Madonna: George Mason University, Class of 2022

2022 marks George Mason University’s 50th Anniversary, and what a perfect year to revisit my alma mater.

This May, Madonna is part of George Mason University’s Class of 2022, graduating with a BS in Civil Engineering.  To celebrate, Donna, Rubin, and I spent some time touring some of GMU’s most iconic and scenic spots; you might remember Rubin and Donna from their surprise airport proposal in 2020.

This was both fun and relaxing for me, revisiting some of my favorite spots around campus, and seeing how much of it has changed or stayed the same since I graduated in 2012.  We started in the Engineering Building, which was a new building when I attended, and I got to see some of the completed construction that was just starting when I left - I’ve only been back on campus a few times since graduating.  The most notable change is the introduction of the food delivery robots, which operate like mini-Teslas; they even tried to interfere / attack us during the shoot a few times.  I, for one, welcome our new delivery robot overlords.

After the portrait session, I explored a bit more at dusk to see a bit more - walking around campus in shorts and a polo with a backpack and camera - that part hasn’t changed; the difference is my backpack in college wasn’t leather from Tumi, and I didn’t walk around with TWO cameras and a set of remote strobes on me between classes.

A Retirement Farewell for Bob Laubach

This past March, Bob Laubach, Photography Lab Manager at Northern Virginia Community College for the last 15 years, retired after a lifelong career in photography. My time in the photo lab in NVCC over a decade ago now lasted only a year, but like many students taking photography classes in Alexandria I came to know Bob very quickly, and have kept in touch ever since. And while I didn’t end up taking the Large Format Photography course he taught while I was in college, I did attend a Large Format Film workshop with him in Great Falls.

Bob is an infinite source of photographic knowledge; it doesn’t matter if you’ve known him 10 minutes or 10 years, if you spend just 5 minutes with Bob, you’ll still wind up learning something you never knew before. A proud graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, Bob would frequently tell insider tales of Kodak and their operations, also headquartered in Rochester.

On his final day managing the photo lab in Alexandria, Bob’s family, friends, and former students from multiple generations gathered to celebrate his retirement. Fellow longtime photography professors of Northern Virginia Community College’s presented Bob with a placard honoring Bob’s lasting impact on the Photography Department, establishing the darkroom and naming it after him as the Bob Laubach Film Processing Lab.

I captured pictures during my time at Bob’s retirement party, and am including a few highlights below. I also have the full set I captured online and available for viewing and download in this gallery.

A few photos I captured with Bob in 2011, several years after I had moved on from the NVCC photo lab:

It was wonderful to once again also see Page and Aya, professors who I’ll never forget their impact on my career in photography. Like Bob, I’ve remained in touch with Page and Aya since my time learning at NOVA’s Photography Department, and they are two professors I’ll never forget. I took numerous courses with both Page and Aya, who collectively taught me how to process and print film, but there are two that stand out especially to me:

• Aya’s Digital Photo Editing course helped me become more comfortable with Photoshop, an endlessly powerful tool I knew nothing about at the time but now rely on every day, and to better understand colorspace and print workflows; a vital skill that, again I use every day, but remains seamless and invisible to the people and businesses I work with.

• Page’s Photojournalism & Ethics course undeniably shaped how I interpret and create multimedia; the responsible capture, editing, and dissemination of photojournalism this course underscored continues to influence how I capture and edit every live event I shoot, from intimate weddings to multinational brand PR activations - there is not a single time I’ve worked on a project intended for publication that this course hasn’t crossed my mind.

Most people have teachers or professors who are formative in some way or another, and Page and Aya are unquestionably two who shaped my approach to photography.

Richmond: Spring, 2022

If you’re an avid follower of my work, you probably saw that in April I shot a wedding in Richmond, Virginia.

I don’t keep it a secret that I love travel assignments - between the logistics of carefully planning and the change of scenery (and sometimes climate) I feel extra creative when I’m in a different city to capture images; and of course visiting a new city or further exploring one you’ve traveled to before is a delight.  Albeit small in comparison to my average trip’s scope, it was my first travel work assignment since the pandemic began, which I was thankful for (I’ve had numerous inquiries from previous and new clients for travel assignments since 2020 that have unfortunately all fallen through).  Anytime I am hired to travel to another city, it makes me proud that my clients both appreciate and trust my expertise so much they will fly me to them.

