royal wedding

Snapping Brookland’s sunrises

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 4:?Last chapter of Night Lives. John Johnson, 22, goes out just before sunrise to take point-and-shoot photos of details in his neighborhood Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 in Washington, DC. . He's an aspiring photographer with a learning disability, and is HIV positive, and dreams of being a National Geographic photographer. ?Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Dan Zak

For three years now, John Johnson has ventured into Brookland during the least viewed hours of the day to take photos.

2:30 a.m.: Drama at 4th and K

After midnight a slice of K Street NW transforms into a runway for transwomen -- escorts, prostitutes and otherwise.

Drive-in theaters are a Kopp family affair

Jim and Megan Kopp spend their waking hours driving between North Carolina and Virginia, checking on both of their drive-in theaters.

Driven to sing in the karaoke cab

This is no ho-hum taxi: Passengers wail and croon as a Virginia cabbie ferries them to and fro.

N.Va.’s bat lady tends to her fragile wards

Wildlife rehabilitator Leslie Sturges cares for bats in her Northern Virginia home.

Night Lives: Illustrating U Street’s latest stories

Bob Taylor, 81, prowls Ben’s Chili Bowl during the hours around closing time, providing young revelers with Polaroid-frozen artifacts of their evenings.

A rotating cast on laundry night

The spin cycle brings people in and out of a 24-hour laundromat in Mount Pleasant.

Keeping watch over D.C.’s streets

While many are sleeping, the Guardian Angels volunteer crime patrol unit works to safeguard the city.

At Gaithersburg church, perpetual adoration

Someone must always be praying in a chapel at St. John Neumann Church, and the duty is handed off every hour, day after day, among 300 adorers.

Listening to nighttime callers’ pain

In the dark hours of the night, a comforting voice picks up the phone to talk to distressed callers.

Clock means little to late-shift EMTs

It’s the middle of the night, but for the EMT squad, this is no time for sleep. The call is coming.

Mr. Midnight Air

Dennis Parker at Mac’s in the District fixes wheels in the dead of night so others can cover the whole world of highway he dreams of exploring, too.

Share your #DCNightlives

Share your #DCNightlives

Tell us about your night-time gig, nightly excursions, pre-dawn rituals, or whatever else you’re up to in the wee hours of the night.