Ok I'm a slacker on Stray Frames and, frankly, a slacker on personal photos for these two months. I even went all the way over to Europe and barely cracked the camera. What can I say? I've got a husband to take the cellphone snapshots and also a husband I'd have to drag around to wait patiently on me to get the street stuff I want (I generally leave the postcard-photos to the masters and those that have the luxury of time).
Two other photo-related things I did in June: a nekkid photoshoot for me (ostensibly for George but who are we kidding) and a "couple shoot" with the both of us. Sarah Williams from
This Rad Love did both and I couldn't love them more.
(There's literally no other photo from this shoot that doesn't have some of my ladybits showing. Rawr.)
George and I brainstormed for weeks about things that we enjoying doing together that could be "documented." At the end of the day, most of it was eating-related. We literally had lunch at Founding Farmers and Sarah took pictures. She hung out with us for an ungodly amount of time, bless her heart.
That's all I've got from June, man. David, Carrie, George and I rolled over to West Virginia to hang with good friends in their sprawling, mansion-like home. Amazing food and good times were had by all. Other than that, lots of weddings and things.
I wish I could say I nipped that June no-personal-photos thing in the bud but it's not true. I have only a handful to show.
I found myself in Louisville in July with a couple days to kill. I'd never seen the city before. It's got some fun spots but really it's quite sleepy for a major city. Not much going on downtown and such. I thought about this one for a while before I made my choice. Before I die... nothing? I feel pretty good about life. I don't particularly feel the need to check anything else off a list. But if there's one ambition I have, it's to taste more things.
Also in July, Aziz hosted a scavenger photo-hunt from the Leica Store. We were given a list of 12 or 14 things to photograph around the city. Some of these weren't actually part of the hunt - I just took them during the six (!) hours he gave us.
I did not win the scavenger hunt, but I did meet Mike who was carrying around this sombrero on his bike.
The July DC photowalk was held at Fort Reno.
I photoed
one last wedding in July, and that night scooted off to meet my husband in Vienna... where I immediately fell ill and spent a day in bed. I did my best to spend my last half-day doing stuff, so we toured the opera house. My phone took this panorama - yay technology!
It was just a couple days in Vienna, then we headed on to Prague. The city is really beautiful because it didn't get bombed much in the wars (unlike basically every other European capital). Here are a couple more panoramas from my phone, from the Clock Tower.
I liked Prague quite a bit, but it's nowhere near my contender for "best city," as many friends assured me it would be. It lacks a feel of authenticity in much of the city center - the same way Rome does. They both have an artificiality to them, as though everything is done for your (the tourist's) benefit. I much prefer a bustling place like NYC or Amsterdam that makes things easy for tourists, but also has its own thing going on such that tourists are not the primary thought.
All that said, Prague was a very atmospheric locale to spend five days. I particularly enjoyed the architecture, if not George's compositional skills.
And then! We went to a church decorated all over with bones!! This is the Sedlac Bone Church about 45 minutes from Prague. The priests used the bones of plague victims to remind parishioners about mortality and fleeting-ness of this world and also something about how we're all equal in the eyes of G-d. It was mad awesome.
We also toured Terezin, a very strange concentration camp that the Nazis used for propaganda. This was a more pleasant place than almost anywhere else in the Third Reich but nearly everyone that came to the camp was later sent on to their deaths.
A Cubist coffee shop back in Prague.
Tourists waiting for the famous Astronomical Clock to chime.
I thought this spider helped illustrate what an awesome view we had from our hotel room. I splurged in Prague because it was cheap ($100/night!) and because the rest of the trip our accommodations were covered by George's work.
And with that eight-legged dude, I leave you. We had one more destination on this year's European gallivanting, but that is a story for another day.
May was a bit of a rough month for me. I sprained my ankle halfway through and I've had to rest it since. Even though it was a minor sprain (as self-diagnosed by me and the internet), it's still swollen more than two weeks later. If you know anything about me, you know I walk a lot. It's my main form of entertainment and my default activity to get out of the house and do something. (It's a working from home thing, see. If I didn't get out and deliberately walk, I'd just sit inside my house all day at the computer.)
So far, thirty one is the year of my body breaking on down all over the place. I'm kind of hoping to get quickly to 32 so I can maybe avoid this pitfall year of sprains, strains and other maladies.
Early in the month, I headed north for a Baltimore Fun Day. PostSecret's Frank Warren was giving a presentation at the American Visionary Art Museum. I'd never seen him talk and it was free, so I rolled on up. I spent some time walking around the city but it was more of a pound-the-pavement day than a photo day.
This next presenter is my own lovely husband George. He gave a big talk at DC Nerd Nite last month and it seemed to be a hit. He's an accomplished dude.
Later on, a whole mess of WWII-era planes made a flyover on the Mall, so I gathered with the fine folks at 
Mid-month, 
I spent another couple days in Toronto banging around. I had my camera and all, but maybe I was sort of photo'ed out from the wedding.
Ankle sprain day. I needed to entertain myself, as George had been out of town for a good week and a half at this point. I took the metro in to see an art festival way on up in NW, totally inaccessible to metro (except for crazy walkers like me). I got out at Shaw, walked a huge loop and then came back through to Brookland. I rewarded myself with a glass of wine and a long sit at Brookland Pint, but when I went to stand up, my leg had fallen asleep and just collapsed under me. When I got to my feet, I realized I had a busted ankle. Womp womp. I spent the rest of my month sitting on the couch and complaining.
Rolling Thunder motorcycle riders gather in the Pentagon parking lot. I didn't expect to be photographing bikers, but it was a nice detour on my way into the city.
Creeptastic dolls in Shaw.
Finally, the fifth #DCPhotowalks photowalk took place at AwesomeCon. I was still hobbling around, so I didn't go hard at this one, but it was great fun seeing all the elaborate costumes.
Until next time!
I spent a fair amount of time in the city this past month, just wandering around and enjoying the warmer weather and rich variety of experience our town has to offer. Above, I was very impressed with the red red red tulips the Capitol Gardener (I assume there is such a person / committee) chose for the White House and other areas. They were so tall and big and RED.
Street is all about patience. I probably stood in front of these balloons for 15 minutes waiting for someone interesting to walk into my frame. After a while you get bored, and that's OK too.
A student work from 
In April I accompanied a friend to a 
This photo was taken on my daily walk - a loop through my neighborhood. It's fascinating to see the same things change over time. These trees are blooming now, then they'll have big green leaves and eventually those leaves will turn colors and fall off. Forcing myself to take the same loop daily (or pretty close to daily) makes me take notice of little things. It's nice.
Our April photowalk was in Georgetown and I didn't even have to host it (thanks Maria!) We met in Rosslyn and photowalked over to Foggy Bottom. It's a good circuit and I might just have to do a repeat. Georgetown has a lot to offer.
Last week, I took a little trip to a place I'd never been before: Congressional Cemetery. It's set in a fantastic spot and has lots of beautiful trees and nice shady spots to rest in. They also make it a subscription-only dog park, which I've never seen done with a cemetery before! Seems like a pretty good mixed-use of land.
And finally, I got my 
That's it for April! See you in a month for more riveting personal updates!