Saturday, March 27, 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010

American Lung Association Event's Favorite Photos

This past Saturday, March 20, 2010 the American Lung Association held their annual Philadelphia Fight For Air Climb at the Bell Atlantic Tower, located at 1717 Arch St.  Hundreds of people turned out to run/climb fifty flights of stairs, 1088 steps altogether,  in support of the ongoing fight against lung disease.  I was there along with a few other classmates to cover the event and to promote our student run photo agency, Aperture Agency.  
Registration for the climb began at 7am with the climb starting at 8:30 and finishing up around 3pm.  I was only able to be there from 7 until around 10:30 due to work obligations but it was definitely worth it.  The people involved in the event, from organizers to volunteers to participants were all very welcoming and could not have been nicer or more accomadating.  In this blog post I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from the event, so here it goes:


Mayor Nutter Addressed the participants before the start of the race and shook hands with some of the first competitors before heading off to tackle important city issues I'm sure.



After Mayor Nutter spoke, the races began, some of the faster competitors finished the race in under 8 minutes, I would have absolutely no shot at making that time, let alone finishing.





There was a diverse number of participants that took part in this climb to fight lung disease.  The following images are some of the groups that took part, firefighters, families, groups of friends, fathers and sons, etc.










Sunday, March 21, 2010

10 Best, more like Favorite picturs from my Bus 23 project


The 10 images in this blog post are my best/favorite from a project I participated in that documented Septa's Bus 23 and the neighborhoods it cuts through on its daily route.  Hopefully you like them too!



Friday, March 19, 2010

Messing Around on Spring Break with lighting and long exposures

My friend Ryan McLoughlin wanted pictures taken of some of the frames and wood sculptures he has designed over the years for a potential job.  His client wanted to see some of his work so he asked me to take some pictures for him so he could show the client.  We started off trying to use various lamps and other light in the room but decided that the best results occurred under very low light with the use of a tripod and long exposure times.  Other than that the rest of my spring break photography endeavors focused on my subject for my final book project in Dr. Trayes Seminar class.
This image turned out fairly well under the harsh light of the room even though a lot of other images taken under this light had weird green highlights, I think the reason for this is that the top of the frame was actually not as heavily hit by the light of the room as were the lower edges of the frame.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Havertown during the first blizzard

On February 5, 2010, the Philadelphia region was hit with their second blizzard of the season.  During the beginning of this storm I drove around Havertown to various locations to see the effect the snow was having on local residents, and some of the local areas that typically see a lot of people on a normal day with out snow.  The football field at Haverford Middle School is not just for football games.  The track that circles the perimeter is usually always filled with local residents keeping in shape and the local middle school and high school use the field for more than just football.  Practices for multiple sports are held on this field as well as boy's and girl's soccer games, field hockey and a number of other sports are played on this field.  Also the Beechwood train stop for Septa's 100 line is a typically busy pick up and drop off point.  The parking lots are usually filled with cars but not on this night.  The streets of Havertown were beginning to die down around 8pm when I started to photograph this southwestern suburb of Philadelphia.  The town was in for a lot of snow and it seemed that everyone headed in doors to wait it out.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Philly A to Z






For my Philadelphia A to Z assignment I gave 26 friends a different letter of the alphabet and asked for what they thought about Philadelphia in regards to their letter.  


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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Mapping Lombard Street

All along Lombard these driveway posts with horse heads protect the buildings from being inadvertently hit by vehicles.  This photo was taken around 12:25pm Friday, February 5th, 2010.

Monday, February 1, 2010

12 at Independence Mall

James Giberson has lived in Collingswood N.J. for the last 15 years while working in Philadelphia.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "Cheesesteaks."
Least favorite:  "Cab Drivers."

Nick Ianelli has been in the Philadelphia are for the last month, living in Berks County and working at Independence Mall.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "I would say it is the social life."
Least favorite:  "I guess it would be the traffic."

Christopher Brooks, has lived in Philadelphia his entire life, specifically the Erie Ave. section of North Philadelphia.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "I would say job security, I have never had a problem finding a job in Philadelphia."
Least favorite:  "The worst thing would be the crime.  Parents not raising their children the way they should, not teaching them responsibility and not taking responsibility for their child's actions.  Parents should be punished as well as the kids."

Moritz and Susanne Ritter are natives of Germany.  Moritz has lived in Philadelphia for the last six months having moved from Toronto.  His mother Susanne is visiting for the next couple of weeks from Germany.
Favorite thing about Philly (Moritz):  "The location and the fact that it is a big city."
Least Favorite (Moritz):  "Not as clean as Toronto."
Favorite thing about Philly (Susanne):  "The mixture of the old and the modern, and of course, visiting my son."
Least favorite (Susanne):  "Nothing at the moment."

Marta Pasotto, does not live in the city, she is from Italy and is visiting with friends for a couple of months from the University of Pennsylvania.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "It is the people."
Least favorite:  "The weather, it is very cold."

Will Horoschak, does not live in the city, he resides in Francisville Pa.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "It is one of the few big cities that is really livable, affordable, it is hard to do that in New York City without making a lot of money.  That and Kelly Drive, going for a run or a nice walk."
Least favorite:  "The trash in the streets."

Margaret "Mickey" Brown, has lived in Philadelphia for the last 20 years.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "Hahahahahahahaha."
Least favorite:  "Hahahahahahahah."

Karen Jacobsen, has lived in Philadelphia since 1973
Favorite thing about Philly:  "I like the people and the size of the city, it is easily accessible and I like the mix of the old with the new."
Least favorite:  "The rudeness and inconsiderateness of some people in the city."

William DeRainey, has lived in Philadelphia for his entire life, 59 years to be exact.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "I love Philadelphia, I love the United States spirit."
Least favorite:  "I don't like swimming because I can't."

Beth Treisner, has lived in Chester County for the last four years, was in the city to meet a friend.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "I like the fact that it has the plusses of NYC but in a smaller package."
Least favorite:  "The Philadelphia Parking Authority."


Sara Finne, has lived in Philly for the last seven years, originally from Long Island.
Favorite thing about Philly:  "The food, good food at a bar or a Jose Garces restaurant, just really great food."
Least favorite:  "The trash in my neighborhood."


Tuesday, January 26, 2010




















































































































































































































Here are some pictures from Philadelphia's past compared to pictures the same location from today.
The majority of the pictures are of Girard Ave., from as far east as Shackamaxon and Girard to as far west as the intersection of 48th, Lancaster Ave, and Girard.  The last two pictures are of my elementary school and the alleyway in back of my grandmother's house.  All of the old photographs were from the site www.phillyhistory.org.
The locations from top to bottom, and the year the old phorographs were taken are:  1) E. Girard Ave. and Shackamaxon St., 1901, 2) W. Girard and N. Front, 1923, 3) W. Girard and N. 2nd St., 1926, 4) W. Girard and N. Orianna St., 1936., 5) W. Girard and N. Franklin St., 1931, 6) W. Girard and N 9th St., 1912, 7) W. Girard and N. Broad St., 1925, 8) W. Girard, N. 48th, and Lancaster Ave., 1950, 9) Lansdowne Ave. and Atwood Rd., 1924, 10)Lansdowne Ave. and N. 66th St., 1967



 
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