Note: This will be the last round of divided photos between Flickr and Coppermine–after this blog post, everything will be uploaded exclusively to Flickr…

DC Tech Events…

• nclud’s Open House Party in October
• Startup Weekend
• The New New Internet Conference
• nclud’s Halloween Gathering at Old Dominion (and the next 4 photos)

Halloween Parties at Jack’s, Katie’s, and Old Dominion

Thanksgiving in Boston

Boston and Marblehead in September

The Last Jazz in the Sculpture Garden (and the next dozen or so photos)

BarCamp:

Maria & Keith’s wedding activities:

Recent DC Dinners:

I’ve been entertaining a lot this year, and borrowing friends’ cameras just wasn’t cutting it. I vacillated between an SLR and a tiny body, and decided on the latter (no comment). It fit with my minimalist tendencies, but more importantly it removed a physical barrier from keeping it on me nearly all the time. And, thanks to the amazing advances in technology–you can really take some awesome pictures with even the most tiny devices.

I opted for the Canon SD800 IS after reading this Wired review and some other research. I love its wide lens, crystal-clear pictures, and high quality videos. But enough about that…

I don’t know that my eyes are any more open, but I am happier knowing that I’ve captured some good times. Click on for some new pictures:

Scroll through all my recent pics (it’s three screens’ worth)

New “friend” pictures:

Pictures from a recent Screen on the Green picnic:

Julie & Chris’ Wedding Pictures:

And from the 5th Anniversary Company Sushi Party:

It feels good to be shooting photos again. So far most of these pictures have been of people. But I’ve only had the camera for a week. In the next couple hopefully I’ll start looking around at the rest of the world, too.

(Oh, and if you’d like to see some of the videos, you can see a couple of them at my youtube page.)

As for the characters in the video, they’re Emily and Mike. Emily is one of my favorite people (we used to stay out late dancing every Wednesday…those were the days). Mike is her boyfriend and also one of the most creative dancers I know. This film was taken at Glen Echo on Friday the 13th. There’s nothing particularly special about the video (Mike & Emily are even better when they’re performing) but I just wanted to try this out and capture a fun dance.

Emily & Mike at Swingin the Blues on July 13, 2007 at Glen Echo Park. Just a random dance that I figured I'd capture 

It turns out that I’m going to have to update WordPress to fully support YouTube embeds, and hopefully to solve the issue of the ugly white border on the video…

Two years ago all the Kim pictures came down from the room…   After a second date with RD last year, when she found out about this website, I distinctly recall moving “Kim” from a top-level-folder to the category “Friend.” RD even pointed out that she was looking at the site while it was happening… I also remember around the same time that her site took the word “boyfriend” out of the Jared folder description… But when I moved to my new place and had room for photos I did go ahead and put up a Kim photo. It was proportionate to the current role she played.

I bring up all this pathetic (in)significance because I have hundreds of Kim photos…but I can’t decide what their role ought to be in the “final 1000.” This isn’t meant to be a personal harangue or a trip down memory lane. The number of photos probably is proportionate to her significance, but (a) it’s of a time now past and (b) I question whether a public website ought to take a stance on one’s present much like the photos displayed around the house.

I don’t really know the right answer to this quandary, but I think when I finish sorting (probably still have 20 or so hours to go) I’ll probably decide against keeping all those photos in the public eye. I’m a different person. Those photos are from a different time. And even if she was photogenic and I did take a lot of pictures, it’s not who I am now and there’s no reason to showcase it.

I guess the one lesson learned from all this is that when you make an archive of your life it really can capture it, for better or worse. Moving on…

I want to sleep.

Goodnight.

I mention this because yesterday I did some playing around with my camera, and it was fun :). I need to read some more about photography, but it’s still great to play around. And I do have a goal: I want to capture people.

What do I mean? I’m talking about shots that are very telling of that person. It’s like when you hear about a wild friend going sky-diving or a sweet friend working at a nonprofit organization… you just think, “That is sooo (insert name here)!” In the same way, every once in a while a photo really says a lot about its subject.

What makes it even cooler is that it speaks from the photographer’s perspective. While a bad photo might say little or nothing about the subject, a capturing photo offers insight as to what that person is like…through the photographer’s eyes.

I’ve never been artistic and nothing good has ever come from my taking a paintbrush to canvas, but my camera’s offered me an alternative approach to visual expression. Sure, I take take a lot of shots and carry my camera often, but anyone could do that. A digital camera is a nice aide for this, but it’s not necessary. Even more, anyone can take good pictures. It’s just about being ready with your camera and being a little trigger happy (and also patient). It’s very worthwhile.

