[UPDATE 5/22 4:00PM:  ANC5C Meeting Tuesday May 22, All Nations Baptist Church, 2001 North Capitol Street NE, 7 - 9 pm -- PUD, agenda, and more details can be found here]

Just a few blocks north of where we live in Washington, DC, there is a 25-acre area of fields, manholes, towers, underground chambers, and machine shops–McMillan Sand Filtration Plant.  This slow sand filtration plant was a product of the McMillan Plan of the early 20th century, which, in my interpretation, basically sought to clean up the mess that was the District at that time.  From around 1905 until a replacement facility went online in 1985 (aptly called a rapid sand filter plan), this site cleaned Potomac River water for District citizens’ use by way of giant, underground, sand filters.  From the very beginning, until fear of water supply sabotage surfaced, citizens could wander the fields or bike around the towers, as public use (both in the general, as well as the specific, sense) was firmly part of the vision that pre-eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. and others designed into the site.

Now, the bad news (wait, what was the good news?).

This land is slated for development by 5 separate developers; only a small slice of the land is planned for public use.  The current planned future uses include:

• – commercial office buildings (major portion)
• – mixed-income housing (major portion)
• – retail spaces (mixed in)
• – townhomes (southernmost portions)
• – park / historical site (a small portion of the land between the townhomes and the mixed-income housing, including one of the twenty cells preserved for historical value)

Given the development plans, the city opened the site to the public this past Saturday; my wife and I had a chance to check it out make some images.

Now, one of the jokes regarding music photography is that you always end up shooting in the dark.  In fact, I tend to think of it more along the lines of the art term chiarascuro (literally, light-dark) where deep tonal contrast between light and darkness implies form.  In these enormous, underground sand cells (each, an acre), there was no shortage of darkness, but, just like music, there was also no end to the varieties of light, and overall, I got the impression that I was standing in the sand-floored dungeons of an ancient Roman coliseum, rather than a 20th-century Army Corps of Engineers project.

At a site such as this, a photographer’s thoughts go rapidly from “neat place” to “gargantuan place” to “creepy, scary place” to “amazing place” fairly quickly.  Here’s a set of images to illustrate.  Processing-wise, I slammed the blacks a bit and lifted the lights, giving something between what Ansel might have done to show the midtones, and what a Renaissance artist might have ended up with with gouache and ink.

Above ground at the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant.

The view over one of the 20 cells at the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant. The site is about to be developed.

One of the few signs of water, a drip comes down the underside of one of the towers.

The entrance into one of 20 underground cells, each a gargantuan sand filter.

At first, the inside seems scary, daunting, dirty.

Quickly, severe beauty emerges.

Industrial beauty comes out, as well.

One of 20 cells, long shutter speeds lend to a cathedral feel.

Photographers abound: a handful of sand is tossed into a shaft of light.

If one's more interested in studio-like light, this place provides. Here's my beautiful wife in magical, natural light.

Finally, if you’re interested in getting involved with this at the local level (the exact amount of land to be used for a park is still being debated, for example), there is a Bloomingdale Civic Association meeting tonight (May 21, 2012 at 7p.m., St. George`s Episcopal Church, 160 U Street, NW) and an Historic Preservation Review Board meeting this Thursday (5/24).  If you’re from Bloomingdale and would like to vote tonight, make sure your dues is paid up.

Scratch’s show was part lecture, part music, where somehow the sounds and beats seemed to make points between the points he was making with the words he was actually saying.  He had the crowd in a sort of trance.

A prominent reaction that night was one of child-like fascination.

(Always near him: his suitcase.)

At the end of the night, I was fortunate enough to run into him backstage, and I asked if I could grab a shot of him with the aforementioned suitcase.  After a few words about not normally mugging for cameras, he smiled and became simultanously spry and gracious.  Here’s the shot I’m thankful for:

Thanks, Scratch–Respect.

Having been part of a number of startups (the most recent being that little $2B startup called XM), as well as having gotten sober between those early days and now, this hits hard for me.  Luckily, although it is available, I don’t think I’ll be registering that domain.

It definitely qualifies as a worldly graffiti shot, but the back story is fun, too.  My wife Stacey and I had been wandering through the very-old neighborhood of Casco Viejo, looking for a place to eat.

