Friends and well-wishers at my last 2012 DC shindig, my next project & a new chapter in my life www.ReportingGhanaPresidency.com There will be photo, audio, video updates on here soon. This blog will see a revamp as itp85 shares share the love with [rgp] & TNG. Photography courtesy of Maxine Naawu.

Over the past couple of weeks I hosted an IndieGoGo campaign for a multi-media newsite I am incredibly excited about www.ReportingGhanaPresidency.com. Besides the Ghanaian presidential elections in December, the newsite will discuss leadership and civic issues through a social justice lens. It will be the culmination of what I've learned in school, practiced in the field and look to explore multi-media journalism in Ghana & sub-saharan Africa.

Thanks to the campaign I was able to upgrade my DSLR camera from the d80 & d90...to a nikon d7000. Here's a test shot of candid moments in Chinatown, Washington DC. To capturing details and memorable moments in motion. #itp85 #rgp

One of my favorite quotes by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan: "The world is at a critical juncture, and so are you....go ahead and make your plans...and don't stop learning. But be open to the detours that lead to new discoveries."
My friend, Ayah leaves the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, DC to enroll in a culinary school in Berkeley, California with a pit stop at The Mtogolo Community Based Organization (a project advocates a holistic approach to combating HIV/AIDS) in Malawi. To detours, in life, that lead to new discoveries....

Nowadays, I find myself involved in more collaborations and partnerships with others. It's always an awesome experience to pool our talents to accomplish a task. When Church of the Resurrection (Rez), DC was revamping their website, Kaitlynn and I (with others) came together to lend our skills to creating an awesome, online identity for Rez. Kaitlynn recently put up an online portfolio (as a local liaison) to feature our partnership and, excited to support however I can, I promised to share her skills on my blog as well.

My photography contribution to the Rez website

Kaitlynn's online portfolio

I'll do well to post a lot more in the month of July. Look forward to my escapades and collabos!

Common has to be one of my favorite rappers of ALL time. I had the chance to meet him at Park at the 14th in DC about a fortnight ago for his new album (The Dreamer/The Believer) listening party and as usual, I'm already hooked.

One of my friends from the University of Florida is the Lifestyles Editor at Sister 2 Sister magazine and when we randomly met at the Park she informed me that she was interviewing Common. I was like, really? Nice. And then of course, always in itp'85 mode, I asked "Where's your photographer at?" And the rest, they say is history :D.

My favorite track on the album, for now, is Blue Sky...the tight beats resonate with wise smartly articulated lyrics: "...dream light beams, night life schemes...this is my inception, I'm writing my dreams..."

The album dropped today 12.20.2011, cop it. More pictures here: itp'85

2 out of the 3 times when I've taken photos of prominent black people, President Barack Obama and Donna Brazile it hasn't been premeditated. This time though a friend gave me minutes notice and thanks to my lowepro back pack that I carry around everywhere, I had the opportunity to get blog-worthy pictures of Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Willard Hotel at a media and telecommunications conference on Thursday. My thoughts when I saw the famous African American...He must be at least 6'4": that's a tall dude, TV doesn't do him justice (pun intended) :-).





I guess I can officially say I'm now about-that-DC-life.