crafty bastards recap

Two Sunday mornings ago (1 October), I took a break from shuttling my possessions across town and headed down to Adams Morgan to practice some photography at the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair. I showed up early to meet some other photographers, but either turnout fizzled or we couldn't find each other. Nevertheless, it was a pretty interesting fair. Eclectic arts and crafts, eclectic people, and actually some pretty good entertainment in the form of bands and breakdancers. The majority of the vendors were selling women's apparel and accessories, but I found a good sampling of witty t-shirts, paper/print presses, and photography to check out. Some of the textile arts were pretty interesting too.

Photography-wise, it was pretty challenging. I didn't feel comfortable taking street-style portraits, so I focused on the products instead. (Although I found a good breakdancing photo from the fair on flickr.) Anyway, here's what I came up with. (Click for larger detail and info.)

Art/Pencil Case


Absurdity


Most everything else I took either had random people in the frame or was just blasted by bright sunlight overhead. Don't get me wrong, it was a gorgeous day to be out -- just a tad bright for photos. For a while, I was using a flyer to try to create some sort of makeshift sunshade. That didn't work so well.

My favorite photo from the day wasn't taken at the fair, but rather on 18th Street from the sidewalk. I walked in front of Felix and snapped this one.

Placesetting


If you're curious, here's a documentary shot to show what the scene looked like from the sidewalk before I sat down on the concrete in the middle of the foot traffic to get the photo above.



Oh, and as a new feature, I'm setting up a list of stores that are "on warning" and "on boycott". I am a firm believer in expressing my market preferences or dissatisfaction with my feet and my hard-earned dollars. It's my way of helping well-run businesses flourish and poorly-run businesses flounder. As of that particular day, Caribou Coffee and The Reef are on warning.

To Caribou: Having a line ten people deep and only one person working on a busy Sunday morning (and having your second person stacking pastries and cups) isn't going to work well for business. This was a real disappointment because I actually prefer your coffee to Starbucks. I'll probably give you another chance because I'm so hooked on . I'll have to blog sometime about my somewhat humorous experience extracting caffeine from tea leaves in organic chemistry lab back in college. Do you like how I used a graphic as a noun there? Galileo did it in 1613 and today we're still trying to get it to look as nice as how he did it.

To the Reef: Cool bar with the aquariums (or aquaria). Pitiful Sunday brunch service. You had a big sign out front luring people in with your crab cake sandwich special. Too bad only one person was waiting tables for the entire restaurant. My stance is if you are understaffed, don't seat people. Just close up brunch for the day and serve drinks and small eats at the bar instead. I sat for 15 minutes before a menu showed up my way -- the same menu that was passed between three different tables of people leaving because the service was so bad.

I will take care not to turn my list into a big complaint-fest on the blog though. That wouldn't be fun or interesting to read.