DC Photowalk Pics

Here is a look at some of the pics I got form my photowalk yesterday in Washington DC.  IT was the Cherry Blossom Festival and as you can see, the blooms were out and beautiful.

 

1. Blossoms, 2. Bronze, 3. Blossoms & A Distant Memorial, 4. Blossoms, 5. Fallen Friends, 6. Pink Blossoms, 7. Wall of Stars, 8. Fly, 9. Tulips, 10. Crooked, 11. Honor, 12. Spirit of St. Louis, 13. Start Your Engines, 14. Heroes, 15. Shimmering Stars, 16. WWII Memorial, 17. Thanks You For Your Service, 18. Reflection, 19. Hat, 20. Blossom Sky, 21. Star Wall, 22. Focus, 23. Jefferson Memorial, 24. Propeller, 25. Silver & Orange, 26. Cherry Blossoms In Bloom, 27. Jefferson Memorial, 28. Jefferson Memorial

DC Flickr Photowalk

I took some time and headed downtown yesterday to check out the flickr DC Group and do a little photowalking. The group met at the RocketBar at Gallery Place. At around 4:00pm people started hitting the streets for a few shots.

Go check out here for some of my shots.

DC Photowalking Coming Soon To A Town Near You

Calling all you DC area photographers. The DC Metro Area Flickr group is having a Photowalking outing next Sunday, January 27th.

Here are the delicious details:

When: Sunday January 27th 2PM Start - 4PM Photo Walk for those interested.

Where: Rocket Bar in Chinatown
714 7th Street NW WDC 20001
202 628 7665

Come one, Come All. To the January 2008 Meetup/Photo Walk.

We’re gonna meet at Rocket Bar at 2 pm. Have some drinks, some banter, and I’m sure a ton of photos just inside of Rocket Bar. Then at 4PM those of us that want to head out into the wild blue yonder can head up to the streets of DC and out into the early evening light for a photo walk around that area. We can discuss the walk more once we’re at Rocket Bar, or on here if you’d like. And if it’s too cold out for you or you just wanna stay inside and drink and talk, that’s fine we can split up. This isn’t a guided photo walk. I will have no idea where I’m going and I’m sure we can break into groups, but lets discuss this on here or at the meetup.

I am going to really try to get out. I have been chomping at the bit to roam around downtown and get some pics. I got out yesterday to get some snow shots around Frederick, MD. The one above is my fave … Check here for the rest . I will not be there for the social, but most likely will show up for the walk @ 4pm. I would love to see some of you there. Let us know if you plan on coming.

Heh All You DC Area Photographers

I am an amateur photographer at heart. Its a great hobby. I have gotten to travel all over the world and had the pleasure of taking pictures the whole way. I am always looking for like minded people to get together for some good ol DC photowalking and exchanging pics and ideas.

I saw a post the other day on Thomas Hawk’s web site and he mentioned a site called photowalking.org. Its a pretty cool site where photowalking tours are set up all over the world. We then get to see the results. They have a cool forum with sections for the various parts of the country and the world for people to get together.

Then I came across a DC Flickr photo group. Its got a great following and set up meetups and photowalking as well. I was excited to find it. I have started a DC Amateur Photographer’s Group on WhyGoSolo, so if you are on their Alpha site, head over and join up. I am going to try to get a good photowalking day set up here soon. We can cover different sections of town. If anyone has any good ideas on places to hit, let us know.

SmugMug: A Company That “Gets It”

I will admit I have always used flickr for my online photo experience. I pay for the Pro Account and have been enjoying it. They add new features now and then and the community is huge. SmugMug is a company I had heard about and thought was pretty cool (I subscribe to the CEO Don MacAskill’s blog and really enjoy it) but had never really given it a chance to see what it was all about.

Then this past weekend, the LA Times a great article titled “A Focused Family Business“. It was all about the MacAskills and the business over at SmugMug they are running. It is a great read and I invite all of you to head over and check it out. I was totally impressed by how they have stayed innovative and at the same time kept the company small, agile, and even better, family friendly. They really seem to “get it”, not take things too seriously and continue to just have fun. They call their engineers “sorcerers” and the customer support staff “support heroes” and they once traded a lifetime SmugMug membership to a couple in Scottland for a sheep ….

In more ways than one, SmugMug has defied conventional business wisdom from inception. Undaunted by the prospect of starting a company amid the ruins of the Internet crash and rising competition from major players including Hewlett-Packard Co. and Eastman Kodak Co., the MacAskills set out to build a site they would want to use. That meant sending no spam, running no ads next to people’s photos, offering unlimited storage and taking great care to protect photos from unwanted viewers.

What I love to see and hear and what makes me the most jealous is the culture they are cultivating. Each employee gets 401k matching, stock options, fully paid medical coverage, and they even get a $500 allowance to decorate their cubicles. How cool is that? There is no time clock, they set their own schedules.

After I read the article I went over to give SumgMug a good look. I was totally impressed. They offer three levels of service, all cost, but for what you get it is well worth the price. If it is Flickr you are looking for, don;t look here. But if you are looking for a no nonsense photo site with a great interface and awesome tools, then SmugMug is for you. They have a great Pro plan for people to be able to leverage the SmugMug framework to make great customizable web sites to display and sell their artwork.

What I loved was while the site is clean and streamline, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. When I logged in today, there was a note on my homepage saying that Don, the CEO was daring people to email him their phone number and he would call them to get their take on the site and what could be better. That is awesome. One of the funniest things was when I signed up. They asked if I wanted to import my photos from another site. They have a FF plugin called Smugglr, and it is all in pirate talk about stealing your booty of photos from the other site. I installed it and within 15 minutes all my Sets, photos, even tags were all imported into SmugMug. The have a fantastic forums and do a lot for their customers. It is great to see and I am glad to have found them. I hope to upgrade my service and get the full amount I can out of the site and have fun and learn while I am at it.

Make sure to stop by and give them a try, they have a 14 day free trial to look around to see if you like what you see. Believe me, you will.

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