The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society July Swim @ Ilda To Raise Money & Awareness To Help Fight/ Find Cures For These Two Diseases

Would you please kindly wiggle those toes of yours for us now? Hey! Can you hear me now?!? I'm not kidding, really ...


As you can see by the pictures that Ilda is celebrating it's tenth year of these swimming of the laps to raise money and awareness for the fight to cure both Leukemia and Lymphoma.




You can also see that I take lots of unusual pictures to capture action and color and form and contrast and the odd moments as well as the ones we are all accustomed to looking at. I want more of a complete picture of this moment in time.

I love the irony here of someone dunking their heads into the water after feeling hot and tired from swimming. This is their way of cooling off naturally. Obvious, huh? Of course it is to anyone looking at this picture ...





Those of you will know that it is you that I snapped these pictures of. For the rest of you you will hopefully enjoy the composition and anything else that attracts and reaches out to you in them.




It was a beautiful morning this and it felt great to be a witness to all of this. I did not count the laps this time but my wife did and my son swam once again.

I love that this swimmer's cap says Ilda on it and helps to tell some of this story by providing the necessary details to perhaps give us the name of the swimmers as well as the pool? In this case it gives us both swimmer and place : nice, I really like that.

I liked it so much obviously that I copied the picture twice. Oops!






Cheers and a BIG CONGRATS to everyone involved in this important event. You guys are the best!




I love this picture of this swimmer reaching out to touch the wall. He or she is in earnest here and serious about their quest. This is not a time of levity or of clowning around : this is a time to accomplish something quickly and effectively. I love seeing the hands, arms and fingers all stretched/ flexed to the max! Bravo!!!




It's now perhaps time to go a lap a bit more slowly and use one of the red kicking boards? Not a bad idea, pace yourself : let both your body and blood flow rest a bit so that you may pick up the pace on the next lap all over again.

Remember, for each lap you swim there might be a friend or relative giving money here to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society? There was in the case of our son : that I know for sure.




It's fun to watch these turns : lots of motion and splashing and bubbles as well as the colors of the bathing suits, too.




I'm in awe of these young swimmers that still have the energy and the healthy racing blood flow to do these flips after so many laps! It sure does take energy here and these swimmers have it. They are fortunate indeed.




Love the colors in the swimmer's caps : look at the yellow / look at that blue!




Here are two swimmers about to reach the wall and either flip and turn or simply touch the wall and turn. What will it be?




I love taking pictures of the swimmers underwater. Look at the form and the color, the motion / emotion displayed here. It's a painting in the water in motion and I am glad to have caught it with the help of mu old, reliable Kodak Easy Share CX 4200 camera.





I like these pictures and the colorful sign that someone made here to mark the 10th year celebration.






Here we have one of our young swimmers counting the laps. What a bright smile : I also love the white t-shirt that states the cause for all of this. Good choice.

I love that the white t-shirt says : " Fighting blood related Cancers ".

As you all know it takes blood coursing through one's veins and arteries to get the heart pumping wildly to get the energy one needs to swim so quickly and rack up lap after lap after lap here.

Let's find a way to get everyone's blood back to where it has to be to be able to swim these laps. Everyone knows that once a cure is found for one thing that unfortunately something else will come around to take it's place. Thus we need to lick these two problems and get everyone back on track.






At Ilda's awards ceremony tonight ( Sunday, July 25th, 2009 ) it was mentioned that someone suffering from another serious ailment a year ago was able to swim 19 laps here. This made the announcer bow her head on someone's shoulder and break down in tears. I wish I had seen that person swimming but was unaware of the situation until tonight.



Look at the yellow cap with all the color and forms on it. I love that, really I do!




It's fun to work with cameras and to see what you can get with the lapse time between snapping the picture and it actually taking it. It's a bit of a compromise as you never quite know what will turn up here. I love the fun and the challenge of it all.




Shade and sunshine : I love this picture : one side is all washed out in bright sunshine and the foreground is all clear and crystal-sharp in shade. Did it make any difference to the swimmers whether they were in sunshine or shade? I will have to ask my son tomorrow if I can remember.




