My wife, Jenny, and I traveled to her family’s place in Michigan City, Indiana for the 4th of July this year. Beer, food, horseshoes and fun relatives always make it a great time. As is tradition, Jenny’s uncle Dave put on his fireworks extravaganza after sundown. Here are some of the images from the hour-long pyrotechnic show.

Another long hot Memorial Day weekend has come and gone. Why is it always seem to be unbearably hot on this weekend?

The holiday began for me on Thursday when for the first time I went to photograph the “Flags-in” ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. For the past 40 years, the 3rd U.S. Infantry or Old Guard has honored America’s fallen by placing small American flags in front of more than 260,000 headstones of service members buried at Arlington National Cemetery just prior to Memorial Day weekend. An amazing process that is completed in about 4 hours.

Unfortunately it begins at 4:00pm, a bit too early for great light, but it does get better toward the end. It was really something special to witness.

I went to cover the candlelight vigil on Friday evening at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also known as The Wall. I have been going there for about 5 years now as part of a long term project on loss from war. My goal each year is to try to come back with one or two good photos that are somehow different from the thousands of images that have been shot there.

I was really pleased with the one above. Part waiting and part luck.

I was there a few hours early and seeing the sky getting dark, I was wondering if this was going to be another rain-soaked vigil. Seems most every time I come to do this event it rains. The lightning was flashing and the wind was picking up as people where starting to scatter. I decided to hang around when I noticed two members of Rolling Thunder determined to find their comrade’s name on The Wall before the skies opened up. I made the photo seconds before the rains came.

The storm blew through really quick and the vigil went on as planned.

On Sunday I had an assignment to cover Sarah Palin participating in the Rolling Thunder Ride and the circus that it promised to be. Since I knew it would be impossible to find her in all the riders as they came though the city, I figured it would be best to catch her at the beginning. I went to the staging area at the Pentagon early to try and hunt her down.

Since there was a lot of questions about if Rolling Thunder actually even wanted her there, I did not want to run around asking everyone if they had seen her yet. I found out where the T.V. people where and since the first camera guy I saw was with Fox News, I figured that would be a good place to hang out and listen.

Soon the rest of the wire services and the Washington Post showed up, so I knew I was in the right place and we all just waited.

Of course, she showed up 30 minutes before the start and it was a zoo. Picture about 20 media people, Rolling Thunder participants, and Rolling Thunder officials all trying to get close, with about thirty or so $40,000 motorcycles all in the way. It was a recipe for disaster. I still cannot believe that a bike did not get knocked over and someone didn’t get killed by an angry biker.

I managed to get some images of the chaos and after they started the ride I caught a lift back to the city with photographer Lucian Perkins and we made our way to the rally stage to see if we could catch up with her again.

After the chaos of Sunday, I was hoping Memorial Day Monday would be an easier day. No assignment, just my annual trip to Arlington National Cemetery. But with the heat pushing the high nineties and high humidity, it was another scorcher.

I have been going to Arlington’s Section 60 for about 5 years now for this personal project. It is not easy to make photographs there since you cannot help but feel like you are intruding. I always try to keep my distance and be respectful. It never ceases to amaze me though, just how nice and welcoming the majority of the families and friends of the fallen soldiers are to me and any of the media the happens to be there. Of course there are always some that would much rather be left alone, and I always respect that. You can tell when someone would rather you not photograph them. But for the most part, it seems that they want the rest of the world to know and understand the loss they are feeling. They welcome the chance to talk about their husbands and wives or sons and daughters that have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. There is so much sadness, but also so much pride.

The President made a surprise appearance to Section 60 following the official Memorial Day events in another part of the Cemetery. He and the First Lady stopped to speak to the family members and offer their condolences. Most everyone seemed to appreciate the gesture and the President was surrounded by people looking to get a photo or have a chance to tell him about their loved one.

He stayed for about 40 minutes, but you definitely got the impression that he would have stayed all day if he could. But eventually the secret service ushered him away.

Palin was not allowed to speak to the crowd, so after mingling with some of the Gold Star Mothers and Rolling Thunder officials, she left the venue.

I have started work on a personal project about a neighborhood in Washington, D.C. I am still in the research/recon part of the project, trying to meet people in the area and getting the lay of the land. I have shot a few images. Not sure if I like them and not sure if I will keep them, but we all have to start somewhere.

The H Street Corridor is a commercial and residential district just to the northeast of Union Station. It is also known as Old City, Capitol Hill North, and Cap Valley.

The H Street neighborhood was one of Washington’s earliest and busiest commercial districts, and was the location of the first Sears store in D.C., but it went into decline after World War II.

When five days of race riots erupted in D.C. following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington’s innericity economy was devastated . Businesses were closed or destroyed and thousands of jobs were lost. City residents departed for suburban areas causing property values to plummet. Crime in the burned out neighborhoods rose discouraging investment. On many of the blocks, only rubble remained for decades.

Businesses did not start to recover until 2002 when the District of Columbia Office of Planning initiated a community-based planning effort to help revitalize the corridor. Because it is nearly a mile and a half long, the resulting development plan divided H Street into 3 districts: The Urban Living District (between 2nd and 7th Streets NE), The Central Retail District (between 7th and 12th Streets NE), and The Arts and Entertainment District (between 12th and 15th Streets NE).

