Lights on Lights on Lights

Always focus on light. 

I don't mean that as a metaphor, but yes focusing on the positive is a probably good idea. I mean that when you're taking a picture, focus on an area getting a lot of light.

Except when you are taking pictures of lights, in which case focus on something else.

When Kristen met Kristin

Disclaimer: This post has a lot of photos. That's my fault. It's because I'm having a hard time feeling confident in representing the participants in this transgender fashion show my dear friend Kristen brought me along to. (She is not transgender. She is a reporter on our local news station, and she let me tag along when she covered the show. Not that you can't be both transgender and a news reporter.) 

Due to my own ties with the SOF (Special Operations) community, both personal and professional, the person I feel the most duty to here is someone also named Kristin. Kristin Beck is transgender and a former SEAL.

Point being - the tremendous courage all the participants in the show displayed makes me feel the stakes are higher than usual for me, because the stakes are deeply tied in with the subjects' sense of self. Their aesthetic journey - granted, just one part of their journey - has not been an easy one. However, it's one worthy of knowing, I think.

How We Got Our Flag

So we were at the DC Pride Parade.

Faces

Here's Beaux in San Francisco last summer - I look back on that trip with a big Beaux smile. 

 I think good photography is kind of like what my dad said about good writing - if it's only about one thing, (i.e. here's a photo of a thing), it's not really about anything. So I hope my photos of faces also get across a bit of the individual's personality - hopefully what I like about him or her - or the time I took the picture. No pressure. I know a lot of these photos are merely a photo of the thing in the photo, but I hope at least one or two show more than that.

Close-ups of Objects

I used a fixed lens, i.e. no zoom, and I highly recommend it. I sacrificed some technical abilities, because there are certain things I just can't really do the way I want or the way that would be the easiest, but in turn I've gained in confidence and creativity, because I have to find new ways to do things.  

Close-ups can be hard with my camera, so whenever some come out remotely well I'm really happy. Here are some of them.

Art Jamz

Art Jamz = painting + wine-ing. Perfect combo. Karen and I went in to do pictures (photographs) for her new website.

Flasking in Adams Morgan

The back story to this is it was the White House Correspondents' Dinner a few blocks from where we used to live. Weirdly, we weren't invited.

Springtime in DC

Spring has sprung in DC. 

New House, Old Friends

We are finally in the new house. 

These are two old friends who came over to help us break in the back yard.

Cinco De Mayo

Hello Cinco de Mayo, Goodbye Adams Morgan.

Picking up the beer in Georgetown

This guy helped us pick up the large beer donation from Pabst for War Stories and Free Beer. 

He. Was. A. Delight.

Dinner in NYC

A lot has happened since I took these photos last fall. Chris and a lot of the guys live in Florida now, changing the gene pool one day at a time. 

Brief Trip to Jacksonville

Sunrise in DC

Good morning!

Unsurprising.

It should come as no surprise that the GBs I work with are not as vocal about emotions as I am.  They do not gush about friendship, love, feelings, Beyonce and Jay-Z's relationship, etc.  They do tolerate me 

when I do all of those things, which I appreciate.

So here's Brian. A man of few words, who lives in the mountains with many mystical things. 

This is the birthday email-exchange between him and me last year. 

Snowburning with Lovely and Lou

Yes, there are a lot of spreadsheets and email campaigns and analytics. But there are also days like this.