This is the kind of image that really shows off the skills of the photographer. On the surface this seems to be an otherwise nondescript building each of us passes by every day without really noticing, but Flickr user twoeightnine has created an ominous scene; perhaps the foreshadowing opening shot of a building with a life of its own in your upcoming Halloween horror fare. EXIF.

Well this is ... disgusting. Showtime drama Dexter, which is the show everyone says is good but nobody watches, has filled a small makeshift fountain at Union Station with red dye to make it look like blood. Dexter, in case you didn't know, is the Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under) series that follows a blood splatter expert who also kills people for fun -- but you know, only bad people.

Showtime may owe our intrepid photographer $2 for dry-cleaning. Government contractors beware, please look up from your newspaper when entering or exiting the west side of the Union Station metro stop –- your white shirts have been warned.

There isn't much else to see at Showtime's monolithic viral marketing ploy for the sophomore season of Dexter – one of 14 across the country. The one in Philly seems at least more ambitious, if perhaps even more offensive.

Photos and contributions by Eddie Kim

This is what every evening should look like, sitting somewhere outside and peering up at the sky. Flickr user Oblivious Dude took this from the roofdeck of Perry's last week, and commenter ~johnny~ makes a good observation, that the high cirrus clouds make it look almost like you're looking down onto the Earth, not the other way around. EXIF.

Today we bring you a Photo of the Photo of the Day, a little meta-action, if you will. Flickr user akkleis took this shot of the viewfinder image of the World War II Memorial on her friend's Rollei. The developing "mistake" that caused the film strip impression on the right only adds to the feel. EXIF.

Flickr user SweetJen34 stopped by the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, source of quite a few Photos of the Day, and took a series of fascinating and almost fantasy-land type shots, including this one of some oddly colorful water berries. They kind of remind me of the "berries" that used to come on my morning cereal. Mmmm...crunch berries... EXIF.

We wanted to remind you about this weekend's upcoming photo contest sponsored by DCist and non-profit Cultural Tourism DC as part of the semi-annual WalkingTown DC event. On Sept. 29, photographers are encouraged to attend any of the free walking tours on offer as part of WalkingTown DC, and enter their photos to win great prizes. Details and rules below, and also feel free to sign up for the unofficial Flickr group.

Here's the deal:
* Attend any WalkingTown DC tour on Sept. 29 and start shooting photos. Check the schedule and choose a tour that looks interesting to you (please note some tours do require reservations).
* Shots can feature tour guides, tour walkers, neighborhoods, and/or points of interest. Images are not required to prominently feature WalkingTown DC participants or tour guides.
* Upload your photos to Flickr.com and tag them with both WalkingTown and dcist. Make sure you identify the tours where your photos were taken.

Official Rules:
* Deadline for submission is October 14.
* Submit a maximum of six photographs per person.
* After you’ve uploaded your photos to Flickr, send us an email at info@CulturalTourismDC.org. The email should include your name, your Flickr user name, address, and telephone number (we’ll only use this information to contact you).
* Criteria for selection include: the degree to which the shot captures the spirit of Washington’s neighborhoods; illustrates what WalkingTown DC is about; and originality.

Awards:
* Prizes for the top three winners are: two tickets to a performance at Arena Stage during the '07-'08 season, two passes to the International Spy Museum, and two tickets to a Washington Walks tour of your choice during the '07-'08 season.
* The top three photographs will be featured with a credit both on DCist and CulturalTourismDC.org in November 2007.
* The winning photograph will be highlighted with photographer credit in Cultural Tourism DC’s upcoming See DC brochure, which encourages visitors to explore Washington’s neighborhoods.

Our photographers were busy this weekend! I couldn't even get through the hundreds of photos that were uploaded since Friday, so I'll just have to spend the week going through all these great shots. Looks like many of you checked out some local sports, some roamed the city for some classic shots, and a whole slew of you who showed up for our Photographer's Meet Up at Solly's on Sunday. It was great meeting all of you who came out, drinking the Champagne of Beers and geeking out over lenses. 'Til next time!

Today, however, we bring you the photo that made me laugh hardest this morning. I stumbled across Flickr user B Tal's photostream over the weekend and was impressed by his ability to spot interesting people on the street, including this woman who seems to epitomize someone having a rough day. EXIF.