We came across a row of abandoned mansions, and we watched as skateboarder after skateboarder climbed over a few weeds and through the foundation in order to get out on the back deck.  We eyed the unlikely view in:

We followed a few kids in, and found an overgrown pool…

…as well as ramps, rails, and graffiti–a makeshift skatepark with a real estate agent’s dream view back over the bay towards downtown Panama City.  We hung out with the skateboarders and shot them as the sun went down.

After the sun fell low, a few of them invited Stacey and I to a show at a local bar/music venue called Banos Publicos (yup–public bathrooms).  This little hole-in-the-wall–which actually had been a public bathroom at some point in its past–cradled a get-together of friends and aspiring recording artists.  Beer was sold in cans from a cooler, and CDs hung from strings from the ceiling.  For a little color, the vocalist screamed to show his harder side…

and crooned to show his softer one.

After the band’s set, we thanked our new friend Jason (pictured below), exchanged emails, and headed off to a great seafood dinner.  Magical!

When doing technical work, the more I can dedicate a particular tool to a particular job, the fewer mistakes I make with the technology itself.  This goes for soft technology like macros in Excel or pre-sets in Lightroom or Compressor, or even which settings in an iPhone app to use, as well as the settings of more physical tools like strobes or cameras.  Thus, while on tour with See-I in Colorado last March, I ran three different kinds of rigs–one dedicated to stills that would be compiled into time lapse video, one dedicated to HD video at cinema camera-like settings, and one purely dedicated to stills (quickly moving between on-stage and backstage/b-roll settings here is always a good test of nimbleness).

So, on to the show!

Premiered last week in preparation for See-I’s upcoming further-West-coast tour, and produced/shot/directed/edited by me, here’s their latest video!

See-I in Colorado! [Tour Video] from Jesse Justice on Vimeo.

Here are some of my favorite short moments.

Zoe, of course, is amazing:

David on the full kit, while he and Tommy switched places for a bit…

Tommy back on the full kit:

Double dancers with double masks and double feathers:

Now, what happens when some of the feathers drop into one of those hotlights?  Although it may look like he’s fanning the flames, this fan might have saved some lives.

So, what’s that saying about the most important thing in real estate–PERCUSSION, PERCUSSION, PERCUSSION?

Costumes begat costumes…

Fans begat signs…

Rough housing ensued…

…and then love!

Check out the rest of the set HERE!

Another motion picture, this one’s from April 23, 2011, of The Empresarios performing — “La Nota” live at Artisphere!

For more videos, hit http://vimeo.com/jessejustice!

I’ve been shooting and editing video lately–here’s one from last month of See-I performing “The Punanny Song” at Eighteenth Street Lounge!

For more videos, hit http://vimeo.com/jessejustice!

First, here’s the flagship image from the recent album art shoot for “By the Hand” that’s out TODAY

Second, from a promo shoot in the studio some years back:

Finally, here’s  a striking image from the promo shoot for “By the Hand” that we did down by the Potomac.  More in the gallery.

Get his new album here!

It’s never easy to expand your repertoire–much less, to do it in front of 100 friends, family, supporters, and critics.  On Saturday night, at Montserrat House in the District, Frank Mitchell Jr. successfully demonstrated that, in addition to being a world-class saxophonist, he’s a crooner, an ensemble leader, and an all-around cool cat.

You may recognize Frank as the bad-ass saxophonist from Thievery Corporation and See-I. In addition, his ensemble includes veteran musicians such as Rob Myers (TC, Fort Knox Five, See-I), Ashish ‘Hash’ Vyas (TC, See-I), Javier Miranda (See-I, Empresarios), Will Rast (Funk Ark), and Jeff Franca (See-I, Funk Ark).

Frank Mitchell Jr.’s bangin’ grooves and sweetly cutting vocals come in the form of original tracks like ‘Soul Sister Butterfly’, ‘Love Litigation’, and the already-iTunes-released single ‘Booty Lock‘.  Not to be missed.  Seriously.

So–keep your ears open for the full-length album coming soon from Frank on ESL, and the rest of the images from Saturday night here!