
  4. Gratuitous behind-the-scenes shots of CTU and the 24 set. And Audrey Raines!
  5. Rock star and celebrity actor’s intertwined personal quests for meaning and fulfillment (you can go either way on this one, but the film definitely benefited from this)
  6. Adventure

The movie was great, but the real take-away for me is that Kiefer now earns top placement on my coveted list of people I’d most like to party with. (Sorry, Clinton, but you’re now #2.) This guy is funny, knows how to have a good time, and is definitely not the ass you’d expect him to be. He also seems sort of lonely and empty inside, but that’s neither here nor there.After the movie, the two filmmakers came out with Sutherland for a discussion with the audience. And no, the 14 and 15 year old girls who ran up to ask if they could visit him in LA or get a hug right there did not once make me question my intentions for showing up. I’m a true supporter of independent film regardless of any coincidental appearances by the most badass dude from the best show on TV. After the discussion, they pulled back the curtain and Rocco and his band actually played a short set, which was pretty cool for a Sunday night in Van Ness. Or any Sunday night. Turns out they’re much better live in real life than ‘live’ in a movie — check out the tracks on their first album.