I haven't left my house once today. I have been packing my belongings in boxes all day. It's near midnight and I'm ready to sleep. Me and my friend Andrew (who has a drivers' license) pick up the UHaul at 8am. I think my stuff is actually going to fill one of the two rooms in my new apartment. Time to start simplifying.
Tonight me and my good friends went to the Black Cat to see Seattle's The Building Press on the "Backstage." They were outstanding ... the best band I've ever went to see on a whim. And they were just the opening band. The main act came out with a Dell laptop and three dudes ... Dells suck and the dudes were nerds (and instrument-less) so we left.
This is my friend Rocky's barber shop in the Mills Building on 17th and G Sts NW. He is currently remodeling his shop. I was taking some pictures for a Glencoe text called Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. I talked with Rocky for a while about his business. He said he might be looking for a new barber. He specified "barber and not hair stylist." Someone who could talk about sports would be good too. And he said he would like to find a white barber to increase the diversity of the shop. He said white barbers are a rarity in the District. If you go there looking for a job remember to use the door that says "use other door," for some reason the "other door" is always locked.
This is an illustrative photo that I took today. These are my friends Wynonah and John. John is a lawyer and his wife Wynonah works at M. E. Swing's Coffee Shop. They agreed to help me with my photo assignment. I really like this picture, but I'm not quite sure it will illustrate the type of "obsessive love" the publisher is looking for.
I was doing some research for a photo and one of the DVDs recommended to me by the man at Video Americain was Ichi the Killer. Never watch this movie also known as Koroshiya 1, it is the most repulsive thing you could ever do. It may as well have been a movie about building a giant blender to put people in. Yuck! But I found the best Chinese restaurant in DC ... Blue Diamond Chinese. Next time I'll get the Sesame Chicken minus the demented Japanese horror film.
It was a typically good summer Saturday in DC. I went to my friends' house and ate some good food. Then we all pilled into the Metro train and headed off to the Black Cat to watch every last one of the 10 cover bands. Sometimes it seemed like no one knew who the bands were covering until a couple songs into the set. A very fun show for only $7.
This is Brandon and his dad Don. They recently agreed to help me illustrate "an adult yelling at or striking a child (to show an abusive parent) must be MR." I am just beginning to see the fun in this type of text-book editorial photography. My models are professional actors in Shakespeare's play of Life ... "all the world is a stage, and we are all players or actors upon this earth."
I have been trying to schedule shoots with a lot of my friends. I am taking a lot of photos for an Allyn & Bacon college text book called Marriage, Family, and Intimate Relationships. They are asking for a variety of scenarios to be illustrated. In this picture my friends Andrew and Maris model a scenario that depicts a woman being stalked by a man.
My Mom has been fighting with cancer for a while. Her treatment is at a stage where it might be doing more harm than good. Today she told me she might stop her treatment. Of course I want her to do whatever makes her happy.
My friend Casey gave me a ride out of DC to a Target Store today so I could get a shot of the pattern in a children's plastic wading for an elementary math text book. I couldn't find a molded-plastic pool anywhere; they are all blow-up type now. I put a post on Craig's List and got a response pointing me to Target. Casey dropped me off by H St NW and I saw this bird nest in a Starbuck's sign.
This guy was headed down 16th St NW earlier today while I waited for an extremely crowded bus. When he was passing I said, "Be careful." He said, "Hello." I took the bus downtown and went over to the Humane Society's mail room to pick up some copies of Animal Sheltering Magazine. I took the cover photo and about 10 photos inside that illustrate a story about the mental illness of animal hoarders or "cat ladies." Stereotypically, eccentric older women who have a house full of animals they can't take proper care of. If you would like a free sample of my work in Animal Sheltering Magazine go to this link, and type, "Opening the Closed Door."
