Originally posted on the Intern Edition blog for NPR.

Every year, right around the end of March, rumblings of the elephant walk start to surface.

Yes, that’s right. The Elephant Walk.

In advance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus opening at the Verizon Center this week, the streets of DC turn into a pre-circus parade of elephants, clowns and other entertaining animals. It’s really a clever way to generate interest in the event while masking it’s true intent – moving the massive pachyderms from the circus train’s station in Southeast, up past the Capitol for a photo op, and on to the final venue in Chinatown.

Since I’ve lived in the city, I’ve tried to get to the elephant walk to see the spectacle. And every year, I’ve missed it. This year was a close call – those elephants walk fast! I followed @DCElephantWalk on Twitter to keep updated with their location, and still I barely made it to the Verizon center to see the parade. Thankfully, the clowns were out and about afterward to meet with the crowd.

Some love the elephant walk. Others decry it as animal cruelty. I opt to put aside my adult brain and indulge my inner 10-year old.

I love elephants. And I love a good photo op.

Seen at 9:00am (ish) on my way to work. I think it was outside of Hooters.

Not a sprinkle was out of place, not a smudge in the frosting.

I do not know its fate. I hope that someone hungry found it, cleaned it off, and didn’t go hungry for an entire day. I know it sounds gross to us, but it was fresh, and there are quite a few homeless people who hang around the Gallery Place area for whom this may have been like finding pure gold. I wish I could do more (or anything, really) to help them.

I wish I could do more to help so many.

But all I can do is take pictures.

My best friend Diane got married in Chicago two weekends ago. It was awesome.

I still haven’t gone through the rest of the photos from that trip. That’s not so awesome.

I’ll get to it, Diane.
Sometime soon.
I hope.

Before.



After.



Baked.



Enjoyed.



Gone.

The NPPA Student Quarterly Clip Contest results were announced today.

“Of House and Home” won 3rd place in Multimedia.

Amazing. Really, really amazing.

And thank you to the judges, too. It’s nice to read / hear some of the reasoning why a particular photo or story won in a category. I’m pleased to see that my love for this story and connection with my awesome subject was visible to them, too. Here’s the [edited] comment about my story.

Judges’ comments for the category

We were very impressed with several of the entries, although two stood out above the others. After the first two places were decided, we had a difficult choice for third place. [...] Third place was a tougher call, but it won based on the depth of connection to the subject and the intimacy achieved in both the visuals and the audio. This is a tough story to cover, and the photographer found an excellent subject and stayed with her.

Peter Southwick, Associate Professor of Journalism and director of the photojournalism program, Boston University
Joe Lippincott, adjunct professor of journalism, Boston University
Dominick Reuter, freelance photographer and director of technology for photojournalism, Boston University

Thank you.

Every day, I ride the metro. And every day, I sit with my camera in my hands thinking, “Another day on the metro. Nothing interesting happening here.” But still I sit there, camera in hand.

Just in case the lights turn out for thirty seconds.