SnarkInfested

When Madame Tussauds’ Washington D.C. opened in October of 2007,  part of the opening night gala bash was the unveiling of a wax statue  voted for inclusion into the museum by the residents of DC.  They voted for former Mayor-For-Life Marion Barry who was as happy as a kid in a candy store with his doppelganger.  [This was my submission to JPG magazine's "Kiss" thematic challenge.]

09/29/09 Last Monday, I was hired by a new restaurant in DC called Black Finn (above) to take some interior photos of the place. I am fascinated by how successful bars and restaurants run and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of food photography so I thought I’d do a blog entry with some of my favorite pix on the topic.

Food shoot at Citronelle in DC for an ad which ran in Gourmet magazine.

Cafe Milano in Georgetown.

Crawdads and Abita beer at Frankie and Johnny’s in New Orleans.

Comedian Steven Colbert at K Street Lounge following the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.

Marcel’s in DC

Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D IL) speaks to the Society of Irish Women Dinner.

I took this image for a book (coming out next year) on cooking and making mixed drinks with Sherry.

Senator Tom Harkin (D Iowa), Irish tenor John McDermott and Former VT Gov. Dean sing the night away at J.J. Foley’s bar in South Boston on the night before the opening of the Democratic National Convention in 2004. [I like the blissful expression on the drowsing man at the bar behind them.]

Old Europe Restaurant to illustrate a story on who makes the best Brats in DC.

Chef Alex Ziebold of CityZen restaurant in DC’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Shorty’s BBQ in Miami Beach

The famous four sisters: Lieu Lai, Ly Lai, Loana Lai and Le Lai of 4 Sisters restaurant in the Eden shopping center in Falls Church, VA

“Fresa” Martini (Belvedere vodka, pureed strawberries and Moet champagne) at the rooftop bar of Tabaq on U Street in DC.

09/27/09 I had a very productive Open Studio shoot yesterday. I’ll post more images shortly but here is one of my favorites.

09/24/09 WUSA9 anchor Andrea Roane serves hors d’oeuvres on Celebrity Chef Night Wednesday at Teatro Goldoni to benefit the National Brain Tumor Society.

09/22/09 Kate Michael doing a promotion at the Z Burger at Tenley Circle in DC. Anyone mentioning her blog “K Street Kate” got a free burger and shake.

09/22/09 The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery  installed a portrait of Tommy Lasorda, Hall of Fame manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, today. Painted by artist Everett Raymond Kinstler, the life-sized portrait measures 60 by 50 inches and was commissioned to commemorate Lasorda’s legacy as part of the Dodgers’ organization. Sept. 22 is Lasorda’s 82nd birthday and the first night of a three-game series between the Dodgers and the Washington Nationals in Washington, D.C.

[HDR image - a composite of 10 photos - of a waterfall in the town of Woodstock, NY]

09/21/09 I attended a workshop on producing High Dynamic Range images at the Center for Photography at Woodstock over the weekend and I learned a lot. HDR is a digital technique that uses multiple RAW images (sometimes as many as 15 or 16 photos) of varying exposures and crunches them into a huge (32-bit) perfectly exposed image with detail in both shadows and highlights. It’s sometimes called “the Zone System on steroids.”  The camera needs to sit on a tripod due to the long exposures and the need for the photos to match each other so the most common application for HDR is landscape photography. Not always though.  My instructor, Dan Burkholder, produced an amazing book on the destruction caused by Katrina using HDR to document the wrecked interiors of buildings. He calls HDR “the most exciting development in photography since the zoom lens.”

Woodstock is just across the Hudson  river from my family’s farm.  I’ve been there a bunch of times over the years and it never changes.  It’s become a Mecca for the tie dye crowd despite the fact that the actual concert which took the town’s name happened many miles away. I can remember seeing hippies bathing in the stream above during my first visit to the town as a young boy.

09/17/09 Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds (D) squared off in a much anticipated debate Thursday morning sponsored by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and held at the Capital One Complex in Tysons Corner, Va. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos.

The moderator David Gregory, host of Meet the Press, gets a pre-debate briefing.

Bob McDonnell looks over the stage beforehand. When staff informs him that the candidates will come in front of the podiums to shake hands at the start of the debate, McDonnell walks over and rehearses shaking hands with no one.

Creigh Deeds tries out the podium before the start of the debate.

Robert Demeria [Manager, Gvt Affairs Fairfax Co. Chamber of Commerce - sponsor of the debate] explains the ground rules.

Gregory and McDonnell greet each other backstage. The organizers and the campaign staff were careful the candidates not see or talk to each other before the start of the debate. They were sequestered in rooms away from each other and each viewed the stage while the other was not there.

Creigh Deeds waits to be introduced backstage.

The debate begins.