Today is National Coming Out Day in the UK.  It’s a day to celebrate coming out and to raise awareness of LGBT issues around the world.  It is usually a day of happiness and camaraderie with reflections on the hardships of coming out.  This year it is marked with incredible sadness.

Seth Walsh, 13; Billy Lucas, 15; Tyler Clementi, 18; Asher Brown, 13; Zach Harrington, 19, took their lives this year.  They were bullied, harassed and tormented for being gay.

Their deaths are tragic and an incredible loss to their families and communities.  They were promising youths that could have achieved great things in this world – if only their peers and elders had been more accepting. Read more →

The United Planning Organization is a community action agency in Washington, DC that serves to empower and educate residents through events and training.  Earlier this month they held an event on sustainable living in the newly reopened Eastern Market on Capitol Hill.  I was along to photograph the event and provide material for their new website.  A selection of photos is below.  Click to expand.

Buddha Bar, the swank bar well-known in cities like New York, Cairo and London, opened in Washington yesterday to a grand opening with famous-for-DC types.  I was asked by the designer’s public relations team to document the event and space.  It was a fun event and should be a welcome addition to the fancier lounging crowd.  A selection of photos is below.  Click to enlarge.

What began as a routine errands trip turned into a little tourism jaunt to the tidal basin to take this year’s requisite cherry blossom photos.  They’re not in full bloom yet, but they’re on their way.  More enjoyable was the annual kite festival that kicks off the two week National Cherry Blossom Festival each year.  The air around the Washington Monument was filled with hundreds of kites trying to avoid or fight each other.

I feel like it’s required of any amateur photographer to spend at least three hours getting the “perfect” photo of these Sakura blossoms at every angle imaginable.  Not one to miss out on the fun, I took a fair shot (even though they look a little sad in this snap).  Take a look.

It snowed a bit in Washington this week.  Two storms, nicknamed ‘snowmageddon’ and ‘snoverkill’, shut down the government, schools and universities for about six days.  It was good fun for a time.  Now we get to dig out…or just skip.

See photos.

I met up with the Fojol Bros, (and snapped this pic of) DC’s newest and most buzz-worthy street food option, on Memorial Day at the Navy Memorial during the parade.  I had wanted to partake in their served-from-a-carnival-on-wheels Indian food for a while but never seemed to match their schedule.  The timing was perfect.

I wouldn’t have found them if it hadn’t been for their Tweets.  They communicate with fans by announcing their location on Twitter, and they were right around the corner.  They move through DC blaring music, donned in kitschy outfits and looking nothing like an authority on anything Indian.  But the food is great, the utensils are biodegradable and the price is right.

I snapped the photo above with one hand while holding a cup of chicken masala in my left, posted it to Flickr! and got a note from the Bros.  They sent it out to some press and it wound up here, in the August issue of DC Magazine.

They’re definitely seizing the power of social networking to build a scrumptious business model.  Follow them at @fojolbros and fojol.com.