In the case of Richmond, however, it’s close enough to drive; around 2hrs South of DC (oftentimes a bit more thanks to I-95 traffic in the corridor between the two cities), the Commonwealth’s capital is a popular city to visit thanks to its thriving art scene, urban mix of old Towne and suburban sprawl, and general college-town feel with VCU and the young nightlife scene.  People seem to either love or hate Richmond, with not much space in-between; I personally have always strongly disliked Richmond, and this trip, while the brief free time I had I enjoyed, only further solidified my opinions of the city (sorry!).  I’ve always found Richmond to be pretty to look at, with pockets of quaint charm, but overall as sketchy as St. Louis (which I claim as a second hometown, btw).  It actually reminds me quite a bit of Providence, RI, in that it has lots of hip and charming spots to visit, but you must be careful where you go, because that can all change in a single street, and the entire city becomes dangerous at night.  I know, the people who love Richmond will disagree, but that’s always been and remains my opinion of the city (I’d still go back and explore more - just cautiously).

Arrival

After a rainy 2.5hr drive, I arrived and got checked in to my hotel; I’ll spare you the details, but on the recommendation of several friends I had strayed away from my usual hotel brand I’m normally loyal to and tried an equivalent upscale offering, but this overall was misguided as practically all the convenience amenities I specifically stay at these business-oriented hotels for to ensure I’m able to go about getting my work done without any logistical hurdles to think about were either not as advertised, or wholly unavailable.  I’m not saying there was anything wrong with my hotel or room, it was just falsely advertised.  The downtown city view was nice though.

I had a few hours before sunset, and needed to location scout.  I was located just a few blocks from the Capitol Building, so I decided to walk over and do a quick lap with my camera and see if I could catch any cool street sights with the drizzly ambience.

Behind the Capitol, I found it fitting that the Virginia Civil Rights Monument was in direct sight of the Governor’s Mansion currently occupied by an individual whose most prominent campaign promise was to ensure the matters of civil rights of the people enshrined in this monument would *not* be taught in Virginia classrooms; a poignant reminder to the Governor at the time that although he’d like to censor history and resist the progress civil rights movements have granted all citizens, it doesn’t change reality or people’s rights.  The Virginia Civil Rights Monument is infuriatingly surrounded by monuments to confederate figureheads.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

I’d done my quickie lap of the Capitol Grounds, and zipped back to the hotel to drive over to my wedding venue for tomorrow, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Outside my Googling and some photos my client had sent me, I was unfamiliar with this museum, and I needed to go scout it for photo locations both for couple’s portraits and alternate groups photo interior locations in the event of rain.  I still had a few hours until close, but I needed to get this done so - I still hadn’t eaten anything beyond my large Americano that day, but dinner could wait until afterwards, because I wouldn’t have relaxed until this was taken care of.

I checked out the grounds and decided we already had a solid plan for outdoor photos, and went inside to scope out my more pressing concern.  I decided to start in the Marble Hall where most events would be taking place at the wedding - there was a small event going on inside, so I only got to peek, but it’s all I needed for that space since I wasn’t terribly concerned about it.  At this point I got in a conversation with a docent who gave me a shortlist of recommendations for interior alternate group photo locations; although I didn’t use it for group photos, some of these suggestions, and many of the places I explored inside among the museum’s exhibits, would be very helpful for the next day’s couples portraits.

I love an art museum, and I would have liked the entire day to fully explore the VMFA’s 135,000 sq. ft of exhibits.  The VMFA is the 15th largest art museum in the US, and I didn’t have that kind of time, so rushed through mostly focusing only on photogenic exhibit halls, despite seeing many artifacts on display I’d have liked to have looked at more closely.  I’m including picture highlights of my run through the museum; if you’d like to know more about anything pictured, I captured images of the associated placards, which you can view with the full gallery of photos here.

After closing out the VMFA, I head back to my hotel to be let down by their advertised restaurant not being open, and Richmond in general because apparently all restaurants either close or become nightclubs past 10PM.  After being let down by my hotel, and walking to two nearby restaurants that were listed as open online but were actually closed in person, I ended up ordering with a growing headache on UberEats and it was equal to every other UberEats or Grubhub order I’ve ever had: undercooked, overpriced food that takes over an hour for cold and soggy delivery.  This isn’t a Richmond-exclusive problem, but I was forced into experiencing it again because of Richmond.

