52Frames Rule of Thirds

Well, it’s another week and another photo challenge. I’ve been participating in the 52Frames photo contest since October 2020. It’s a great excuse to head outside in search of a particular topic. Many of the subjects are things I really never heard of before, but have practiced inadvertently as a very amateur photographer with an iPhone as my tool. Last week’s subject was “rule of thirds.” Not knowing what I was looking for in particular, we drove to the Lincoln memorial to see what might come up. It was Presidents’ Day and a lot of people were out and about. But there was also an exhibit between the memorial and the reflecting pool of three of the presidents pooches - Fido Lincoln, Pushinka Kennedy, and Bo Obama. Fido Lincoln served as the entry. Though not a particularly great technical image, it was the idea of it. We walked about and found a few other things - like the DC WWI monument, geese flying by the Washington monument, and reflections in the pool. We drove in again later in the week and the dogs vanished. They were only there for one day. It seemed kind of odd that they would be there anyway given the “hallowed place.” This time we walked over to the Einstein memorial. There was also a mother with her child and some Capitol police on bikes. We used to spend all of our time near the Capitol when we lived on Capitol Hill. Now, we seem to be parking on the other end of the mall to explore even more of that end of town. There is always something to see - even bronze statues of the president’s pooches. 

Holtkotter Broken Lamp

It was a really lovely lamp. We found it six years ago at Alexandria Lighting. It looked like a floating cloud and had an interesting dimmer and turn off function. It was sleek and sat on the entryway table in our Capitol Hill condo. When we moved to northern Virginia three years ago, the Holtkotter lamp really didn’t have a place in the new space. So it ended up in the dining room. One of the first things I did was burn my fingers on the tiny halogen light bulb that needed to be changed the first day we moved in. From then on I never cared for that lamp. So this week the bulb went out. I found our halogen bulb replacement. When we removed the cloud glass part of the lamp - with some difficulty - the next part was to take out the lightbulb. It wasn’t easy - and another reminder of how impractical this light actually is. We finally twisted the bulb out after carefully re reading the instructions. We got the replacement bulb in quick enough, but we couldn’t lower the glass cloud over the stem. There was a small metal piece sticking out. So I got our smallest Allen wrench out and tried to screw it in so the surface was flat. Too much twisting did the trick until the ceramic piece holding the bulb shattered. So now the lamp is useless unless we can find a place to repair it. I’ve contacted two places - including the place we bought it - and no one has yet responded. In the end we decided we really don’t need a lamp in the dining room, so we won’t buy another one. I don’t think this lamp is made anymore - probably because it is so impractical. But if we can get this one repaired we will. My husband really liked this lamp. And for that reason alone it’s worth getting it fixed. 

 

Royal Street in Old Town Alexandria

Our morning walk took us to Old Town Alexandria. After exploring the old Wilkes Street train tunnel turned in to pedestrian walkthrough, we ended up on South Royal Street. We have walked on Royal Street many, many times before, but walking back in to town from this direction was somehow more interesting - or maybe I just noticed the surroundings more. It was a beautiful sunny day. What always strikes me is that the front doors and entryways are just a step off the main sidewalks. Everyone inside the house sees passersby up close, and also the other way around. I can’t help but think the rain water must somehow get in under the doors. That’s not too far fetched because Alexandria floods all of the time. Other striking features include all of the brick work, the huge chimneys, the cobblestone walkways, and the tiny structures that are less than twenty feet across. How do you possibly get furniture in and up the stairs? Some of the basements are accessed by locked entryways on the sidewalks. I sure wouldn’t want to have to go down there for any reason. Then there are the boot scrapers and the ornaments that used to hold the horse reins. All I all it’s a lovely place to explore - and we do it quite frequently. 

My Grandfather

I put together - a long time ago - an album dedicated to my parents for their fiftieth wedding anniversary. It took a very long time to put together back in the day when I was using a desktop computer and the software for photos and digitalart was in its infancy. The primary program I used was Picture It. After many iterations and hours it all finally came together. The first part was highlighting where my mom and dad came from. I didn’t know my dad’s parents at all. They died long before I was born. I knew my mom’s parents only for a short time. What I did know was that three of my grandparents were Polish. And they all came to the US in the early 1900’s through Ellis Island. I tried to locate information about them when the website first came out. I remember asking my parents questions about what they remembered and how the names might have been spelled. We found most information on my Polish side. My dad’s father was born in Ukraine. His last name was actually Ivanciu but it was changed to Ivancin when he too passed through Ellis Island. He was a musician of sorts and played the horn. It’s one of the only images we have of him and it used to hang in my aunt’s tiny apartment. He died tragically falling off a ladder before my dad was eighteen years old - when he joined the Coast Guard. All I know is that my dad’s family was very poor and he rarely talked about it. We have a photo of my dad standing in front of a Christmas tree with candles, wearing a buster brown haircut, with a single toy in his hand. So the events of the day have me thinking a lot about my grandfather from the Ukraine. I have a connection to it through him. 