During the day, there is not much to see. Lots of construction is going on as they rebuild the infrastructure and prepare the main road for a trolley system. There are still a lot of empty businesses and panhandlers. It has a very depressed feeling after leaving the main part of the city. In the evening, there is a strip of recently opened clubs that turns the area into a mecca for nightlife seekers from the rest of the city.

I plan to spend as long as it takes to get to know as many of the people in this neighborhood as possible and gain a good feel for what the area is all about. I think it is going to be interesting.

The farmlands of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario are among the most productive in North America. Many of the farmers here are different though, but different by choice. They are the Old Order Mennonites, sometimes called the ‘Plain People,’ they trace their heritage back hundreds of years.

Despite all the advances in clothing, technology, agriculture, housing, and society, their community exists in a time capsule, living like their 19th century forefathers.

Though the population is dwindling, an estimated 17,000 adult Old Order Mennonites to 224,000 in other similar groups, families still pass on the traditions.

James Rhodes and his wife, Mary Ethel, born and raised in the Dayton, Virginia community, not far from the home in which they are now raising 8 of their 9 children as Old Order Mennonites.

Old Order Mennonite is a term for the Mennonite groups who dress plainly and reject modern technologies. They put the disciplined church community, rather than individual religious experience, at the center of their Christian faith.

I try to make myself take a camera everywhere. This is not always practical and sometimes I end up looking like Joe tourist but now that I think about it, that may be an advantage. I was going to write about carrying the camera everywhere in the off chance a photo shows up. Making photographs is good when working, but when you are showing your in-laws the sights of D.C., you really cannot spend time creating images. But you never know when one will be found.

The Joe tourist “advantage” is that with a single camera, small lens and no motor drive, you look like everyone else on the street with a camera. Well maybe that is not entirely true since most people carry point and shoots or just use their cell phone cameras, but you get the point.

Anyway, the point is that I was wandering D.C with the in-laws and found a photo in the process. I don’t know if it is great one, but I like it.

My wife, Jenny, and I made a trip to Pittsburgh recently so she could attend a conference for her job. I decided to spend some time in the Strip District and see if I could make some interesting images. Now before everyone starts smirking, I need to say that the Strip District is a clothing REQUIRED area of the city. The Strip is a one-half square mile area of land just north of the city that is a historic market district with many ethnic food purveyors, art studios, antique dealers, unique boutiques and produce, seafood and ethnic food wholesalers.

Unfortunately we were not there over a Friday or Saturday night, when the area comes alive with nightlife, and the weather was not really cooperating either. Here are a few of the images from the trip.

My wife, Jenny as we wait for the train.

“If you are leaving downtown D.C. for the East Falls Church station, is it a bad thing if you end up in L’Enfant Plaza station twice?”

OK. The D.C. Metro cannot be that difficult, even after a few drinks. But last night I apparently thought it would be fun to take my lovely bride on an unscheduled tour of D.C.’s finer metro stops.

The night began by realizing that we could have taken the metro to a station just a block away from the Capital Grill where we would be dining. But the 20 minute walk from Metro Center in sub freezing temperatures seemed like more fun. Of course we decided that the closer station was the best way out after dinner, but that meant changing trains… It seems that this is a bit of a problem for me even though I am usually great at navigation.

So we get on the Yellow line (or was it green) and went one stop south to L’Enfant Plaza. Here we can catch the Orange line to our final destination. Simple right?

Well either it was the couple of drinks, me not paying attention, or the fact I was trying to get this photo of Jenny with the burred train arriving that got me off track, that resulted in us getting on the Blue line instead of the Orange. (This would be easier if the damn things where actually painted the color of the route.)

Now this would have been obvious a lot sooner if the next SEVEN stops where not exactly the same as if we where on the correct Orange line train. But after the Rossyln stop all of a sudden I saw the stop for Arlington Cemetery. OOPS. “Jen, we are on the wrong train.”

I will not post her response to that.

No problem. Get off at the next stop. Pentagon City and wait for the train going in the opposite direction. Yeah.

Of course, I screwed up again and we got on the next train (Yellow line) that took us back into D.C. and the all too familiar L-Enfant Plaza.

This time we got it right.

I have realized though that the D.C. metro is a fertile ground for people watching, which kept us entertained in addition to our navigational incompetence, as well as photos. I think I could ride for hours and find all kind of photos. Below is a sample of the few images that I shot while touring the Metro D.C. area by train.

Comments welcome.

Washington D.C. Metro – Images by Pete Marovich

Well I ventured out into the storm today to see what I could find near my home. Here are some of the images from downtown Herndon and Dulles Airport. The snow has stopped now but the winds are pretty strong.

Here are some scenes from Washington, D.C. on Sunday following the great snow.

Someone wrote a plea for help on a car in Herndon, Va following what people we calling an epic snow in Northern Virginia and D.C. Metro area.

I decided to take a stroll around tonight to see if there was anything interesting to photograph after the snow stopped falling. There were a lot of people out in our apartment complex digging out their cars. Something that I will have to get busy with if I want to get to the city tomorrow for more snow photos.

For some reason this always looks prettier in real life.

A man takes a break from shoveling snow at his apartment complex in Herndon, Va following what people we calling an epic snow in Northern Virginia and D.C. Metro area.

Men dig out their cars at their apartment complex in Herndon, Va following what people we calling an epic snow in Northern Virginia and D.C. Metro area.

Shopping carts are snowbound in a supermarket parking lot in Hendon, Va. following what people we calling an epic snow in Northern Virginia and D.C. Metro area.