End of the long weekend

Wanted some snaps to compliment the St. Magnus, Kirkwall ceiling shot.  Washington Photo Safari had an event today at the National Shrine in DC, so off I went. Got the two shots I wanted, botched a wider attempt at both becuase of the need to get out of the aisle fast. Anyway, a sucess vis-a-vis the original objective.  Wasn't much else that interested, kinda skipped the gift shop and the cafe, so worked some lines and a few Friedlanderesque shots that won't make Sister Anita James happy. As I recall that wasn't much of a regular occurance anyhow. And, hey, that is what it really looks like, the first glance from the official parking lot exit — right on the way from all of the coaches (buses).

All with the A7r and either the Canon 24 TS-E or the Canon 14. I guess I am pretty much a wide-angle guy these days, in fact probably a low-angle, wide-angle guy.

To zoom off to the rest of the snaps, click on the faux Friedlander below.

The National Shrine ala Lee Freidlander

Holiday Fizzle

Maybe an over statement because expectations were not high. A swing down to the District once again in the hopes of snaps of people drawn to the Mall on Memorial Day weekend. Not many there except for the rollng thunder ragamuffins — i much prefer the representation of the greatest generation than that of my own. A relatively quick loop; Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII, DC, MLK and FDR then skedaddle. Maybe I'll do better in the neighboorhood over the rest of the long weekend. I seem to be losing interest in all but urban opportunities. 

Anyway a gallery reachable from here or via the snap below. Once again working lines, shadows — and layers when I could create them. All with the A7r, this time with the Canon FD 28 f/2.0, the current lens of choice for people on the street.

This one comes hard upon last night's post so if you are checking per a update message, check the prior post out as well.

Uncurated

Today resulted in 498 images without the usual bracketing — a whole lot of snaps.  I had planned to go to the Museum of Industry but figured I would be in and out in an hour or so.  For some reason I was up early, early enough to park just off the Lincoln Memorial Circle just before 7:30.  The natural first stop was the Lincoln Memorial looking for shadows, that was followed up by the Korean, FDR, Jefferson, WW II, Vietnam and a revist to the Lincoln. After that it was a visit to the two Union Markets, the one missing letters in its sign and the one that got lost on its way to New Caanan, CT. After grabbing some lunch and a loaf of rye, Charlotte got pointed north to Museum of Industry. The earlier prediction was right about an hour stay — possibly abetted by free admission becuase of the prescense of a robotic contest.

The 498 images didn't get cut by much and I am not feeling very ruthless and the Florida/UConn game has just started. As usual I am recording it but I am not inclined to get too far behind tonite. So 200+ images from all the venues all stuck in one giant sized smugmug gallery. The intention was to shoot strangers but I wound up with some of them, some statues and some museum exhibits.  There are no cherry blossom snaps for two reasons (i) they aren't out yet and (ii) I wouldn't shoot them even if they were. There are plenty of other people shooting them — if you are interested try Flickr. I am only interested in the cherry blossoms as fly paper to increase the number of strangers around DC strreets and the mall.

This time of year is also when the honor flights come to the mall bringing vets to visit memorials. I happened across a groups of Korean and WW II vets.  The shot below was taken going into the Pacific end of the WW II Memorial.  The guy's name is Frank Mastrella, he is from Rochester, NY (from his name tag). The woman told him that she was sorry he was going home becuase other wise they had a date tonite. I blew getting the shot of her planting one on his dome. For sure it is the best shot of the day.

Lots of narcissism in this gallery with a pretty large number of shadow selfies ala Lee Friedlander. Click here or on Frank's snap below to see the entire uncurated bunch. All in B&W — too many Friedlander books I guess.

Best I can figure, that was an interracial, same sex marriage at ~ 8AM at the Lincoln Memorial.

Now that they have uploaded, it is clear I need to scrub out the dupes and the out-of-focus snaps.

Frank Mastrella, Rochester, NY Honor Flight Mission 33

 

Trabants

According to Wikipedia:

The Trabant /trəˈbɑːnt/ is a car that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc.

