Tag Archives: michaeltruhl

Featured Photo
By

Featured Photo

Sunset on the Potomac
‘Sunset on the Potomac’ by specimenlife

It’s difficult to capture the vastness of nature through photography. A track of mountains or an ocean stretching infinitely on the horizon are unquestionably photogenic, but the challenge lays in conveying the scale before you. In the case of specimenlife’s photograph, a wandering cloud finds several points of scale to remind the viewer just how big they actually are. Land, air, and sea are all dwarfed. Clouds are so present in our daily lives that we only think twice about them if they pose a threat to our outdoor activities or commute, but specimenlife turns this ordinary occurrence to the extraordinary. His compelling colors and strong composition keep your eye moving around the photograph. The lines the sun draws through the cloud and along the sky leave one in awe of the majesty of nature.

Weekend Flashback
By

Weekend Flashback: 8/13-8/14

Moonrise
‘Moonrise’ by pablo.raw

My blood is too thick for this humidity: my mind boils, I rant and rave, and I’m unable to properly explain myself. And I channel Hunter S. Thompson. I moved to DC before I knew what the summers were like; heatwave or not, I boil like a potato in this climate. But everyone who loves hanging idly around a swamp going to fairs and farmers markets, let’s reminisce. Welcome to yesterday, DC. And the day before. And Friday, when the Redskins started back up and squashed the Steelers in their first preseason game. Busy weekend around town – let’s do this thing!
Continue reading →

Fun & Games, Music
By

The Winning Ticket: My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket
‘My Morning Jacket’ by Stateside Presents/President Gator

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see My Morning Jacket perform at the Merriweather Post Pavilion on August 12th at 5:30pm. Known for the power of their live preformances, this Kentucky sprouted band will roll into DC with the sounds which earned them a grammy nomination.

Continue reading →

Featured Photo
By

Featured Photo

Flamingos at the zoo
Flamingos at the zoo by martha_jean

A regular party of flamingos can’t seem to decide which way to go at the National Zoo. The placement of the birds keeps your eyes moving around the photo, while three birds facing both let and right, respectively, provide an interesting balance in the shot. The composition is further strengthened by the triangular shape the birds keep in relation to one another, as well as the focus being on the single bird looking towards the photographer. Heat and humidity can’t keep these birds from being awesome.

Fun & Games, Music
By

The Winning Ticket: Return to Forever

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Return to Forever and Zappa Plays Zappa perform at the Merriweather Post Pavilion on August 9th at 5:30pm. Return to Forever has been redefining jazz fusion ever since frontman Chick Corea’s time playing with jazz Legend Miles Davis. They’re touring with Dweezil Zappa, who is playing the music of his father, the late musical eccentric Frank Zappa. Get your jazz on.

Continue reading →

Featured Photo
By

Featured Photo

Little guy
‘Little Guy’ by Allee574

It’s been a while since I’ve just stopped and said, “Wow!” to a photograph, but this gem broke that trend. Allee574‘s capture at the Kennilworth Aquatic Garden this past weekend brings together two completely different worlds – the micro and the macro. Macro photography often lacks scale, but in bringing a human hand into the composition, she provides us a frame of reference omnipresent in all of our lives. The stunning, intricate details on the frog’s back are paired with the simple details of an everyday surface we take for granted – our fingerprints. Through a strong composition she brings you into the world of a tiny being confronting a giant. The finger and hand serve to guide one’s eye across the screen, like an arrow pointing directly to the subject. The narrow perch on which it sits, in this case a finger, serves to place emphasis on the frog, as does the blurred, green background. I’m left to wonder if the frog soon sprung back to nature, or felt content to be admired by a larger world.

The District
By

Why I Love DC: Michael T. Ruhl

Birds of a Feather
‘Birds of a Feather’

You want to know why I love DC? Well, take a look through my lens and see how I view this beautiful city. I don’t claim to be a great photographer – I’m just a guy who likes to shoot. Washington is my arena, my subject, and my muse. DC, my darling, smile for the camera.

I first came to DC to report on Congress. That was kind of like drinking from a fire hose, and the Capitol building quickly became my favorite place in the world. This shot elicits the collectivism of the House of Representatives, a subject of endless fascination for me.

Continue reading →

Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
By

The Winning Ticket: Eels

Eels

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Eels and The Submarines perform at the 9:30 Club on July 27th at 7pm. This show will be the night following the appearance of Eels on the Late Show with David Letterman. The band has released 11 albums since the early ’90s, in addition to a hand full of live albums and a pile of singles and EPs dealing with mental illness and personal loss, among other subjects.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email in 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Entertainment, Fun & Games, We Love Music
By

The Winning Ticket: The Glitch Mob

Glitch Mob

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see The Glitch Mob with Phantogram & Com Truise perform at the 9:30 Club on July 20th at 7pm. This dose of digital goodness invades the District on the heels of releasing their new EP, We Can Make the World Stop. The Glitch Mob blends hip-hop and dance into its own flavor of electronic music which has enticed and enchanted audiences at Coachella and Lollapalooza.

THE GLITCH MOB : BEYOND MONDAY from BEMO | Brandon Hirzel on Vimeo.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email in 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Featured Photo
By

Featured Photo

Summer Fun :)....Hot Holiday Weekend For D.C., Scorching Heat By Tuesday
‘Summer Fun’ by Dan Dan the Binary Man

With the passing of Memorial Day comes the unofficial start of summer, and Dan Dan the Binary Man loses us into a child’s view of summer. The silhouettes give anonymity to the tikes and provide a wonderful compositional tool for black and white photography, as does the water in the middle, a natural reflector of light. The definition of the children’s forms is pronounced by the obscured figures in the right background, blending into day’s darkness and the surrounding landscape. The photo is a portrait of the innocence and adventure of youth and leaves us pondering: what is the child at the left looking at? His mother calling to him? Barking dogs? Sirens?

We Love Arts
By

Seeing Through the Lens of Award-Winning Photographer Carol Guzy

Carol Guzy with her Dog Trixie, who was rescued from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Carol Guzy with her Dog Trixie, who was rescued from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, photo by Will Dolive

By Michael T. Ruhl

You wouldn’t know just casually talking to Carol Guzy that she’s a world class photographer who works for the Washington Post. The humble four-time Pulitzer Prize winner sits quietly in her Arlington home, tending to her dogs, two of which she rescued from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Her living room walls stand largely devoid of her photos, and she doesn’t even display her Pulitzer Prizes. The only indicators of a photographer in that room are a few old cameras sitting on the shelves. Her passion isn’t advertised, but poke her and she bleeds. Continue reading →

We Love Music
By

We Love Music: Toh Kay/Timothy Bracken @ Iota, 5/7/11

Photo courtesy of
‘Streetlight Manifesto – Tomas Kalnoky’
courtesy of ‘Evan Wohrman’

On Saturday evening Toh Kay rolled into the Iota Club in Clarendon for a show with Timothy Bracken. The small audience of loyal Toh Kay fans waited patiently for the one man band and his 6-string. The show started about a half hour late – the bartender said they were waiting for the place to fill up. It didn’t. But this space added to the intimacy of this already homey venue, with only 40 or so people scattered about the room. Continue reading →