If you live in Adams Morgan/Dupont/Columbia Heights, Greater Goods is the place to go for eco-friendly stuff. The owners are friendly, extremely knowledgeable and responsive to customer concerns, and they have tons of great stuff, including the best price on Sigg bottles around.

Today, Greater Goods held a “mini, green-focused food festival” called GreenTaste from 2-5pm. Folks coming by the store sampled all kinds of yummy treats including homemade chocolate from J. Chocolatier, organic French wines from first vine, full mini entrees from Healthy Bites and homemade soup from Soupergirl.

From a session last week: light, clean, simple, modern portraits with a single light source.

More pics for Air Bed and Breakfast from this and last weekend. The best part of this job is getting to see other folks’ living space – especially in a city with so many rowhouses, it’s really cool to see how these narrow spaces have been repurposed, remodeled and renewed.

On Monday this week, I did an environmental portrait session with an international trade lawyer. For the better part of an hour, I photographed him on the phone, working at the computer, checking reference materials and doing various things that international trade lawyers do. I also did several headshots toward the end of the session.

It was quite a lot of fun really – a nice break from traditional headshots. I also think the session generated a lot of photographs that can be used in a broad variety of ways – in print, on the web – not just as portraits but also as “action shots.” I’d love to do some more – any takers?

Pangea is a cafe and shop at the corner of 21st and Pennsylvania Ave. You could stop by just for the excellent coffee and sandwiches. And while you’re there, you should have a look around the shop – they carry an incredible variety of handicrafts, all from 3rd world countries. In February, I did a weeklong photo session of various items for their catalog and created promotional images for ads.

Tuesday April 14th, they’re having an Open House with fun stuff like free coffee tasting with fair trade coffees from Rwanda, live music, light snacks and more. Click here view the Facebook event page.

If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by – and be sure to tell them how much you like the photos on the event page ;)

Did two days of interior shoots for Air Bed and Breakfast this weekend. It’s a very cool concept – connecting extra rooms, beds and futons with traveling folks who need a place to stay. The site’s just launched and already has listings for New York and San Francisco. Expect some listings from DC soon!

Lots of fantastic stuff this year – Ronald McDonald, Screech & The Presidents, a dancing robot, taiko drumming, tons of cosplay, music, hand massages, candy-making, cooking demos, miniature railroads, Go, handscrafts, chicken on a stick and more…

“If you use any online social network tool, the single most important first impression you make is with the 3600 to 5000 pixels you get for your tiny picture.”

That’s a quote from Seth Godin this week. Like most of his advice, he keeps it short, sweet and to the point by listing ten things you can do to avoid wrecking that first impression.

I might be biased but personally, I think the first one is the most important: “Have a professional or a dedicated amateur take your picture.”

It’s coming soon! Opening Ceremony is officially on Saturday but the super-fun, all day street festival will be April 4th, complete with parade, Japanese food, lots of fantastic activities for kids, music, martial arts & dance performances and plenty of other stuff to see, smell and hear. I move around quite a bit but you might see me as well, working as an official photographer for the festival. I’ll be photographing a wider variety of activities this year but here’s some pictures from last year for you to enjoy:

Learning calligraphy in the Kids’ Tent

Trying on a typical elementary student’s randoseru and rain hat in the Kids’ Tent.

Celebrating 2008, year of the rat.

Spinning plates in the Kids’ Tent – Getting them started is easy but keeping them going is hard! And oh, so satisfying…

Learning to use chopsticks in the Kids’ Tent

Thanks to everybody who came out to see me at Pecha Kucha! It was a great night, definitely the best Pecha Kucha I’ve been too since coming back to DC. I’ll actually get to do my presentation again in an expanded format with a Q&A session for a group of Student Ambassadors traveling to Japan with People to People on April 25th.

If you don’t know about this organization, check it out. The work they do is really cool and definitely needed. It’s really nice to be involved with what the JET Program called “internationalization” and introducing kids to the wider world around them.