In October 2013 I went to a conference in Philadelphia. I had never been to the city before and spent most of the daylight hours in the conference. I did, however, manage to find about four hours over my time there to take the camera out. I loved the architecture and all of the little details. One camera with one lens, and these are the pictures I brought back …
The first thing I did after arriving at my hotel was drop off my bag, drink some water and head out for the last hour of light. The hotel was right next to city hall. I love all of the details in this building, which was too big to capture everything. So I didn’t try to capture it all and focused in on the bits.
Next stop on my first evening photo walk was this fountain. I loved how the light was hitting it and I played with shutter times to see how that would affect the streaks of water. Without a tripod this is what I liked the best.
I loved all of the lines of these windows on the building the conference was in, as well as in the hotel across the street. Given the added detail of the flag I couldn’t resist so I brought my camera to the conference on the second day, stood at the top of the escalators impeding traffic while I lined up the lines and waited for a little gust of wind on the flag. I rarely (this is the first time in 2 years) use selective colour, but I think it fits this image quite well.
One of the things I enjoyed the most were the food trucks. Three different lunches, and three different trucks. I don’t think that any of the meals would be considered ‘heart healthy’, but I was only there for four days (sad justification). This was taken on my second lunch there, I just liked the colours and logo on this truck.
This is another picture from inside city hall. I took several shots before lunch, but didn’t quite like the results as the corridor was either too empty or too full. I ended up standing in the centre of this foot path with people walking around me for about five minutes before I got this shot and I knew I had what I wanted. I’ve printed this one large, and like it very much. It’s been on display and is shown in the prints section as well.
One of the ‘photo groups’ on Flickr that I quite like is the “Fence Friday” group. Just as it sounds, its all pictures of fences. Although one could debate if this railing qualifies as a fence, I just liked the lines and details. I tried to focus attention on the details and pattern with a shallow depth of focus.
Fallout shelter? I don’t know if this sign is historical or still relevant, but I liked how it contrasted with the architecture to have an almost “graphic novel” type of look. I liked this one so much that I made it into a print that’s also been on display and for sale.
Another detail from inside city hall. I think a shallow depth of focus makes it stand out nicely, while the lines converging are a cool pattern. The food truck and four following city hall pictures here are all from the same lunch break.
On my last day in town I walked down to the Philadelphia museum of art in the last two hours of daylight. My goal was to see ‘the Rocky steps’ and the rocky statue, as I knew I did not have time to go inside. Turns out I couldn’t get the Rocky picture I had in my mind, so I just took a couple of photos of the outside of the museum. It’s a beautiful giant building that would not image well in a single shot in my mind, so I went for the details. This is a near symmetrical shot of one of the wings of the museum. I had to correct the lens perspective in photoshop, but really like the result.
Also from the Philadelphia art museum, this is a repeating pattern shot of the base of some of the columns. I couldn’t resist the lines.
And on the walk back to my hotel I stumbled upon (not literally) this little free library. I love the concept so much that my wife and I are thinking of putting one up at the cabin.
And that’s my photo highlights from my time in Philadelphia. I hope to go back some day with more time to wander.