Challenge: What does the "real DC" look like?

So I'm at work, searching through stock photos to find an interesting and fun image of DC that doesn't show a monument or the Capitol. I'm 100 images into my search and every single image has a national monument in it. No wonder people think DC is boring!

I know for a fact that there are a ton of stock shooters in DC, and I challenge them to diversify their portfolio and show real images of DC: U St, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, 9:30 Club, people running on Rock Creek Parkway, people running on the waterfront past the Kennedy Center, runners in general... Seriously, it's all people do here. George Clooney's character from Burn After Reading nailed it on the head when he repeatedly states "It's still early; I can fit in a run."

Submit your photos to tara.kocourek@gmail.com (keep em at 72dpi thanks!) so we can start a visual collection of true DC life. I'll post them all - credited to you of course - at the beginning of March.

"Ballet, not Bombs"

A well written and compelling argument as to why Congress should fund "ballet, not bombs". As I wrote a few weeks back, Senate is now mulling over whether or not to move forward with the House-approved $50 billion in additional funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Christopher Knight, the writer of this article, cites "About 100,000 nonprofit arts groups operate in the 50 states. Collectively they employ almost 6 million people."

That's a lot of people and lot of jobs. Again, I urge you to contact your Senator and compel them to support this very important bill.

The Watchmen a la Avedon

This is cool - Clay Enos shot these The Watchmen character portraits a la Avedon. Here's a snapshot of Sally Jupiter, one of the two female characters from the comic. Can't wait to see the portrait of the Nite Owl. Actually, Bernard the news vendor is my favorite.

I guess I have to wait for the book to come out next week.

Image: Clay Enos

AP Sues Fairey for Obama Poster Source

As a follow up to last month's post on Shepherd Fairey's Obama poster photo source, the Today Show announced this morning that AP is now suing Fairey for copyright infringement and demanding compensation and credit.

This was a long time coming, and touches on the huge issue of creative commons and access to information now that anybody can view and share (or rip) images from websites and search engines - Google Images was Fairey's source.

Image from MSNBC website: Manny Garcia/AP