#johnjackphotography

This started out as my twenty favorite photos from 2015.  Which turned out to be an impossible challenge. I took 43,265 photos last year focused on my 5 specialty areas: Weddings, Events, Sports, Portraits, and Landscapes.  A couple thousand of those photos ended up on my John Jack Photography page on Facebook.  Even more went to clients who hosted them on their Facebook pages or shared them privately with family & friends.  I get very invested personally in each and every photograph.  Asking me to choose my twenty “favorites” is a bit like asking which of your children you love most.  I love them all for different and varied reasons.   So, what I put together here is a sampling of photos you might not have seen.  I chose them for a wide variety of reasons which I tried to explain in the captions where appropriate.  Hope you enjoy them! And I hope to see all of you with my camera in 2016! www.johnjackphotography.com

CREATING A LEGACY. August 7, 2015. I take a lot of DC Sports photos. Stonewall Sports, District Sports, DCGFFL, PeacePlayers International were each on the other end of my lens in 2015.  Each sport and each league is fun to photograph. It is almost like each of them is a person with a unique personality. And the DC leagues are non-profits who give back or support the DC community in various ways. So I am proud to support and promote them, too. This photo is from the annual Columbia Heights Youth Summer Soccer Tournament at the Bell/Lincoln field sponsored by Districts Sports. It is fun to capture the energy and exuberance of youth.  And, as a photographer, I also like to imagine one day the young women in this photo might show my work to their grandchildren while telling the story of their soccer days. 

WINTRY WHITE HOUSE.  February 21, 2015.  I lugged all my equipment down 16th Street NW from my condo near Meridian Hill Park in the snow and freezing rain to get this shot.  When I got there, a police officer told me I could not use my tripod. The White House website said I could use a tripod on the sidewalk where I setup, but it was too cold to argue with her.  So I moved closer to the White House fence and used one of the bars to steady my camera.  And I was rewarded with this pretty cool shot of the White House covered in snow.

WIG NIGHT OUT. January 31, 2015. WNO is annual charitable event benefitting Point Foundation that has raised $15,000 since its inception. Point Foundation (Point) is the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students of merit. Point promotes change through scholarship funding, mentorship, leadership development, and community service training.  WNO attendees wear regular street clothes topped off with the craziest wig they can find.  This year’s event was held again at Town Danceboutique at 2009 8th Street NW.     

CHERRY BLOSSOM GHOST. April 15, 2015. I screw a Neutral Density Filter onto my lens each year when I photograph the cherry blossoms. It allows me to take long exposure photos where all the people “ghost out” of the scene as long as they do not stand still for more than 3 or 4 seconds.  I had been trying to get this shot for almost an hour.  I had arrived at 5:30AM this morning to take sunrise photos so I was getting tired and impatient.  Each time I almost thought I had the shot, a someone would stop for just a bit too long.  I finally gave up.  I almost didn’t even look at these shots because I thought none of them were what I wanted.  But when I pulled them up on my computer, I instantly spotted this one! The gentleman in the hat and overcoat had lingered just long enough to show up in the shot, but not long enough to be more than a slight shadow.  It was perfect. A 5 foot wide print of this photo now hangs over the fireplace in the upstairs dining room at Floriana Restaurant, 1601 17th Street NW. 

SNOWSHOE -37 DEGREES! February 15, 2015. A few of us planned to go skiing in Snowshoe, West Virginia over Valentine’s Day. Washington’s Birthday was on the Monday so it was a three day weekend! When the trip was planned, no one had any idea how much the temperature would plummet. After braving 37 below zero temps to ski and enjoy a nice dinner together on Saturday, we were not anxious to brave the cold again on Sunday morning.  But, as the sun came out, going out on the deck to see if water really froze in sub-zero weather seemed like a good idea. This photo captured the first attempt before we Googled it and learned the trick was to start with boiling water! I have subsequent photos using a pan of boiling water, but I like this one best. 

SOMETIMES YOU WIN. November 15, 2015. And sometimes you lose.  Sports photography in DC can be tricky at night since the field lighting is often a bit spotty.  So this isn’t my most crisp photo.  But I still love this photo from Stonewall Kickball’s Fall Season final championship game.  You can clearly see all the emotion captured at the exact moment the game ended.  Pretty clear who just won, who just lost, and who each spectator was hoping would win. 

JUST DANCE.  December 2, 2015.  My second time photographing the Entertainment Software Association’s annual holiday party.  Photographing the guests playing the latest version of the “Just Dance” video game is always the best part of an already fun evening!  You can’t help but smile and laugh with her each time you see this photo. Everyone should enjoy life this much.

CELEBRATE THE WINS.  July 19, 2015.  Annual Stonewall Tournament.  Stonewall leagues from all over the country came together in the nation’s Capitol to compete.  And, as you can probably tell, this team from DC won the tournament’s Kickball championship at Stead Field.  I was way back in the outfield when they popped this bottle of water and started spraying each other and hopping up and down. Thank you, telephoto lens! 

EXCHANGING RINGS. October 10, 2015.  This wedding ceremony was at the DC World War Memorial which is a rotunda structure that honors those District of Columbia citizens who served and died in World War I. This photo is a closeup of Steven and Paul exchanging rings.  The venue on the National Mall, the early Fall weather & perfect natural light, and the still recent Supreme Court ruling all conspired to make this photo pretty special.  