That’s all. But it did want to provide captions… The first three photos on this page were taken yesterday. Felix took the first one (we posed for a good twenty seconds, so we were laughing pretty hard when he took the shot). And I took the next two (of Rebecca and Amanda, respectively). The others are of Laura and Dave. I wanted to add more, but there’s no more to say, except take pictures!

It seems like there are times in our lives when life is good, or better yet, when we’re really in the spotlight and we come through. But is that the goal? Is it to put ourselves in a position of attention where we can shine? Or should we aim for success in our personal lives? What’s the ideal? I don’t think the goal is for me to look good in your eyes.

I’m sure that there is no one answer. Sometimes we need to feel like our job serves a greater purpose. Other times we just want to afford going out and having fun. Some days it’s great to go out of your way for someone, to be a good person. Then there are weeks when we’re in the passenger seat, living vicariously or coming along for the ride.

But I think there’s a part of everybody that wants to be a star. “I want to be the president. I want to be a senator. I want to end hunger. I want to be Bill Gates.” When you’re a little kid you hear and say all those lines. Though as you get older it seems like goals become smaller, but still as important. Some more realistic and possibly just-as-difficult goals that I hear more: “I want to be a doctor. I want to be a CPA. I want to spoil my kids. I want to look back knowing that I lived every day to the fullest.”

The goals change, with some more than others, and I think there’s a reason for it. When we’re in grade school, and even college, we have all these responsibilities with clear cut goals. We have standardized tests and definite expectations. We’re labeled and we’re watched. But in the real world it doesn’t have to be like that. Life doesn’t need to be about getting to the next step; it can be about being happy with what you have. Being debt-free and having close friends is no small accomplishment. Sometimes security is what we need.

No, that’s probably not me. I’m still a dreamer. But I’ve grown more and more realistic (though hardly practical) in the last few years. And I wonder when/why it is that people hit these stages? I spend enough time in the real world to know that it’s not that much better, but that there is more time in the day when you don’t have homework and responsibilities.

Then again, there are still plenty of responsibilities. Oh well, maybe I’m not getting anywhere. But life is good right now, for all the reasons above. Work is great. I’ve enjoyed talking to, and learning from, my friends. And I’m not really saying no to anything.

This’ll all change with the seasons, for better or for worse. But I’m still curious where I’d like to end up. Where do you want to go today? ;)

Memphis does suck sometimes. So it was about time for a road trip. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few good ballroom dancers in Memphis, but the swing scene in Nashville is a lot bigger and a lot younger. So Ahuva and I decided to seize the moment and get the hell out.

We ran into some bizarre things – like cars with go-cart wheels and posted 24mph speeding limits. But it was okay, because Opryland Hotel was absolutely beautiful. If I ever have a reason, I’d love to stay there, live there. Even with the tourists it’s an absolutely wonderful place.

It’s this gigantic (free) indoor garden, complete with boat tours, fish, fountains, exotic plants, restaurants, sunlight, air conditioning, and lots of walkways. I needed some mother nature, and this sure beat 100 degree weather…

After checking out Opryland, Ahuva and I went to Cracker Barrel, as I have yet to eat there. We probably should have tried out “Cock of the Walk,” which sounded interesting, but I’d never been to a Cracker Barrel and we were a little pressed for time…

And there certainly was a long night ahead of us. We went dancing at the Knowles Center, which had a huge turnout, and then headed off to a small bar called Atlantis. The dancing was mostly east-coast, but there were lots of cuties and a few great follows – like Rosa, who is the sweetest girl :).

After two fun dances a few of us left to go to Cafe Cocomo. Unfortunately it wasn’t as smooth a trip as we’d like, as Holmes and Aisha’s car was broken into. But the two of them handled it very well (I was impressed) and we all continued on our way to the Cafe.

It was a good time there, and there was even room for some modeling in the parking lot while they were vacuuming out the smashed glass from the car. Check out Aisha in her home-made swingwear! (Bobby’s on the left)

At around 5am Ahuva and I crashed at Rosa’s and went right to sleep. Then we chatted in the morning and got back to Memphis around 6pm. It was a great trip. And the people we ran into were really wonderful. Dancers really kick ass :).

I could go on and on, but I should back to work. How was your weekend?