Adams Morgan Mural Segment

Taft Memorial Shadows

DC Magic Bus

Union Station Café Chairs

Old Riggs Bank Building

I meant to blog about the Segway Safari I went on with Washington Photo Safaris back in early October - what a blast! But I didn't get around to it then, and no time to do it tonight, so for now I'll just post this photo of the grand old brick-and-sandstone former Riggs Bank Building at 15th Street and New York Avenue, about a block from the White House. I took this one about 15 minutes into the Segway Safari (dismounted... you don't want to be Segwaying and shooting at the same time.)

Meanwhile, let me unabashedly give a plug for WFS and it's chief b'wana, Ed Luria. If you live in Northern Virginia, DC, or Maryland, love photography, and haven't gone on one of these safaris, check out their website and give it a try.

Man in Bistro

My brother Mark and I went to DC Sunday afternoon to have lunch with our cousins before their return to Israel. As we were being seated, I noticed this elegant gentleman deep in thought (or maybe just studying the menu) by the window.

I normally stay away from stealing moments like this, because I'm too slow and fumble-fingered to be a good candid photographer. But this gentleman was an interesting subject, and I really liked the lighting coming through the window, lighting half of the man as well as the bright red shirt behind him, while leaving the other half of him in shadow. So I grabbed my camera and channeled Henri Cartier-Bresson for a minute:

"What is best in photography is that you are catching an instant that will disappear. The photographer is like the voleur, the thief; he steals a moment, a fleeting moment and then he runs away with it in his camera. Being a photographer you have to be quick, quick, quick; you have to be like quicksilver, yes, like a tightrope dancer with death at the end.”

Well, I wasn't quick, quick, quick, but as this gentleman seemed to be concentrating on something else, I was quick enough.