‘Monroe Street After Blizzard’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

So you’re now at the point of stir craziness where you’ve decided that you might as well take some photos of the Snowmageddon™ to prove you were there. But while you can’t look outside without squinting behind your sunglasses, all your pictures come out looking dark and uninspiring. What gives? KenRockwell.com has some pointers on how to bring the snow from grey to white in your photos. There’s also a lot of tips from the Smithsonian about shooting in the snow around DC.

The base problem is this: Your camera’s auto exposure is overreacting and you just need to tweak it to allow more light. Even most digital point and shoots have this in their menus somewhere (sometimes called EV Steps). Cold causes batteries to drain more quickly, so be sure to carry spares. Also consider dropping your ISO down to 100 or 200. You’ll get a lot less grain in your shots.

When you’re done with your Ansel Adams styled photos of the snow, be sure to submit them to our WeLoveDC Flickr pool!

‘101_0720’
courtesy of ‘AlishaV’

Yes, I realize the vast majority of you are not Lifehacker readers and think this headline ranks somewhere along with “bologna fails at making warm hats,” but some of us were suckered in by this past Lifehacker post suggesting that non-stick cooking spray will help prevent wet snow from sticking to shovels.

If you didn’t try it, don’t bother. It might have worked for one shovel-load – might – but it surely did not make it any easier to get sticky snow off my shovel yesterday. Save your nonstick spray for your shelter-in-place omelet.

Check out the sweet new Aerotrain at Dulles! After making it through my underpants check at Dulles, I was greeted with the new subway system. I got in the front car and managed to get a pretty decent little video of the trip out to the B Terminals (where Five Guys promptly closed when I got there. I waited for that cheeseburger, you douches, why the hell are you closing during snowpocalypse? FOAD!) and now I’m headed out to San Francisco for a week of IT conference sessions.

IAD is up and running for limited flights. Judging by the board, about two thirds the United and Delta flights are cancelled, and the remaining on time. Southwest has cancelled all their IAD flights, but Virgin seems to be up and running. If you’re headed to Dulles, you’d better hail a cab, though, as the Flyer bus is not running, not that that Metro is going to West Falls Church.

DCA is down for the count, with no flight ops planned today, and questionable for tomorrow. I would Tuesday is the earliest planes will leave from National.

BWI is saying “limited if any” service today commercially, but snow removal operations continue apace and I would bet they’ll be operating again tomorrow.

‘meteor train’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

WMATA put out a press release ten minutes ago saying they’d still be running a very reduced service tomorrow. Underground train routes will re-open at their standard 7am Sunday time and will run through the day. While WMATA says they’ll “continue to evaluate rail and road conditions throughout the day on Sunday in hopes of expanding service if conditions improve,” don’t count on catching a bus anytime tomorrow; their release elaborates that in addition to the weather conditions and snow accumulation on routes, workers and contractors have faced challenges getting to work.

Personally I’m a little surprised there’s not a commitment there on getting the yellow line route over the Potomac back open, as well as the leg to Reagan Airport. There’s a lot of above-ground track to clear, to be sure, but the sooner we get all our in and out of town transit running again the better.

‘Plowing Snow in Petworth’
courtesy of ‘Wayan Vota’

The District Government has come a long way since the 1996 snowstorm that shut this city down for almost two weeks. Now, they have a time lapse map where you can view the snow response by time at any location in the city. Did they salt and play? Salt? just plow? Are you truly on the one block that has gotten nothing? Now you can know empirically with the DC GIS system for Snow Response. Simply input an address, block, location, etc. and the system will show you, in time lapse, what has been done. You can also turn on a checkbox to see live conditions (impassable, clear, icy, slushy, etc.)

‘meteor train’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Metro is going to be closing a little early tonight, shutting down all rail service at 11pm tonight. They’re going to use the extra time to start to clear out some of the snowbound stations and try to figure out what’s going to be open on Sunday.

The snow has stopped for much of the DC area, and now the long extraction process will continue. If I had to guess, I’d say it will be midday Monday before Metrobus service begins to resume, and Tuesday before it’s back toward full strength. I would suspect that the rail service will continue underground-only on the same timeline.

