Kneejerk Imagery

My chance encounter with Corbett and his family was an awesome surprise experience, and upon asking if I could photograph their mobile Lab/Home, I was granted an opportunity to grab a couple snaps.The subject matter of their educational seminar is remarkably relevant to my interests in self-sufficient, sustainable living, as the concepts presented are foundational elements to the engineering of a high-efficiency homestead.

Nimbus by John Lucia Via Flickr: Photos of Nimbus Wolf, a fun mint green wolf character!

Baltimore City Kid by John Lucia Via Flickr: Ran into this kid while I was hunting for vantage points for the Baltimore Then & Now set. I saw him walking down the sidewalk as I was setting up for a shot of the Lexington Building. He seemed really intrigued, and after a stumble of nervousness came up to talk to me. The usual question, "Are you a photographer", opened the conversation, and then he went on about how avid he is about doing video work. I was probably shorter with him than I should have been, my focus was on setting up a shot and I wasn't my most conversational. Eventually he asked if I would take his picture, which I was more than happy to do, and then texted it to him with instruction to use it as he pleased. He was super thankful and seemed almost giddy about the whole thing. As he was leaving I left him with some half-assed sage words, "Keep it up with the video work, that stuff is the future, we still shooters are old hat". Don't even know if I agree with myself in retrospect, but what's said is said. If any Baltimore locals who follow this account perhaps know this kid, please let me know. Would love to actually, you know, have a name to the face, or maybe even look up some of his video work. :)

It’s always a good time to be an enormous dork among fellow dork friends.

Equus at Baltimore Artscape 2015 by John Lucia Via Flickr: Shots of my good friend Equus at Baltimore's iconic event, Artscape.

A very happy fourth to everyone.  :)

Happy fourth...

I’ve had my beardy girl for 8 years now. She’s healthy. She’s always been healthy. But I’ll be pretty crushed once she’s gone. That glow of eternal disapproval is essential to my everyday.

I’m having a hard time these days getting over how wildly applicable this face is to my every day. Seems like every year I’ve been more out of control of my life than the year prior. Weird how that coincides with measure of success each year. Everything is insane, nothing is sustainable, but I’m not dead yet so it continues.

Happy father’s day to my daddeo. The only guy I know who thinks a 70+ mile bike ride is a warm up (but hey, hell of a role model in regards to healthy living there!).  :)

NoVA Art by John Lucia Via Flickr: Did some digging on the origins of this fellow. It's apparently named "The Thought" and was sculpted by the late Robert T. Cole, famed for many alike metal sculptures. His mindset was that sculpture should be "...outdoors and monumental", and his pieces have been showcased not only here at Tysons West (in front of a Walmart...) but also in the U Street Corridor, Logan and Dupont Circle neighborhoods of Washington DC. His technique involved direct manipulation of the metal (as opposed to casting a mold), meaning the shape of his sculpture was achieved through tentative hammering, cutting and welding. He passed at 74 of lung cancer.

The Yo by John Lucia Via Flickr: I've been super into Yoyo play since November of last year. Picked up a Fireball from Yomega just for kicks, then started learning string tricks. Kinda of at a cap right now, but could stand to learn more. This is my current yoyo of choice (but really that's only because I buy local, not online... Toys r Us TAKE MY MONEY!).

Snaps at Maryland's annual Preakness Hot Air Balloon Festival in Turf Valley.

DC life.

Concrete City is the iconic historical landmark of a small town tucked into the mountains of Coal Country Pennsylvania, Nanticoke. A piece of early American International Architecture, an unornate modernist style characteristically devoid of personality, Concrete City was built as employee housing for workers of the Delaware, Lackawana and Western Railroad's coal division of miners in 1911. The same company abandoned the tract housing project in 1924 after 13 years of bi-annual repair and repainting of the buildings, which presented the unanticipated side effect of sponging moisture up through the porous concrete. The Glen Alden Company bought the property with intention to raze it, but the construction of each building proved so sturdy that even heavy blasts of dynamite failed to collapse their structure. It has sat in increasingly blighted condition ever since, periodically seeing use in military and emergency service training exercises, scheduled paintball tournaments an ATV races. More frequently, it is the haunt of graffiti artists and curious photographers or disaffected youth simply exploring the world around them. I've made two trips to the locale myself. Much like Maryland's former landmark abandonment, Henryton, it is generally uninteresting from any architectural or directly engaging standpoint. It's simply a calm place to be. Though not separated from civilization by a great distance, it is detached enough from the hustle and bustle of common routine to allow one to simply sit, listen, and exist without thought to obligation or pretext. There are fewer and fewer places these days where one can simply be aware of the world without distraction of media saturation. For that, this area is one of my favorites. A place to simply be.

Pigeon poop is rated highly in Baltimore City tourism trends.