new site!

in an effort to better display my photos, i've moved my blog over to wordpress. so i'm still updating daily, but go to lippics.wordpress.com. you'll also be able to access all of my old posts through the "archive" button on the top right of the page.

see you at wordpress!

good food, good friends

today i had lunch with two good friends at founding farmers in dc, and it was delicious. both the company and the food was excellent! it was a great way to make up for the crappy day outside. since i had to go back to work after lunch, i did not partake in any of the multiple whiskeys and scotches that were so precariously placed next to my seat. but they sure looked yummy...

nice sky

every year it feels as though spring in dc lasts about a week. it's freezing, and then you get a few days of beautiful skies, warm weather and sun, and then WHAM! summer. a bajillion degrees and humid as all get out. so days like today i try to at least walk somewhere for lunch to get myself out of the building. the weather was perfect today -- felt just like the sky in this picture looks.

best of a bad bunch

i'm not particularly happy or interested by any of the pictures i took today. so as they say, this is the best of a bad bunch. boo. i could have probably made this more interesting with some editing, but i just don't think this shot is worth it.

hipstamatic

remember a couple days ago i told you all about a certain "someone" (aka my cousin, bria) who started posting on facebook these pictures under an album called, "my hipstamatic prints"? well... to recap, i found out that hipstamatic is an iphone app that turns your plain old 3mp camera into an imitation diana/holga camera. the app is only 99 cents, but they suck you in by allowing you to buy additional "lenses" and "film" at 99 cents each. bastards. at any rate, i used hipstamatic to take this picture today while on a walk with daryn and reg. it certainly gives these budding ferns a bit of an ethereal feel. for bria, this was taken with the lucifer vi lens, and blackeys B&W (flash off). Fun stuff.

japanese maple?

what a gorgeous day today. daryn and i ended up walking reg a total of 6 miles today split between 2 walks. the only pictures i took today were of this beautiful japanese maple (i think?) in somebody's front yard. eek. i hope they didn't think i was spying on them. i was only spying on their tree. but if i'm going to keep taking pictures of plants and trees, i had best start learning what they are.

commitment

y'all. i'm not gonna lie. i am exhausted. this week hit me like a ton of bricks. and now that my body has realized it's the weekend, it has only encouraged me to go to bed. so today's picture was an afterthought, frankly. while lazily munching on a veggie burger, i took pictures of these pine cones we have on our table for decorative purposes. there is no significance to this picture other than the fact that i'm proud of myself for taking pictures today and posting one. despite the exhaustion, my commitment to the blog remains.

routine as new

when i started this blog, i had this idea that it would take me to places all around the dc area i'd never been before to look for new subjects to photograph. however... reality set in pretty quickly when my work and school schedules dictated that i spent my life mainly in two areas: 1) my neighborhood in falls church, va; and 2) the GW campus, specifically the area that's bordered by 24th an 20th on the west and east, and h st and k st on the south and north. so i've been forced to turn what is routine to me into something more interesting that i actually care enough about to photograph. i took this picture just before i went into class to take my last exam for the semester. i went off to go clear my head since i'd been studying today, and ended up discovering this cool little alley between a building that houses a department of the business school and a building that houses the theater department. i felt nice and relaxed as i headed into my exam. who knows how it really went, though...

the care of trees

i love this. daryn and i were taking reg on one of our usual walks, but i'd never noticed this before. some of the trees have these little metal disks nailed into them that have a number, and then "the care of trees". i did a google search, and there's an organization dedicated to helping people and organizations ensure that the trees they plant will be around for hundreds of years. now, my thirty second glimpse of the "about us" page leads me to believe they're more into duping people into spending a lot of money to make sure their trees are healthy, but i guess the end result is good: more trees living longer is good for everyone, no? but really, i just love the tag. there's a sense that all we need to do to save trees is nail one of these suckers to each of them. let's get on it, people!

holding on

the last year of my life has been challenging. not necessarily in a bad way, but in a "what doesn't kill me can only make me stronger" kind of way. i've got this vision for myself, and what i'm supposed to be able to accomplish. and frankly, there are not enough hours in the day to do what i want. after that, i've had to reckon with the fact that this is how most everyone feels. it's a rare time in life that we all get to focus on only one thing for a sustained period of time.

for a while, i felt that i was barely holding on. i was traveling, working, studying, without any time for myself or my family. to make it worse i was trying to convince myself i wanted it that way. i wasn't spreading myself too thin, per se, but i was devoting myself to transient parts of life. i'm passionate about my work and travel, but i can't count on those things to be with me no matter what. on the other hand, i can always count on my family. i finally realized that i wanted my family to always be able to count on me. so some of those other things had to fall away. i'm traveling less (although still traveling). i'm still working, but not letting the stress take over everything. i'm taking half the classes i was taking before, but still working towards that ultimate degree. because of that, i have time for daryn, i have time for my niece, i have time for my sisters and my parents. i'm not barely holding on anymore. thank goodness for that.