Frederick Douglass Bridge

We knew the Frederick Douglass Bridge in SE DC was christened for opening last year. It sits near the nationals stadium on South Capitol Street and crosses the river to Anacostia. There is supposed to be a park on the other side along with pedestrian and bicycle lanes to walk or bike over to it. That’s what we wanted to do last week. The reason was because it met the “unexplored” challenge for the 52Frames photo contest. We parked in our old Capitol Hill neighborhood and walked down to the area, passing by all the familiar places. Unfortunately when we reached our destination there was major road construction and we couldn’t get near the site. But I still wanted to get some photos of the bridge so we walked along the SE waterfront instead. The old bridge has been removed so at least what was on front of us was only the new structure. Hopefully we will return after all the construction is complete and actually walk across it, stopping by the specific areas allocated to view the river and the surroundings. Things have certainly changed since we moved to DC sixteen years ago!

Presidential Dogs at the Lincoln Memorial

We never expected to see sculptures of president’s pooches at the Lincoln Memorial. But we did. We took a ride in to DC for the weekly photo challenge. Because it was Presidents’ Day it was unusually busy for a weekday. But being a holiday there were a lot of visitors, children and school groups milling about. It was also a simply beautiful sunny day. Afterwards I found out later that Jinx - a dog food company - rolled out the one day exhibit at the Lincoln Memorial as a reminder of “how much we depend our pets for emotional support.” So we checked out Fido Lincoln, Bo Obama, and Pushinka Kennedy. I wondered how they decided which dogs to highlight. The sculptures were getting a lot of attention. So today when we went back in to town for a morning walk we stopped by the same spot and the dogs had disappeared. It was indeed a one day exhibit. I thought there was something tacky about having these “sculptures” in front of such an historical memorial. It was all in good fun and I’m glad we had the opportunity to see them. 

HP Ink Delivered

When I got the HP printer more than five years ago I signed up for the smart ink program. I used to do a lot of printing of my digital art to hang in the wagtime shop. The printer is connected to HP on line and ink is automatically sent when it detects when the level is low. Then you recycle the cartridges in an envelope they provide. It’s been over three years since a cartridge has been replaced and the print quality has deteriorated. So I contacted HP a to let them know. We had a chat and a few QA actions were taken. The ink status showed there was plenty left. Ultimately they determined to send me two new ink cartridges. They both arrived and have been installed. The print quality is excellent. What I realized is that my printer is no longer available and I am surprised they sent the ink. I pay $1.99 for 15 pages a month and that is rarely achieved. I liked the idea of not having to go out and buy ink cartridges when the supply would run low. I’m surprised the ink supply lasted as long as it did because we rarely print anything anymore, but I’m glad we still can when we need to. 

52Frames Unexplored Weekly Photo Challenge

This week's photo challenge was “unexplored.” I needed to find a place where we have never been before and hope to find a decent image. The new Frederick Douglass bridge located next to the Nationals Stadium in SE Waterfront in DC opened last year. It is supposed to have walking and bike lanes to get you to the other side in to Anacostia where there is a park. When we got there however, the area was still under road construction that made it impossible to even get near the bridge. At least the old bridge had been removed so the new structure was in clear view. So we walked along the waterfront and tried to get a few options from afar. The images turned out okay, but I was hoping to get something from the middle of the bridge as we were crossing over. So we took another trip last week to Old Town Alexandria to visit the Wilkes Street Tunnel. It served as a train tunnel during the Civil War and has since been converted to a pedestrian path. What was interesting about this option was that a stranger did appear in the tunnel while we were there and that made for a more interesting atmosphere - especially since this week’s extra credit was to include a stranger in the photo. Even though there were technically better pictures I decided to submit the tunnel with the stranger - just because it looked to tell a story. That always seems to make the photos more memorable - but probably not enough to get noticed. After all, there are over 3000 participants in this photo challenge every week. I was lucky enough to get a BEST 52 one week last year. I don’t think that will happen again - especially since my camera is an iPhone 8 Plus!