Wedding

The next day, I shot the wedding as planned with no hiccups, and used my scouting of the museum to my advantage for some of the portraits.  You can see more of those pictures on their blog post here.

Departure

After shooting the wedding, I tried my luck at local food a second night in a row, to mixed luck: Sticky Rice had been recommended to me by several people, so I head there, but once again this was another restaurant that turns into a bar / nightclub in the evening - I liked the vibe inside, but with a headache and empty stomach I needed food, not alcohol (at least to start).  Luckily across the street was a Taqueria that was still serving food, so I scarfed down some tacos, guac, and mezcal to unwind before bed and leaving town - this was a Friday, and the next day I had *another* wedding back in the DC suburbs, so there would be no barhopping this trip.

Back at the hotel I snapped one last picture of the Capitol Building at night before packing all my gear and recharging my batteries literally and figuratively.

A very quick glimpse of Richmond - I’d visit again to give it a closer look and see if there’s more I’m still not seeing, but it’s safe to say it will never make my list of favorite cities.  A bit of an unpopular opinion to some, but that’s where I’ve landed with it.

David and Kathleen: The Proposal

Spring is here, and this April kicked off with a fun vineyard proposal in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.  Sweethearts for eight years, David and Kathleen vacationed in Virginia’s wine country, but David had been planning to pop the question this weekend for months.  Circumstances made this one a hard secret to keep, and Kathleen came so close to finding out, but as soon as the couple arrived at the vineyard and found the picnic awaiting them, David eagerly dropped to one knee.

She said yes, and was in shock the rest of the day of wine and adventure!

A Dulles Farewell for Dennis Hazell

March 25th, 2022 marked the end of an era.  At least, at Washington Dulles International Airport.  If you’ve spent any significant time working at Dulles, you’ll surely recognize Dennis Hazell, IAD’s Customer Service Manager, and a friend of mine with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with for over a decade now.  I lovingly call Dennis “Captain Airport” among other names, and he always has called me not “David,” but “J. David” - a comfortable and familiar sound when Dennis talking on the phone with Dennis, but still throws me for a loop when it’s called out for my Starbucks order.

Dennis has been the friendly face of Dulles’ customer service program, including initiatives such as the Going the Extra Mile program, working a the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority since 2007, and has been at Dulles since 1997, as Station Manager for American Airlines for 10 years.  It’s hard to imagine Dulles without Dennis, who has been a perpetually extroverted presence and source of fun at the airport for 25 years.  The DC region’s airports have not lost Dennis however, as he moved in his Customer Service Managerial role to Ronald Reagan National Airport, “The Little Airport by the River” as of last week.

Over the years Dennis and I have worked together in both organizing and documenting some of Dulles’ most memorable events, including the first ever Discover Dulles: NASA SCA 747 and Space Shuttles Discovery and Enterprise, which will have its 10 year anniversary in two weeks.  Many of the events Dennis spearheaded or was otherwise involved in are among my fondest and most memorable, and the earliest ones such as the numerous events involving NASA and the Air and Space Museum were unquestionably formative and influential to my own career as a commercial event photographer.

On his final day at Dulles, a large group gathered to speak about Dennis’ time at the airport and the memories they had with him, and present commemorative gifts and awards to mark his time and impact on the Dulles Airport family.  It was an emotional event for everyone, but most of all Dennis, who was somewhat overcome by the memories and kind words shared with those in attendance, and had to pause a few moments while giving his farewell remarks.

Dennis will be truly missed, but at least we won’t have to go far to still walk through the Terminal with him and need to stop every 50 feet because someone else runs up to say hi; all you have to do is step over to DCA and I’m sure the same thing will be happening there on his first day.

If you’d like to see the full set of images, head over to the gallery here, which includes downloadable group photos from the receiving line after the ceremonies.

Dennis at Dulles

I’m including a handful of my favorite moments with Dennis; this includes my portrait of him on the airfield that is one of my first-ever published photographs, Dennis presenting Swiss Solar Impulse pilot Captain Bertrand Piccard with a box of Dunkin Donuts on live television, my earliest photo of Dennis I’ve since coined “Airport Jesus” (he hates this picture, but I still enjoy it to this day), me sitting at Dennis’ desk holding his fathead, juggling phones as usual, and Dennis and I standing on the airfield in front of the freshly landed SCA 747 and Space Shuttle Discovery, still in awe that everything that day had gone completely to plan.