urban sunset

i think a lot of the time i spend in dc i spend either thinking of home or hurrying to get home. today was no exception. i left a conference that i'd been at all afternoon just hurrying towards the metro, knowing that i would have to take my picture for the day at home because i just hadn't had a chance to shoot anything today. but i looked up, and saw the sun setting over the top of the gw hospital. i thought it looked really nice. but even then, i took a few more steps before i actually took my camera out because i just wanted to get home. in retrospect, i'm glad i stopped to take this picture. not only did it only delay me about 15 seconds, but i ended up having to wait for 6 or 7 minutes for the next train.

library

several years ago, daryn and i went on a road trip through new england and we stayed with our friends ben and dana just outside of boston for a night or two. upon welcoming us into their home, dana pointed out their small library in their office with great pride. and i think she was/is right to be proud of their library. personal libraries serve as windows into our intellects and souls. i know that daryn and i have certainly worked hard at cultivating the small library that we have. i think daryn actually organized them by topic once we moved to where we are now. i wonder what we'll all do when we only have e-readers.

experimenting

i spent all day studying for an exam i have coming up on thursday. for a break, i was wasting time on facebook (god forbid i turn my eyes away from the computer for a second), and saw that someone was posting photos with something called "hipstamatic for iphone". so i thought i'd download it and see what the deal was. basically, it's an app that allows you to take pictures with different "lenses", different "film", and different "flashes" to give your photos more of an artsy, older feel.

for today's post, i decided to take a picture that i would then import into lightroom, which is the photo editing program i use, and see if i could make a similar effect. this is the result. i adjusted the clarity, vibrancy, contrast, lens vignetting and grain. while it's not the best photograph ever, i think the effects are kind of cool. i might have to give this another go at some point.

favorite subject

bennie is quickly becoming my favorite subject of photos. she is super cute. she is a ham for the camera. and she is fun to be around. so you all can expect to see more pictures of her on this blog.

but about this photo in particular: yes, that is a tire behind her. and yes, she is no taller than the tire. granted, the tire belongs to a dodge truck. but it's still a non-monster truck tire. she is a small and adorable little thing.

concrete sanctuary

i have an exam next week for which i am completely unprepared. it is bad news bears. it is made worse by the fact that i thought i had at least completed all the book reading today, but i in fact still have 3 more chapters to read. this is really unfortunate. however, in an effort to make a dent in my reading, i went to this space in between three different buildings on campus that kind of serves as a concrete sanctuary. it's surrounded by buildings on three sides, so it's not too loud. and there are tables and chairs for studying. it was actually kind of nice. and i was productive. it was a good respite.

pretty

y'all, i know it's hot out there, but it is just so pretty. what's not to love?

holy moly

it was soooooo beautiful today! it's a good thing my office has no windows because there is no way i would have been able to get any work done... i got to have a yummy lunch outside down at the watergate and really enjoy the weather. it really was fabulous.

family fun

tonight i had a big urge to cook a delicious, simple and fresh dinner. so i headed over to my parents' house and hung out with one of my little sisters, brittain, and my parents. we grilled flounder and leeks, roasted asparagus, and stir-fried broccoli. we ate outside because the weather could not have been better. it was just fabulous. we all had a great time clearing our plates, as well as spending some quality time with each other. sooooo gooooood.

it's about time

i just realized that yesterday's post was my 100th post! kind of cool, no? when i started this blog, i was hoping that i'd be able to stick with it, but wasn't sure that i'd actually do so. 100 days after i started this blog, i'm proud that it's still a part of my daily life.

and moving on... i got home from rwanda today, and reg gave me a look towards the end of the night that said, "it's about time". i enjoyed that.

home sweet home

i love jen's home. inside her compound, she has a two bedroom bungalow to herself. it's simple and comfortable. and the blue door just sucked me right in!

on the line

i got to go visit my friend, jen, in the village (buguma) where she lives up near nyagatare. it was so nice to get out of kigali, and a stuffy hotel. jen has this great little compound that she shares with other teachers at her school. everyone was very nice, and jen has clearly made a great home for herself. it was a pretty peaceful, and beautiful visit. that sky is just to die for.

stoned

nicola was kind enough to invite me over to her place tonight so that i could share in some fabulous home-cooked indian food, introduce me to her two super cute dogs, and her two super cute cats. simba, the one in her lap, had just been given catnip, and was stoned out of his mind. i love this pic because he's readjusting himself in nicola's lap to snuggle up in juuuust the right position. adorable.