SUPREME COURT RULING. June 26, 2015. 11:40PM.  JR’s Bar hung a pride flag in their entrance on the night of the Supreme Court ruling validating marriage as a constitutional right for same-sex couples.  Word got out to stop by JR’s to sign the rainbow flag and everyone did!  The flag is now framed and hangs inside JR’s at 1519 17th Street NW to commemorate that day and everyone from all over DC who celebrated together that night. JR’s Manager, David Perruzza, is proudly holding the flag in this photo. 

WEDDING PORTRAIT.  May 31, 2015.  Ayman & Esra were married at the Hilton Garden Inn Fairfax. After the ceremony, as their guests were settling into cocktails, we went across the street to this little trail in the woods.  The light and shadows were just perfect as you can see from this photo. And they were both naturals at striking the right pose.  It reminds me of a painting you might see at the National Portrait Gallery.   Timeless. 

STONEWALL DODGEBALL. July 19, 2015.  Also during the Annual Stonewall Tournament weekend.  This player was from New York.  I have yet to learn his name. As you can see, he is capable of flying half way up the wall.  What you might not realize is he caught the ball in his hands while suspended in mid-air. He then used it to deflect the two balls in the foreground. At the moment the shutter snapped, he was in the process of deflecting the other ball that appears to be sitting on top of the ball in his hands.  This all happened in the span of a few seconds. Amazing. Holding the other team at bay all by himself. 

PEACHES IN CHINATOWN. August 26, 2015.  Peaches is a local DC performer who will one day be on RuPaul’s “Drag Race”.  Only a matter of time. We planned to meet up in Chinatown for this photo shoot shortly after rush hour.  The crowds were amazing and tourists probably took more photos of us than I took of Peaches and the group.  I love this one in particular since everyone is in character as they strut across H Street NW,  Then you notice the guy with his earbuds whose expression seems to say “what is going on around me and am I in this?!”  LOL. The photos were used in the light boxes at Duplex Diner at 2004 18th Street NW to promote Peaches’ show “Room Service”. 

PLAYING WITH PERSPECTIVES.  April 11, 2015.  The Washington Monument is 555 feet tall. The MLK Memorial is 30 feet tall.  But Martin Luther King, Jr appears to be just as tall as the Washington Monument in this photo.  The cherry blossoms were in bloom so I made the photo B&W to avoid the blossoms’ color distracting you from the interesting focal point. I also cropped the photo to highlight the quote from MLK’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. 

CAMDEN COUNTY BOATHOUSE. November 29, 2015.  A high school friend took a photo of this view with her phone.  She posted it on Facebook with a comment wondering what I could have done with my camera if I’d been with her.  I thought she had travelled somewhere, maybe New England, for Thanksgiving.  A few days later, I am riding my bike around the Cooper River and see this exact same building. Not far from our old high school.  This was not part of the 346 acre Cooper River Park in the 70′s! I had my Nikon and, as you can see, the lighting was perfect and the river was a mirror.  I love when random things come together like that to make an awesome photo better. 

DANCE LIKE NOBODY’S WATCHING. August 22, 2015.  The month of August in DC can be miserable. Humid, hot, yuck.  But the weather was perfect on the day of Ann & Keith’s wedding at Anderson House (just a block off Dupont Circle).  Sunny with temps in the low 80′s and no humidity.  The ceremony & reception were perfect, too.   While not my most flattering photo of this very good looking couple,  I chose it because I love photos that show raw emotion and this one does that like no other.  The bride and groom are lost together in the moment as they sing and “dance like nobody’s watching” at their wedding reception. Makes me simultaneously smile and tear up a bit each time I see it.

RIGHT PLACE. RIGHT TIME. May 8, 2015.  Arsenal of Democracy. WWII Victory Flyover.  The 70th anniversary of VE-Day.  I met a friend on the Watergate Steps on the bank of the Potomac River behind the Lincoln Memorial. We camped out waiting for the flyover, not really knowing what to expect or even exactly how they would approach the spot we chose.  70 WWII era planes flew down the Potomac and pretty much over our heads.  I was getting some pretty cool shots, but not what I wanted.  Then the pilot of this Douglas A-26 Invader flew out over the Arlington Memorial Bridge just a bit more than the others in his formation.  As he corrected his flight path, he tipped his left wing down just enough for me to get a clear shot of the cockpit.  Thanks again, telephoto lens!

PROGRESSIVE DINNER. April 18, 2015.  A private annual event that raises thousands of dollars for DC charity.  About 200 friends participate & host a 3 course meal at 3 different venues.  Each course includes entertainment.  The dessert course this year was held in a parking garage about to be torn down.  The ground floor was festively & elegantly decorated to look like a circus complete with performers & little circus tents covering all the sugary treats.  I got a lot of cool photos that night including this one of the bearded lady!  

CHERRY BLOSSOM SUNRISE. April 15, 2015.  The cherry blossoms peaked on April 10th this year.  My schedule was crazy and I could not make it down there to take sunrise photos until 5 days later.  But it turned out fine.  The sunrise was magnificent on this particular morning.  And there were still a ton of blossoms on the trees. As a bonus, petals also now scattered like pink snow all around the Tidal Basin. Sometimes procrastination pays off.