Be safe out there DC.

Skiing up Wilson
Originally uploaded by tbridge

One of my friends from the Midwest, after looking at all the photos, said “Do they sell snowshovels in DC?” My response was “This is shoveled.” The plows and the shovels and snowblowers are hard at work out there, but the sheer amount of the white stuff is just not something you can easily cope with.

As we walked back from brunch today (thank you again, Boulevard Woodgrill!), we caught a couple cross-country skiing up Wilson Boulevard. They said the skiing was pretty good! I figure they were bound for Ballston & beyond.

So, if you have cross-country skis, and are up for a workout, today’s the day for it. Get on your skis!

‘monumental snow’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

So you are probably thinking that it would be loads of fun to venture out in the snow to take some amazing pictures of our favorite city.  But before you make the long and arduous trip you should probably read this – the monuments and memorials are all closed!  Sergeant David Schlosser of the U.S. Park Police announced as of noon today that due to hazardous conditions the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial are all closed to visitors until further notice. Perhaps now you have an even better reason to rethink your excursion and head to one of these open locations instead.

‘Ivan, Plume’s bartender’
courtesy of ‘Ghost_Bear’

It’s crazy out there. The snow is coming down pretty hard, even still this morning. Roads are largely impassable, and it’s looking like it’s going to be screwy through tomorrow. But, as you know, we’ve got bars and restaurants staying open for the duration of the storm, and that means we’ve got servers and busboys and line cooks and sous chefs who have risked life and limb to come to work to serve you. So, a few things you might want to think about:

• Be patient. There’s likely a bunch of folks who couldn’t get in, so they may be understaffed.
• Be flexible. If they’re out, they’re out, have a backup in mind.
• Be relaxed. You don’t want to be “that guy” that gets all out of sorts because you don’t have a place setting, okay?
• Tip Extra Well. Seriously, these guys went out in the biggest storm in nearly 100 years so you could have that drink/entree/dessert.
• Remember Later Who Was Open. These guys are the anchors of your neighborhood, and they deserve your custom not just in blizzards, but in the best of weather.

Just a few things to think about. Got a story of an awesome server or bartender or cook who saved your bacon this weekend? Add it in the comments. And thanks much to all the folks at Four Courts in Arlington who kept me well-supplied with Guinness last night. Much love, Maraid and the gang!

‘Cuffs4’
courtesy of ‘banspy’

Want to know how to run afoul of Montgomery County zoning laws? Host BDSM parties in your house and charge admission.

Paul Pickthorne, of Merrimack Park, has been hosting kink parties in his house for some time, and has been charging admission to defray the costs of hosting. His non-kinky (that we know of, anyway) neighbors complained to their county council representative, Roger Berliner, who responded that the county “has moved aggressively to put an end to this blight on your community.” This swift action took the form of a warning from the zoning inspector.

But I have to ask myself why it is that a bunch of consenting adults getting it on according to their non-mainstream-yet-not-hurting-anyone-who-doesn’t-like-it preferences constitutes a “blight” on a community, since the Post article makes clear that guests don’t park on the street or wear costumes outside of the house. I find it kind of chilling that neighbors can use a legal technicality to make trouble for someone because they’re uncomfortable contemplating (not even witnessing!) the legal sexual activity taking place inside the house. Turn your TV up a little louder and leave the kinksters alone.

fire hydrant
Originally uploaded by Allee574

Sure, some of the fire hydrants in the district don’t work and we don’t necessarily know which ones, but emergency responders will need to know where these are and have quick access to them in the event of a fire.

Don’t the local governments pay people to do this? Verily they do, my smart friend, but they can’t get to all of them at once, and you have to ask yourself which task the fire fighters should be doing, should your home catch fire: looking for a buried fireplug, digging one out from more than a foot of snow, or merely going to it and hooking up the lines. Your choice.

Seriously, get out there and dig out the fire hydrants. A little time now can save a life later.