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!

(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!

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this most recent version of Primal Quest and I’m sure they’ll end up on the blog here.  In the meantime though, I need to shake these cobwebs lose, jump in the shower, and get out of the room before house keeping comes calling…

CycleFest, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Does the week begin on Sunday or Monday? I’ve never really be clear on the matter. I’m of the opinion that Sunday is the last day of the week, but all of my calendars seem to differ. Anyways, the point here is that since Sunday (be it the start, or end, of something – and really, while we’re at it, maybe we should further investigate our need to quantify events and place them on a time line… or, maybe not) I’ve been a little busy.

First of all, Sunday afternoon I had to take a giant nap. It was great. I love to nap, especially after spending many hours exposed to the elements. Sunday morning was an early wakeup, followed by shooting the cold and wet CycleFest 10K trail run at Wakefield, followed by the afore mentioned nap. Which was great. Post nap activities included editing photos. And editing photos. And John Adams watching. And editing still more photos.

After editing and posting photos I got sucked into watching “Babel” that Brad Pitt movie where the lives of four families end up being tragically interconnected on account of one man’s desire to hunt. Or something like that. I wouldn’t know because I ended up pausing the movie a couple times to focus on the photo editing and then I had to rewind it a couple times (have I mentioned how much I love the DVR?) too. Finally, towards 2am I was able to settle in and really start to enjoy the show. The pace was quickening, the story lines were converging and then… then I pressed a button on the remote and jumped forward to real time on the TV. And the movie was long past over and there was nothing I could do to figure out how to get back to my end point. There were maybe 15 minutes left. I was so disappointed. Anyone know how that movie ends? Feel free to leave spoilers and/or commentary in the comments.

Monday I was back at work and then I went on an odyssey to first the District where I was honked at not once, but twice by an impatient Metro Bus driver because apparently I was waiting in a no waiting zone. (And let me have a quick word with that driver… Mr. Metro Bus driver I don’t honk my horn at you when you’re taking your sweet ass time all over the city and regional highways. No, I am patient. In fact, there is one Metro bus I regularly encounter and I pretty much always let him merge over to one of the middle lanes on I-66. So get off my ass already, ok?).

But I digress… the purpose of the trip was to go to the College Park IKEA and assist Heather with the loading and delivering of her new kitchen cabinets. And so on to the pride and joy of Sweden did we travel and waiting there for us were harried, seemingly overworked/underpaid employees who had apparently forgotten that they have a pretty sweet deal* working as they do at IKEA (*based on a quick Google search for “ikea employee” and then skimming the results it seems like IKEA should be a wonderous place to work. I mean, $2 lunches? For anything on the menu?! Awesome.). Their attitude could best be described as “surly.”

Long story short, they didn’t want to fill the order with less than an hour to closing and there was no way we were going to leave without cabinetry. Guess who won? HMG did. Duh. And before too long the car was loaded, tied down, and we were enjoying a nice reward of delicious pancakes (that’s no sarcasm there btw, the pancakes were really good, and not just because we were starved – though I’m sure that helped).

I got home around 12:30 and then went to bed. Then the next morning, on Tuesday, I went to work. Then after work I drove to Burke and met my Dad for dinner (since he was in town for some meetings or something). Then after dinner I came home and worked on race photos. Until 2am. Then I went to bed. Then, the next morning (Wednesday) I went to work. Again. Then, after work, I came home and met up with my brother’s fiancée (Leah) who was in town for meetings or something. I drove her around the old neighborhood and we discovered that someone has been messing up the old house. Then we went to dinner. Then, after dinner I came home and worked on race photos.

Raise your hand if you’ve detected a pattern!

Now though, instead of staying up past 2am I am going to throw in the towel and go to bed. This has really just been a long way of saying that the CycleFest photos are almost done, but not quite, and so I am begging everyone who may be anxiously awaiting the final upload to please be patient one more night.

Thanks!

Everyone is Invited!

I’d love to have you all out to the closing of Assassination Vacation at the Huckleberry Inn, my second solo photography show. We can continue to ring in the new year with wine and beer and quite possibly a chili and corn bread cook-off, just the thing for a cold winter’s night!

The Huckleberry Inn is located in historic downtown Herndon, Va.
630 Oak Street
Herndon, VA 20170

(And while there is no parking allowed on Oak Street, there is Plenty of FREE parking at the Municipal Lot. Just a three minute walk to the Inn).

Read the artist’s statement, view & purchase photos, and much, much more, all at Brian Knight Photography.

Antarctica, originally uploaded by weknight66.

…Were these awesome photos to edit.

I’m still working with Mom on the finer points of composition, sorting, etc.  Every time I go down for a visit we say that we definitely are going to sit down for some photography lessons and every visit we seem to run out of time.  In any case, I don’t think the parents need tons of tips, they seem to do a pretty decent job already.  The biggest thing (and the part that I am still working on too) is culling.  Keeping only the very, very best photos can be tough.  Last night we started looking through the photos from their Antarctica/S. America trip but before we could get very far it was time for Christmas dinner (which was totally delicious and worth missing a photo lesson I thought).

In any case, because we ran out of time I decided to bring home a few photos to run through my post processing workflow and now Mom can see what the final product might look like…

Check out the set in progress on Dad’s Flickr!

More photos to come and in a few months we’ll have Machu Picchu and Galapagos pics to peruse too!

No f’in way, originally uploaded by outdoor_type.

