OutdoorType

Spent the morning downtown Arlington shooting the first annual Pacers Running Festival. It was a great morning for running and photos should come online tomorrow night!

My toast from last night’s rehearsal dinner…

Good evening. For those of you whom I have forgotten to introduce myself to, I am Brian, brother of Shawn, and best man (and not, as you might think, the official photographer). I’d like to thank our parents Bill & Susie and Leah’s parent’s Wink and Dorthea for making this weekend possible, for shepherding into this world two really great people.

In college I majored in history and as a result I am always trying to draw connections between past and present. When Shawn and Leah chose April 25th for their wedding I decided to try and find an event that might tie into their day tomorrow and maybe even serve as a metaphor for their new life that begins together.

After setting aside various bits of military trivia such as the 1862 capture of New Orleans by David “Damn the torpedoes” Farragut, or the declaration of war on Spain made by the US Congress in 1898, or the impending fall of Saigon in 1975, I found an interesting footnote, and it read: “1990, the Hubble Telescope is deployed into orbit from the Space Shuttle Discovery.”

Just in case you need a reminder (looking at Shawn), the Hubble is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space. Its unobstructed view of the universe has allowed scientists to observe not only the planets in our solar system, but the most distant stars and galaxies. It had the most precisely ground mirrors ever created by man and its launching 19 years ago marks the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope. Our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same.

Now, I knew I was on to something with the whole Hubble/Marriage thing, but I wasn’t 100% sure how to proceed, so I did what anyone would do in this situation, I turned to Twitter.

In less than 140 characters I typed: “The Hubble Telescope as a metaphor for marriage. Discuss.” I clicked update and flung my request into the ether.

A near immediate reply appeared on my screen:

“Too easy! Initial perfection of mirrors, need for unexpected adjustments, revelation of cosmic beauty.”

And so I say to Shawn and Leah… I hope that tomorrow is the start of a journey that, while requiring a few minor adjustments from time to time, is one that leads to a beautiful life together.

Cheers!

All photos from Sunday morning’s Earth Day 5K are now online!

Thanks to The Nature Conservancy and Pacers Running Stores for putting on a great race. Also thanks to Bernie Salazar from television’s The Biggest Loser for coming out to support a good cause.

Womens_Half_Marathon_10192008_043, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Well, it’s that time of year again… Time to start break out the running gear (and camera gear) and get out for some runs and races.

I’m still working on the big picture calendar, but I’ve already got the following events lined up to cover. All of these are brought to you by the good people at Pacers:

• Pacers Fun Run, TODAY!! 6:45pm in Clarendon, VA
• Earth Day 5K, April 18, Silver Spring, MD
• Pacers Running Festival, May 10
• Run as One 5K, June 27, evening race
• Independence 5000, July 4
• Crystal Run Twilighter, July 25, evening race

Maybe I’ll see some familiar faces in the crowd!

Breaking news: Traffic really blows today, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Thanks for nothing rain!

[flickrset id="72157614144129746" thumbnail="square"]

Experimenting with a Flickr/WordPress plugin.

As seen at Harpers Ferry, WV one sunny Sunday afternoon.

Hello world, maybe this will work better.

My whiteboard is now fully operational, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Hello world, I’m just messing around with new blog templates.

So this is bigger news for both Heather and Kyle, but I got to play a small part too so here’s the scoop…

Check out today’s Washington Examiner (PDF) for Heather’s column about Kyle’s awesome photo of Michael Stipe. After you read all about it you may proceed down to Adams Morgan and see the photo with your very eyes!

The lastest Ten Miles Square show, I’m With the Band, opened last Thursday at Dahlak. Go see it to “view the work of three talented, DC photographers who combine their passions for music and photography to capture the spirit and energy of local artists and headliners alike:”

Kyle Gustafson
Martin Locraft
Nestor Diaz

Dahlak
1771 U Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
(On the corner between Florida Ave and 17th Street)

Kyle Gustafson has been used in several major publications including the Washington Post, Toronto Star, the Sun (UK), Heat Magazine, Twist Magazine, as well as DCist.com, NME.com, Rollingstone.com, Pitchforkmedia.com, and Huffingtonpost.com

Martin Locraft has been featured in DC Magazine, and his work has been seen on DCist.com, OnTap, the Onion, the GW Hatchet, and Arlington Connection

Nestor Diaz has had images in SPIN.com, Rollingstone.com, RVA magazine, Pitchfork.com and DCist.com

Oh right, and so where I come in to play is the byline photo of Heather that was used in today’s article. This is a photograph that we took right after hanging DCist Exposed 2009. Flashpoint had this couch like thing in the middle of the gallery and Heather humored me when I asked that she stand up on it while I snapped a few shots. The ones from the ground up weren’t coming out like I’d imagined so I grabbed a wobbly chair, stood up on it, and grabbed a few more shots. This was one of the very last taken and worked out a lot better.

(just kidding)

March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar and there are 282 days remaining until the end of the year.

In addition to today being your birthday, it is also World Tuberculosis Day! Happy World Tuberculosis Day Mom!

Here are some Historical Events that occurred on March 24th:

In 1882, Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis). (and now you know why it is World Tuberculosis Day. Happy World Tuberculosis Day again!). In 1958 Elvis Presley was officially inducted into the U.S.Army.

Some other things happened too, like in 1603 James VI of Scotland also became James I King of England, which sort of sounds like a lateral promotion, but probably came with a nice pay increase.

Quite some years later, in 1765 during the American Revolutionary War, the Kingdom of Great Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops. This was kind of sticking point for the colonists so when after they finished winning their independence, and after they grey tired of the Articles of Confederation, and after realising that the new Constitution would be better off with a few quick (10) amendments they made sure to say that:

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

In 1832, the twenty-six-year-old founder of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith, was dragged from bed by disaffected former followers. Smith was beaten unconscious, then tarred and feathered. The attack encouraged Joseph to accelerate a trip to Zion (aka, Independence, Missouri).

Meanwhile, in 1837 our cousins up north in Canada gave African men the right to vote. We did the same thing, only it took us 31 years, a bloody Civil War, and TWO amendments to the Constitution (#13 & 14) before we could do the same thing (and even that didn’t exactly solve the problem of voter disenfranchisement).

Some other neat people were also born today. John Wesley Powell (b. 1834) was a U.S. soldier, geologist, and explorer of the American West. He is famous for the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers that included the first passage through the Grand Canyon. During the Civil War Battle of Shiloh he lost most of one arm (so imagine doing all that first exploration stuff with only one arm). An interesting bit about that trip down the Colorado is that three men abandoned the mission and were later murdered. While Indians have always been the prime suspects, it now seems more likely that they were felled by a Mormon ambush.

Harry Houdini was born today in 1874 in Budapest. He forever changed the world of magic and escapes, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest escapologists in history. In 1944 seventy-six men escaped from the German prison camp Stalag Luft III. The prison escape attempt was later made into a famous movie called, “The Great Escape.” The Great Escape starred Steve McQueen. Steve McQueen was born March 24, 1930.

Edward Weston, an American photographer, was born in 1886. The New York Times newspaper reported on April 14, 2008 that Sotheby’s sold one of his photographs to a New York art dealer for $1.6 Million. Even though he was a celebrated photographer he survived selling his photos for a humble price of $7-10. Now, they have gone up over 1,000,000% in value.

I hope you’ve had a great day Mom!