Two people watch their friend in the picture above in their turn.

In the picture one swimmer in the lane swims in earnest the free style while another submerges themselves to cool off I suppose / maybe to goof-off, too : or both? Fun to see the contrast here in the same photo.





I really love the silhouette of these three swimmers that are in the shade of the big trees around our pool. You can't quite make out who they are. It does not matter. The swimmers themselves will know who they are as well as perhaps their parents. That's okay as it is not so much about them as it is them working for a great cause : one that they can be proud now and later that they were a part of.

Time to rest and time to swim as you see one of the two boys set off for the other end of the pool here in the picture below. Is he also heading for the sunlight?





I love this swimmer above as you can get a sense that he has already swum a number of laps already and is not quite as concerned as earlier on with hitting that pool wall quickly. I can't say that I blame him.




Can you please tell me how many laps I have swum? I need to know, really.

Turns out that one boy and one girl tied in swimming 138 laps : the most of anyone this year. Congratulations to you bot for as a job well done.





I've just posted this on Sunday afternoon, July 25th, 2009 I believe at 4:43 PM and I just looked at it once more.

I'm glad that I took these more artsy photos and not so many close-ups. It's really nice to capture the moment like this I believe. This way it's more about a group of dedicated individuals from the parents and the people from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as well as the young swimmers that swam lap after lap after lap this morning.




You can see from the photos that there was both work and play going on here. Yes, the swimmers were swimming laps and asking every so often how many they had already swum : as well as stopping, chatting, smiling, laughing, relaxing.

In this picture above they have completed their mission quite successfully and are now able to relax and enjoy themselves and each others' company as they are all really good friends having know one another for years. It's nice as a parent to realize this looking at this picture as I am now before finally posting this blog for the last time I hope now.




It was all in an early morning's good swim for a couple of great causes as well as good camaraderie. There was purpose and joy and good will displayed here.




I wish that I had been able to get in the pool and swim some laps. Why were none of the parents of these fine young swimmers not asked to get in the pool and swim some laps? Perhaps that may be included next year on our eleventh swimming of the laps?!?










Every year at Ilda there is an annual swim by the swim team to help draw attention and money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's quest to find cures for these two deadly diseases. Here are some of the pictures that I took of this year's event at Ilda this past month at Ilda in northern Virginia.

The pictures are more artsy and less specific of individuals. They reflect more the event and the energy, color, motion, activity and the enthusiasm and dedication of those individuals.

Being an artist myself I am interested in many aspects of the moment s here from color and composition and contrasts of lights, darks, sky and water, trees, structures, motion, whatever. I hope you enjoy these pictures and are encouraged to contact the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and do what you can either in active service or in money-raising or donations, or both.

Enjoy these pictures, cheers ... TONY

Harry Potter Mania : Transformers- Revenge Of The Fallen 7/15-16/09 : Waiting Patiently In Line For Uptown Movie Showings

I really stumbled upon all of this quite by accident today. I had been trying some wines across the street at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and had come over for some lunch and a breath of fresh air since it was such a beautiful day.



I ordered inside and then went ot bake some in the hot sunshine outside. I was hoping to get a respite from work and that the food and the beauty of the day would do this for me. It was worth a shot.




That's when I realized that another line was beginning to form to see the " new Transformers " Harry Potter movie. I knew all about it as both my son and my daughter had already been talking about it.

I realized that the movie across the street at the Uptown was going to be playing this movie as I saw the first of the people lining up outside with umbrellas and chairs to be comfortable and keep some of the sun off them. I had my camera so I took a few pictures. I wanted to preserve this as I do so many other things that happen in Cleveland Park.




It was all just a bit of luck as I sat down today outside Byblo's restaurant/cafe and waited for my food to be prepared and to arrive fresh and all tasty and satisfying. I needed something : I was hungry and ready for a break as I have already mentioned.