A few thoughts while I wait at the gate from today’s travels…

Airport Efficiency

This is the busiest travel day of the year, but you wouldn’t know it from visiting Washington Dulles International Airport.

I’ve flown out of here three times in the past 6 weeks or so and by far Veterans Day was the worst in terms of traffic, full lots, and long, long, lines at security.

Thanksgiving? Cakewalk. Today? Ditto. There was no line at the ticket counter, no live for the various security check points. In fact, this kind of caused a problem because unless you’ve got your act totally together and have nothing in your pockets before even entering the line you end up having to stop at the x-ray machine and stuff your bag full of your pocket’s contents. Normally you’ve got plenty of time to do this while shuffling along with hundreds of your newest, closest friends, kick pushing your carry-ons across the floor. Anyways, I’m not complaining. I just could have waited someplace else instead of here at the Z10 gate which is lacking in its amenities is all I’m saying. There, I guess I am complaining, but only a little. Things are too good is my problem.

Designed for Small Compartments

A US Air guy just walked up and put this ticket on my camera bag. No way am I checking it, even at the gate. Update: this is becoming a fun game… I took off the original tag. 20 minutes later he walked by and attached another tag! (which I promptly removed. again)

The bag is designed for small planes:

Airport Antidote
Legal carry on backpack fits all international carry on requirements, and fits into the overhead of very small planes.

After the jump, The Carry-On Conclusion, A One Wheeled Landing, and… Detained by TSA!

The Carry-On Conclusion…

So guess what? The gate agent didn’t know what he was talking about and the ThinkTank claims proved true. Not only did my bag fit nicely in the overhead compartment of the CRJ, it also fit (minus the laptop sleeve) in the overhead of the Dash 8. And because I got to board Zone 1 for the second flight I was able to be “that guy.” You know, the guy who boards early and who puts BOTH bags in the overhead. Yeah, that was me today.

Ok, as much as I’d love to end this with the bravado of the guy who doesn’t care if his fellow passengers have room for their bags, I was actually feeling a little guilty about things until I realised the flight was only half sold. I kept waiting for more people to board, ready at a moment’s notice to jump up and pull the smaller bag out of the bin, but it wasn’t long before the door was shut and nearly everyone on the plane had two seats to themselves.

Air travel can be so nice when the delays are minimal and you’ve got room to stretch your legs. Maybe I should amend this to say that air travel can be so nice when you’ve got minimal delays, room to stretch your legs, and a pilot who can put both of the rear wheels on the tarmac at the same time…

20 knot Winds = Exciting Landing

On bigger planes you don’t often feel the effects of wind pushing the tail end around, but today, today we got to experience a little bit of that.

On our final approach we were informed by the flight deck crew that a 20 knot wind was blowing at HHH and we should make sure our seat belts were securely fastened low across our laps. The ride was in fact bumpy with the plane jostling about the sky. Things became bumpier still as we made a one wheel (the left rear) landing. My seat on the right side of the plane was directly across from the right rear landing gear and I watched as we hop skipped across the runway… down and then up and then down and up and then finally both rear wheels were on the ground and then, after a slightly longer than normal wheelie, the nose slammed down too. Safe! And exciting.

Detained by TSA or HHH is a Really Small Airport

How small is it? It’s so small that the TSA folks who inspect your bags, are also the same folks who operate the metal detectors, are also the same folks who open and close the metal gates that let you in and out of the terminal (gates like you see at a locked shop at the mall after hours). So after our exciting landing, and one of the shortest taxis you’ll ever find at a commercial airport, we entered the terminal only to discover the metal gates were closed because the TSA guy hadn’t realised the only plane landing had landed. Oops. Again, that my longest delay of the entire day was caused at my destination after deplaning… I should be so lucky (or in the words of S. Vowell, it could be worse). While everyone queued up at the gate and began to fidget I sat down, relaxed, and just went with it. Welcome to the island where everything moves just a little bit slower. Ok by me.

*unless you’re off to someplace much, much colder where snow is measured in cm.

Where I’m Going

Yes, there is some rain. And some cloudiness.  And it is all subject to change, but ~20 degrees warmer in December is not too bad. Oh and tomorrow, on the shortest daylight day of the year?… 33 minutes more daylight at Hilton Head!

• My Car Sucks
• My Car Is All Better
• My Debt Ratio Sucks
• My Car Kind Of Sucks Again
  (debt ratio also still sucking)
• Woohoo! The District, Art, An Art Liking Friend From The District, Christmas Market, Beer, Food, Ice Hockey, eh?
• Still More Friends and Alcohol
• A Really Late Night
• Sleep
• Woohoo! The District, Friends, Family, (more) People With Accents, Pancakes (iheartpancakes)
• Napping
• A Really Late Night
• Sleep
• Woohoo! Herndon, Friends, Art, Blowing Fuses (literally)
• Crap. Now My Car Really Sucks Again
• Woohoo! The District, Beer, Friends, Lots Of Cameras, LOTS Of Cameras, LOTS of CAMERAS, Yes We Are Some Kind Of Camera Enthusiast Group, Quote Of The Day, Cookies, Exchanging Tales Of Traffic Woes, Succesful 1/2 Circumnavigation of General George Henry Thomas’ Circle
• Phone Calls
• Book Deals
• A Few Distractions
• Emails
• Primal Quest Proofreading
• Blogging
• Sleep Photo Editing
• Sleep