Thy annual Trebant Rally began at the Spy Museum in DC today. It was the principal reason for today's outing, the earlier National Building Museum post reflects a side trip (all of four blocks).  Most with the 5D Mk III.

Factory Authorized Service

 Spies perhaps?

A Mini Woodie interloper

Cooler atop the Mini

Ris...

at the Ritz. Was in DC, wound up at the bar at Ris at the Ritz. The kitchen shots feature Ris herself, from behind, of course. All with the Fuji X100.

The bar, oof on purpose for a change.

The kitchen in color

The kitchen in B&W

Why drive to Cherry Hill

when M Street NW is so convenient.  Especially if you have to gas up here with a $1.20 per gallon premium. Not only not Cherry Hill but also not at 3:00AM either.  Corner of M and 22nd Streets NW at about 5:15PM. X100, f/2.0 ISO 640. Shutter speeds between 1/40 and 1/60.

A little different appraoach up M toward Georgetown.

DCFD Truck #2

It can always get worse

So Jack called this afternnon to offer kudos on the most recent patent (7,979,303) and we got talking about the B&Ws from the Old Idaho Penn.  He liked the snaps but not the venue.  I told him I had worse, I almost never take photos of or in a cemetary.  I can only think of four times, Arlington National, the Mumma cemetary at Antietam, Oak Hill in Georgetown (from the nearby park) and Congressional Cemetary at Pennsylvania Avenue at the Anacostia in the District.  The Congressional shots were taken on my birthday almost 5 years ago and never processed.  I guess I didn't much like the results.  Mostly maybe becuase I went to get some snaps of the centopaths but I only took 29 snaps total and the centopath snaps were decidely not very compelling.  The colors were worse and I was using the 45 TS-E for one of the first times and that didn't work so well either.  But...

in the spirt of being a contrarian, they got processed today to show it can always get worse — or at least the venue can. Kinda like the piece in today's NY Times Dealbook about the sentencing proceedings in the Raj Rajaratnam insider trading case.  Anyway, four shots from the Congressional Cemetary ca fall 2006, I understand the centopaths have been restored since.  All with a fairly heavy dose of the Color Efex 3 Midnight filter.

Lastly, some centopaths — designed by Benjamin Latrobe

Paging Mr. Brown

Mr Dan Brown. Mr. Dan Brown please. There is enough symbolism in this shot to be the cover shot on your next book. Snapped this AM at the National Building Museum, lots more to come I suspect. Right to a gallery when they are ready.

Fuji X100, three shot bracket off of 1/30, f/6.4, auto ISO (640, 1250, 2500) and of course at 35mm. Mild HDR with HDR Efex Pro (Odell's Natural Exterior 3).

Click here or on the snap below to see the rest in the gallery.

Another

stunning iPhone snap by SO — like the Tabard and the Chucks in a deluge. On Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown this AM.  This one scores with the Jack Rogers sandals to boot. Fan girls of the world unite!

Footgear diversification

So... the SO, perhaps in honor of National Flip-Flop Day, that being neatly attached behind Bloom's Day, bestowed upon me last night, somewhat belatedly in relation to their actual date of acquisition, a pair of flip-flops, from Vineyard Vines no less, or maybe that should be of course. For a sexagenarian, recieving his first pair ever, this brings back pre-denarian memories of the first pair of ice skates and an equal measure, exacerbated and exponentiated by decades of risk management, of fear of an ER visit in the offing.  A Bloom's Day, Duke Street stop in at Davy Byrnes and a couple of pints would certainly increase the odds.

Well, the web-world does not need to witness the photo taken to memorialize this event, so instead, I offer, an analogous snap, featuring other footgear diversification, taken on Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the Newseum, last weekend.  Done up in SilverEfex Pro's Film Noir preset. Now that make me feel artsy — as if flip-flops weren't enuf of a paradigm shift.  X100, after being Film Noired — the settings don't much matter.

The NGA

The National Mall fallback, the NGA — take snaps of people who think the snaps are of the art.  All with the X100, ISO 3200, mostly f/2.0 and f/2.8.  Some days only the device clicks.  Hah!