Philadelphia's Paint Torch

This is Philadelphia’s newest public art piece, Paint Torch created by Claes Oldenburg. It stands 51 feet high and is on a 60 degree angle as if in the act of painting. It is outside the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on Broad Street. I recently shot a wedding there and couldn’t resist making a few images of my own after the rehearsal. I think it looks great with the expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center as it’s backdrop. The lighting portion of the project is now complete so I’ll be heading back to see how she looks all lit up so stay tuned.

I had breakfast in Quincy Market during my short visit to Boston this summer. While there I came across this seating area upstairs. It was early morning and I was almost alone and I thought it would make a nice shot. I was able to steady the camera on the railing which allowed me to capture the scene in this way. I traveled very light on this trip, just one camera body, two lenses and a few memory cards. (A D7000, 14-24 and a 50 for those interested) The experiment worked out great. I had my gear in an EMS backpack along with my clothes, a small notebook and that’s about it. Lean and mean, forcing myself to see only with what I had felt great. Normally I feel the need to carry everything I could potentially use which gets bulky and heavy. That leads to me getting tired sooner and potentially missing images. Now, when I’m shooting for a client things are different but even then I’ve learned to scale things back a bit. Hope you like the Quincy Market picture, as always click for a better look.

The Garden of Reflection – The September 11th Memorial in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

The way I prefer to work on this project is to find a middle of the week night game followed by a day game. This way I can fly late morning or early afternoon and hit the game that night. The following day catch the day game then fly back that night. This way I’m gone for only one night and get to see two games. The bonus is that I get two different looks with one day game and one night game. So that was the plan for Boston and $39 each way for airfare didn’t hurt. The difficulty came with the hotel room. For whatever reason Boston was completely booked so I ended up about 25 minutes away from the stadium, out past Harvard. Those cab rides really added up.

The flight was super easy and the overpriced out of the way hotel was fine. The game that night was great as was my lobster roll sandwich. I was happy with what I was able to accomplish but knew there was more for the next day.

I worked the outside scene for quite a while the first night but as soon as the gates opened the second day I made my way into the stadium. I had a few areas on my list to get to so the extra time was helpful. I made my way out to the Green Monster during batting practice. It was quite a scene of people taking pictures of each other in front of the wall and even signing it. You really got the feeling you were in a special, iconic place.

There were a few father and son moments I witnessed that of course made me think of my boys. I took my phone out of my pocket to grab a photo of the wall I could send to my family when, quite literally, out of the clear blue sky came a screaming line drive (think Bugs Bunny) that hit me directly in my right temple. I’ll spare you all of the details but my phone ended up three rows in front of me (thank goodness it still worked) and my glasses were in four pieces a few rows behind where I was standing. I was in complete shock and my head was throbbing. Within 30 seconds of getting hit, a crowd of people were surrounding me asking me if I was OK and a minute later the paramedics arrived.

Everyone was extremely nice and the paramedics stood with me for about 20 minutes or so. As I tried to relax and understand what just happened, it became clear that with my crazy headache and no glasses staying at the ballpark was not an option. By now it was about 12:45 and the game didn’t start until 1:35. I suddenly couldn’t get home fast enough. I was able to change my flight from 6:30 to 3:00. Leaving the stadium before the first pitch in the shape I was in was really heartbreaking but I couldn’t imagine staying. Getting from Fenway Park to Bucks County, PA with no glasses, was no picnic either but I made it. I got a CAT scan shortly after which was clear.

It’s often said that baseball is a game of inches, and it’s definitely true. But if the ball that hit me, which I did get to keep, was an inch to the left it could have hit my eye or an inch to the right, my ear, this story would have been much different. Before leaving the area I asked one of the paramedics, Kristin, to grab a quick picture of me with my ice pack and the ball. I’ll need the picture for my book!

Boston Light Blades

I was in Boston a few weeks ago shooting for my baseball stadium atmosphere project. I had some free time in the morning so I hopped in a cab and did some exploring in the downtown area. I found some beautiful public art and these were my favorites. They are The Light Blades on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. I didn’t see them at night but they light up in all sorts of colors. Would have been another great shot, I’m sure. This is a 5 shot HDR composite made hand-held. Unfortunately, my trip was cut a bit short after my head had an unexpected meeting with a baseball during batting practice at Fenway Park later that afternoon. That’s the subject of my next blog post. Stay tuned and click the images for a larger view.

Playing Chess in Rittenhouse Square

Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia has got to be one of the best places to spend a few hours on a Spring afternoon. After finishing up a recent job I made my way over to the park with the sole purpose to practice some HDR shooting. I’m definitely a fan of a subtle, more natural approach to HDR but this time I cranked it up to 11. It took a few tries to time the 7 shot sequence between moves but I was able to squeeze it in and I think its a great scene. Click for a larger view.

As always, click the images for a better view and good luck!