I was down at the WWII Monument again today. There are a lot of photographers down there. I saw all kinds of cameras, large and medium format, 35mm, digital point-and-shoots and SLRs. It's a regular photographers' convention. I saw this bird down there this evening taking a bath, the same type of bird that was stuck in my chimney for a few days.
I remember when the WWII Memorial was still under construction. I remember the cranes lifting the towers and stone before I even realized what they were building. I make it down to the WWII Memorial as often as I can, about once every three days. I didn't make it very close to the memorial this Memorial Day Weekend though, no ticket for the opening ceremony. One of the side effects to all this "remembering" and Memorial Day is a lot of talk on the bus and at the sidewalk, mostly pertaining to WWII. If some dude had a great uncle that served in WWII they have recently become battlefield experts. I couldn't help overhearing two middle-aged men on the bus loudly going over details of the First World War under the impression they were discussing WWII! God save our country, we're morons!
The rat that I thought was in my chimney pipe a couple days ago turned out to be a bird. I took the chimney pipe apart today, after realizing that my feathered friend had been held captive by my heating apparatus for at least two days. I used my laundry bag and a Mag-Lite to help get the bird out. Then it flew around my house for a while before I let it out the front door.
Every time I pass this Sun Trust Building on 15th St and New York Ave NW I am amazed by its brass rotunda. Every time I see brass I think of sailors polishing it. Really ... every time. I pass by this building a lot but never get a photo. Today, before we passed the building, I reached in front of me and opened up the bus window, then hopped into the seat in front of me and shot back at the building as we passed by. I hopped back into my seat and closed the window. I heard some lady on the bus say I was probably "some kind of secret agent."
There was a rat stuck in one of my heater vent pipes earlier today. I could hear him scratching around. I grabbed a Mag-Lite and a hand saw and went to the heater closet. i opened it slowly and discovered the sound was coming from the large pipe from the heater. I called the landlord. He called animal control. I banged the side of the pipe with the Mag-Lite. Now the rat is gone.
Today the cicadas were all over the Mimosa tree in the front yard, and buzzing around all over every tree in the neighborhood. They lay their eggs in branches that break off and fall to the ground. The eggs will hatch and the larva will burrow into the ground and emerge in another 17 years. The males die after mating and the females die shortly after laying their eggs. A lot of them end up smashed on the sidewalk, an inclimactic end to a 17 year life.
Today, I was taking a breather in the park with one of my freinds Alex. He is a Fine Arts student at the Corcoran and paints for the well-known mural artist Bill Newman. While me and Alex were sitting in the park we noticed a man roll off a bench. We watched, amused, as the intoxicated man tried to lift himself from the ground to the bench. After about 5 minutes he had success. While we were walking out of the park and got a closer look, the man amused us again! After I took this shot I put 50 cents in the mans hand and he murmured, "Thank you ..."
This is my favorite shot from a quickly-scheduled shoot of a multi-ethnic group in front of some of our nation's monuments. It is one of the shots I took in between the "group-style" shot. The backdrop is the newly opened WWII Monument. These are the friends I could gather in 24 hours, minus a few. An agency asked for a multi-ethnic group in front of some of the monuments to promote the National Greenhouse Survey.
I was admiring the view from inside my nice plastic glass of ice water early this morning. Since the District of Columbia has given me a free Brita water pitcher because of our lead pipe problem, I've been drinking a lot more water. No need to look for any irony there. This is a cup that my cousin Steve used to "take one for the road" at a party in Pittsburgh several years ago. I found it in my car the next day. I sold that car almost two years ago ... my license expired about two years ago.
Today I got a snooty reply from a "spiritual" stock photography company, claiming to "Put the Soul in Stock." Usually they send me back a reply either giving me their stock photo agreement or telling me that they don't need my services. I guess I should be more hesitant about who I solicit for information. They're a righteous bunch of nice guys.
I am shooting a feature story for the Humane Society's magazine. The feature is titled Approaching a Closed Door, and is about people with mental illnesses that cause them to horde animals. The basic stereotype is the "cat lady," the woman who lives with 300 cats yet she is unable to properly care for herself. There's even a "cat lady" that makes an occasional appearance on the Simpson's. For the story I'm shooting a lot of mysterious window and door shots, some cats doing things horded animals might do like drink from the bathtub, and some other shots still in progress. I can't just go take pictures of a cat miser because of the legalities involved so I shoot a lot of staged shots. So far I have about 18 related shots including this one I took tonight at Dave and Rose's place of Dave's silhouette. He has a cat and some other dramatic lighting situations I was looking for.
