Evening Kick-Off

Late last month I passed the newly remodeled Woodrow Wilson High School in Tenley Town during an evening walk. A football game was about to start. Bien sur, c'était un vendredi soir, the time of the week when High School football is played. At least that is how I remember it being from my days au lycée. I could care less about football but I found the manner in which the sun was hitting the clouds to be beau so I snapped this photo before going on my merry way.

l'Arrivée d'Autonme

Voila another post dedicated to the Washington National Cathedral. In my post, "Cathedral Clouds", I had photographed the cathedral from its north side. On its south side, there is a sports field that belongs to a private school. I have been wanting to capture the afternoon sun shinning on the field and the National Cathedral so I decided to head over to the cathedral on a sunny Sunday October afternoon. As luck had it, the leaves on the trees had already begin to change color. I wouldn't have been able to perhaps capture such colors from the last time I was at there in September. In addition, since the last time I was at the cathedral, in this photo you can see the further development in the restoration efforts of the rear tower that had suffered damage during the earthquake in August. There is now a platform surrounding the upper portion of the tower.

Using my 50mm to capture this shot, I had to put the lens in between one of the gaps of the chain link fence separating the field from where I was standing. There was a young boy and girl playing with a football in the field. The boy was situated on the other side of the net just outside the frame. The girl was running towards the football which is on the grass just outside of the frame. I took a couple of shots with both the boy and the girl playing with the football. I thought that this shot with the girl by herself was the most interesting to post though.

Une laverie parisienne

During my three years living in Paris, I used to take nightly walks all the time. Mostly on le rive gauche in residential areas of the 13th, 14th, 15th arrondissements. I used to cross le pont de Mirabeau into the 16th too. I guess I liked the tranquillité that these arrondissements had at night time. I must have walked past many laveries on these walks. Even if they were closed, their lights always seemed to remain on as if they were still open. It was on one of these walks two years ago this month that I took the photo of this laverie on rue de l'amiral roussin in the 15th. I lived on rue de l'amiral roussin and used to walk past this laverie every time on my way to the metro (Emile Zola). I never went there for my laundry (I had a machine at my place) but I will never forget passing the laverie on my nightly walks and seeing it empty on the inside with its lights on. In the darkness of the night, it was one of the very few buildings on the block so brightly lit on the inside.

Cathedral Clouds

A few weeks ago, I took a late afternoon walk near the Washington National Cathedral. It was one of those days where the sun would constantly disappear behind and reappear from the clouds. I have already photographed the Washington National Cathedral on various occasions in the past. This time around though I wanted to capture the formation of the clouds in the sky above the Washington National Cathedral. Such formations come and go and were worth capturing. Here are some of the photos I took that evening.

 

While I was there, I discovered a spiderweb hanging from two bushes that were several feet away from each other. If fact, the distance between the bushes was large enough that you could easily walk into the spiderweb if you were unaware of its existence. The spider was at the center of the web surrounded by tiny insects that must have flown into the web.

This was my first time photographing the National Cathedral since the earthquake that hit the Washington, DC last August. The Cathedral had suffered some damage during the earthquake, notably on three of the spires in its rear tower. Work to repair the spires is currently underway as you can see from the beams situated on opposite sides of each spire. The reparation of the damages may last a decade according the articles that I have read.

 

Nuit Blanche DC - Paintings and Abandoned Buildings

The Nuit Blanche in DC had a few interesting painting installations where you could actually contribute in making art. At one installation which appeared to be at a studio on 9th street, there was a room with people painting tableaux. I wasn't sure if just anybody was allowed to participate but in any case the room was packed. Further down 9th street there were a couple of old houses that appeared to be opened up specially for the Nuit Blanche. The houses looked as if they had been empty for a while because they were quite bare on the inside. One house allowed participants to paint on its walls inside. The other house contained a few wall murals and other paintings.

 

Nuit Blanche DC - The Wonder Bread Factory

When I used to live in Paris, I went to a few of the Nuit Blanche's that are organized around this time each year. I enjoyed going to them and seeing the different art exhibits and installations that were displayed during the event. Events such as the Nuit Blanche and the Fete de la Musique are aspects that I enjoyed about my life in Paris.

The Nuit Blanche concept has been imported across the Atlantic to Washington, DC. The city held its first ever Nuit Blanche during the weekend of September 24-25 with 20 different art installations around the Shaw and Chinatown neighborhoods.  The first installation that I went to was at an old Wonder Bread Factory near Howard University.  The building dates back to the early 20th century. The factory was closed in the 1980s and the building has been empty since.  The building is supposed to be redeveloped into apartments or commercial space at some point. The building hosted several different events including art exhibitions and concerts. One section of the building was lit up by a few bright lights. These lights exposed the age and made for interesting shadows to photograph.  I had to max out the ISO on my D50 to 1600 as the light inside was dim. These photos were taken with my wide angle zoom, my 35mm and 50mm lenses most at max aperture. 

 

Euro Fever?

I was taking a walk in Tenleytown the other day and came across Saint Ann Roman Catholic Church. The cloud in the photo for me has a resemblance to Europe. Perhaps, I just have a little Euro fever from having spent a lot of time over there during the past decade.