A little patience resulted in this great photo by Flickr user epmd. He says the first night he shot this colorful playground in the evening, nothing was to his satisfaction, so, undeterred, he went out again a few nights later and came back with this wonderfully exposed shot. EXIF.

This is your last reminder to join us at the DCist Photographer's Meet Up this Sunday. Epmd, moderator of the Washington DC/Metro Area Flickr pool, will be there with his group members in tow, so come over and say hello to him, some of the DCist staff, and the many talented folks who regularly contribute their images to this site. Meet us at 2 p.m. at Solly's U Street Tavern, where we'll be loitering around the patio and the downstairs area with our cameras and $3 Miller High Life's in hand. There are plenty of televisions if you need to keep up with whatever score concerns you, and Solly's kitchen is now open for your meet-up eating needs (which also means no more outside food). See you there!

Flickr user philliefan_99 has become our resident birder, catching some amazing views of our local eagles, ospreys, and herons -- like this gorgeous one taking a dip off Roosevelt Island. The questioning pose of the great water bird and the awesome green reflecting off the water make for a spot-on nature shot. EXIF.

Philliefan_99 was at our last DCist Photographer's Meet-Up; will you be at our next one? Join us at Solly's at the corner of 11th and U Streets NW, a block from the Metro on the Green Line, this Sunday at 2 p.m. The proprietor has warned us that the second floor will be fairly packed with football fans, but the downstairs and the patio should give us plenty of room to geek out. For the super geeks, Solly's has free wireless, and for the very thirsty, they have 16oz Miller High Life for $3. How can you beat that?

Despite all the bad things that come with living in a big city, one of the reasons we love living here -- especially in the nation's capital, where all of America's characters descend to speak for their rights -- is the amalgam of people you'll find on the streets at any given moment. Flickr user quemino of the world just uploaded this photo she took in 2003 last Saturday at a march of anarchists on the Mall. The grainy black and white texture makes this look like something our kids will be looking at in their social studies books soon. EXIF.

Flickr user krisetya has been nailing it lately, and it was hard to resist this homage to Olga Viso, who will be stepping down as the Hirshhorn's director in a few months. Click through to read his kind words, as well as the commenters who rightly call the photo, "Clean, fluid, and minimalist with a fantastic richness of color." The Hirshhorn Museum is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., or stop by their next After Hours event on October 5; tickets available online now. EXIF.

Nicknamed "Waves and Gulls," the Navy-Marine Memorial on Columbia Island is probably among the least photographed monuments in D.C. Flickr user Leica Mark makes up for it with this technically and artistically fantastic shot of it with his, of course, Leica M7. In fact, he has a whole series of amazing monument shots that seriously put to shame what's out there displaying our city to the rest of the world.

Don't forget, we're hosting another DCist Photographer's Meet Up, along with the Washington DC/Metro Area Flickr group this Sunday at Solly's U Street Tavern at 2 p.m. See how well you can balance a beer in one hand and your camera in the other along with the rest of us.

DCist is once again an official media sponsor of the free walking tours offered twice a year by non-profit Cultural Tourism DC. This time around, WalkingTown DC, a day-long event scheduled for Sept. 29, is teaming up with us to sponsor a photo contest to encourage people to come out to the free tours and snap photos as you explore new neighborhoods.

Here's the deal:
* Attend any WalkingTown DC tour on Sept. 29 and start shooting photos. Check the schedule and choose a tour that looks interesting to you (please note some tours do require reservations).
* Shots can feature tour guides, tour walkers, neighborhoods, and/or points of interest. Images are not required to prominently feature WalkingTown DC participants or tour guides.
* Upload your photos to Flickr.com and tag them with both WalkingTown and dcist. Make sure you identify the tours where your photos were taken.

Official Rules:
* Deadline for submission is October 14.
* Submit a maximum of six photographs per person.
* After you’ve uploaded your photos to Flickr, send us an email at info@CulturalTourismDC.org. The email should include your name, your Flickr user name, address, and telephone number (we’ll only use this information to contact you).
* Criteria for selection include: the degree to which the shot captures the spirit of Washington’s neighborhoods; illustrates what WalkingTown DC is about; and originality.