I sat down and relaxed and started to look at all the characters lining up alongside us sitting outside at the tables in front of Byblo's. I also noticed the people inside such as the two policemen that had ridden their segways there and had left them leaning agains the large glass windows close to where I was sitting.

Some of the young girls noticed, too and came over to sit down outside and out of the sunshine. They took a closer look which eventually prompted one of the officers to come out. The mother in the blue dress apologized immediately to the officer and he said that it was quite okay with smiles all around.




I got two pictures of one of the little girls looking closely at her mother's shiny rhinestones or glass-work on her sandals. I liked that curiosity and playfulness.




It was hot and everyone was patient and relaxed with a French family speaking in their own tongue and almost everyone breaking away from the line forming at some point to head into Byblo's to check things out and see if there was anything that they wanted.




Then there were the passersby that just looked at the line forming as they walked by. Some of them had to buy their parking tickets from the newest meter system installed just a month or so ago.




Calm, peaceful, orderly and with I guess everyone really excited about seeing this new and latest installment of the Harry Potter movies/stories. I'm looking forward to going to see it sometime : perhaps with my son and daughter.




I read the review in the Washington Post and it said that it was the easiest and most relaxing of all the movies to watch : that it was mostly about the love-interests of Harry, Hermione and Ron. The reviewer was a die-hard Harry Potter fan and not pleased with this latest installment. Oh well, c'est la vie ...




All of a sudden the line started to move and everyone passed quickly by us sitting outside. I finished my lunch and taking my pictures to tell this story through these pictures.




This is the real story to be told here : people ( lots of them ) still eager and pleased to go see these Harry Potter movies for the joy, wonder, awe, curiosity and everything else that they conjure up for each and every one of us.




I'm glad that I was able to document this phenomenon and to let these pictures attest to this all. Let others tell the story about all the money being made with these movies : I am much less interested in all of that...


It's Wednesday, July 16th, 2009 and I went across the street to have lunch at Byblo's cafe and I forgot about the new Harry Potter movie that people were lining up to see : Transformers- Revenge Of The Fallen. It was fun to watch people line up and then go inside to see the movie on this warm, bright, gorgeous day filled with blue skies, lots of sun and no humidity. I still have more pictures to download, enjoy these for the moment. Cheers, TONY



I would love to have met these people afterwards and found out their fresh and immediate reactions to the film that they had just seen while it was still front-and-center in their minds/emotions/guts. Oh well, I did have to return to work. That part of the story will just have to wait and it may or may not happen.

A lot of this is simply chance : I was in the right place at the right time to have achieved these pictures. I love all the color from the potted plants outside Byblo's. They look so fresh and appealing and wonderful.




I also like all the reflections through the glass windows that I got both there and across Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. later after things had died down.

I love the neon of the chef with his carving knife here and lower down in one of the last pictures.



I feel that this is not the end of this and that I will continue to add to it for awhile. Cheers, TONY

P.S. It's now Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 12:46 AM as I finish typing and post this blog once again with all these stories...




It's nice to see on this beautiful day in Washington D.C. that so many people are waiting to see the new Harry Potter movie. Life goes on as it should in Washington D.C. : people waiting to see the movie, people enjoying their lunch and watching people pass by.




I liked the ebb and the flow, the acts of daily life on such a glorious day to be alive. Lots of dialogue and interactions everywhere. I also enjoyed my food that owner Mark made for me. I like going there to get a breath of fresh air and write my daily journal for my daughter and son.









I love looking at these pictures that look a lot alike except that the people are now moving along and into the Uptown movie house to be spellbound by Harry, Hermione and Ron.



The flowers are the same in each picture though the people are all moving and changing each picture slightly, revealing something a bit different in each















I should have taken a picture of all the flowers in their pots without the ppeople standing beside them. That would have completed the series. Maybe I'll do it later today when I go eat there and take a break.




Will there be another line of people waiting later today to see Harry, Hermione and Ron? What do you all like best about each of these individual characters ? What attracts you to them?





Here are my pictures take yesterday, Tuesday July 15th and today Wednesday, July 16th, 2009. Enjoy, TONY