90ish days of summer

Later this morning, Jeff and I will be leaving the greater D.C. area and going to Tennessee.

Because that’s where Bonnaroo is.

This means I’ll have no Web access — no blogging, no photo updates, no Twitter — until Monday evening, by which point we’ll have returned to Silver Spring, running water, electrical outlets and that great vast thing called the Internet.

I’ll have a full report of the festival by mid-week next week (but don’t hold me to that deadline), as well as photos (don’t hold me to that deadline, either). I briefly toyed with the idea of lugging my digital equipment and some audio gear so I could create an audio slideshow or some other multimedia project out of this four-day music festival… but nixed the idea, mostly because I’d have no way to keep that expensive equipment secure except in a very hot car.

So I’m just shooting film instead. I need to finish up a roll of Fuji Superia 100, and then I can start on some Ilford FB4 125 Plus and Fuji Superia Reala (ASA 100).

Since I haven’t been very good about updating this blog in the past week or so, here’s some more potpourri:

ON SATURDAY, Jeff and I went to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton Regional Park. Among other things, they have a butterfly garden/greenhouse, a huge playground and a train.

I just took my 50mm lens with me. It was a good choice.

These butterflies were the prize to catch on camera. For one thing, they're amazingly beautiful because the upper side of their wings is a wonderfully iridescent blue. For another, their flight path is completely unpredictable (unlike that of the other butterflies in the greenhouse), so actually getting them in a frame was a huge challenge. This photo was pure luck.

Jeff and I also rode the miniature train, which Jeff hadn't been on in probably 10 years.

As always, you can view more photos by clicking HERE.

TODAY, I went on my first actual photo assignment for my washingtonpost.com internship! Or, I shadowed and ended up being very necessary when Megan and I discovered that a tripod mount screw wasn’t the correct size. Once the work we produced is completed and published, I will disclose the full story.

Needless to say, we returned to the office just before a big fat storm let loose over the greater D.C. area. Steve — another full-time photo editor — and Megan handed me a camera and told me to take a weather photo. At first, I went out on the balcony, with the intent of getting a wide cityscape shot and then hopefully capturing some lightning on a few frames. Then I was going to go street-level.

But the full-time staff were concerned about liability should lightning strike, so I had to stay indoors.

Which is why my first photo published on washingtonpost.com was taken from inside a window and looks almost like a cell phone photo.

Click on the image to go to a larger view of this screen capture of my first photo published on washingtonpost.com!

Anyway.

That’s it for now.

You won’t be hearing from me until Monday or Tuesday.

Let’s just hope I survive the heat, humidity and intensity that is Bonnaroo.

Cheerio!