Awards:
* Prizes for the top three winners are: two tickets to a performance at Arena Stage during the '07-'08 season, two passes to the International Spy Museum, and two tickets to a Washington Walks tour of your choice during the '07-'08 season.
* The top three photographs will be featured with a credit both on DCist and CulturalTourismDC.org in November 2007.
* The winning photograph will be highlighted with photographer credit in Cultural Tourism DC’s upcoming See DC brochure, which encourages visitors to explore Washington’s neighborhoods.

Good luck!

Flickr user drade took this picture of a family welcoming a new life to the world nearly two years ago, but just added it to the DCist Photo Pool today. And we're glad he did. We love how he captured this quiet moment after all the excitement has died down, with the emotive shadows, and the father lingering ghost-like in the darkness behind mother and child. EXIF.

Who knew that a flamingo could look quite so gloomy? Flickr user maxedaperture gives the bird an image makeover with this moody shot of a lone flamingo at the National Zoo, cloaked in darkness.

One reason we love browsing the DCist photo pool every day is that it's not just full of great images by super talented photographers, but that you guys catch the weirdly hilarious, kinda disturbing, or plainly adorable moments in the city. Flickr user LaTur's photo falls into the first category, with this strange set-up of a bright red construction crane toting a tiny yellow ladder. Commenter dyetochange set it up perfectly:

to whom it may concern:

please don't steal my ladder. i put it up here so you couldn't touch it.

love,

jacob

We like our animal photos with a gallon of 'cute' and just a dash of 'omg ew.' Flickr user static-photo's perfectly timed capture of this cow's enormous schnozz as it tries to snack on his camera up in Frederick, Md. fits the bill. The wee beady eyes just peeking out from behind make the photo. Now someone go get a napkin already. EXIF.

Get your cameras ready, folks, because it's time for another DCist Photographer's Meet-up. Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 23, at 2 p.m., and come find us on the second floor of Solly's Tavern, conveniently located a block from the U Street metro, right on the corner of 11th and U Streets NW. Great minds think alike, and it turns out the main Washington D.C. Flickr group was planning one of their regular meet-ups the same weekend, so we figured, why not host them together? Please come join us for a lot of beers, a little geeked-out camera talk, and a real live venue to put those Flickr names to faces.

Our local photographers were busy this weekend, with plenty of fodder for some great images. Many of you hit up the Adams Morgan Day Festival (we love this little guy with the enormous lungs) and Pak Gwei even started a new Flickr group for your photos here. Some of you folks went to the annual Black Family Reunion on the Mall for some concerts and probably a lot more room to breath than there was on 18th Street.

Despite all these fun events, we were struck by this image by krisetya. He's been posting images to our DCist pool since July and has quickly become an example for photographers learning to find the fascinating compositions in our every day lives. Read the comments to see his fellow Flickrites weigh-in this photo (including the one, we just noticed, that beat us to the Photo of the Day nod -- you know us too well). EXIF.

Who can resist the Hammer? We're glad some of you took our advice yesterday and went to see him live for free at the Woodrow Wilson Plaza ... so the rest of us could stay home and just enjoy the great photos. This close-up by Captain Easychord almost nailed it for Photo of the Day, but we couldn't resist this black and white version (that's Hammer in the center with the sunglasses) after photographer outdoor_type pointed out the man in the throes of hysteria on the right side. Click through to see the notes. EXIF.

Oooh. We're suckers for shiny new takes on our nation's many marbled monuments. Relatively new contributor InnerDemon took this truly impressive shot of the Washington Monument with an infrared lens on his Nikon D40.

We love this figgy photo by Flickr user krisetya. He couldn't have picked a more colorful fruit to play around with and study with his Nikon D50, and the figs' interesting shape and the well-done lighting bring it all together. EXIF.

If the DCist Flickr pool is a good indication, many of you decided to spend part of your Labor Day weekend the good ol' fashioned American way -- at the ballpark. Flickr user Scott Ableman perfectly caught Ryan Zimmerman's game winning RBI against the Giants on Sunday night, in a nail biting moment with the count full in the bottom of the ninth. The Nationals inched out for a final score of 2-1.