What’s that boy?  What are you trying to tell me?  Oh, you want to walk around Philadelphia with me.  O.K.  That’s fine.  Here we go…

No.  Sorry.  We don’t have time to stop at the dog park.  We’ve got to get to South Street Bridge in time for the best light.  Daddy needs to bag that money making skyline photo.

What’s that dog?

Are you saying that I shouldn’t always think in commercial terms?  You think I should stop here and take a Gursky type photo of the dog park?  Tiny human figures dwarfed by modernity?

That’s a great idea dog.  Why didn’t I think of that?  Isn’t Gursky the guy who sold a photo for a lot of money?

Look.  We made it just in time for that perfect sunset skyline photo  This is what I was after.  Those colors are really going to pop off the monitor.

What’ s that dog?  You want to go home now?

Yeah, me too.  I need WiFi so I can get this photo on Facebook immediately.  I bet this pic will get 10 likes at least.

What’s that dog?  Sorry I wasn’t paying attention.  I was reading lens reviews on Amazon.  Could you say it again?

Dog!  You have a lot of nerve talking to your master that way!

It’s hard not be an optimist these days.  It’s springtime and things seem to be getting better and better.  Take this photo walk for example.  We landed in Philadelphia at 6:30 pm and less than a half hour later I’m stepping out of our downtown hotel with camera and tripod.  There’s a half hour of sunlight remaining.  I head for the art museum (You know what I’m talking about — think about Rocky at the top of the steps).  It doesn’t matter that I don’t know where the museum is, my phone shows me the way.    Fifteen minutes later, I’m standing at the iconic spot — I’m at the top of the Philadelphia Art Museum stairs.  But, I find that this isn’t a great place for a sunset photo, not unless you’re packing something in the 70-200 mm range.  So what should I do?  The light is fading fast.  I reference Google maps.  What’d ya know?  There’s a bridge two blocks away and it probably has a skyline view.  I get to the bridge at the perfect moment — 20 minutes after sundown and the skyline looks magical.  I love it when things come together with minimum effort.

Did I mention that I had time for some photos of the museum also?  I needs my iStock money.  You gotta feed the machine from time to time.  How else could I pay for all this expensive kit?.

A large portion of my adult life has been spent in Philadelphia’s gravitational pull.  My previous flying  job was with a US Airways affiliate.  I spent many years flying in and out of Philadelphia International.  And, my wife is from Philly.  Despite these links, I am not too familiar with the city.  Back in my US Airways days they always put us up near the airport.  I have only been in downtown Philly a handful of times.  I was lucky on this trip because I had a 22 hour overnight and I do the same trip next week.  So, the morning after taking these sunset photos, I set out on a walk.  I was scouting photo locations for next week.  Here are the photos I took on that walk….

You don’t have to travel far out of downtown before the neighborhoods take a turn for the worse.  I wish I was a little more brave, or had a car, or body guard, because this neighborhood would be fun to photograph.  Because I currently don’t have my gear insured, I decided it would be smartest to stay on the busiest streets.  It felt like I was being watched.  That’s probably my small town brain playing tricks on me, but it’s kind of hard to feel comfortable while walking alone and carrying a few thousand dollars worth of electronics.

Look what I found in the heart of Fairmount Park.  I’m a person who travels a lot.  I couldn’t resist taking this photo.  The only question is, how much symbolism is too much?

As if this hobo camp down by the tracks wasn’t dreary enough — I question their choice of decoration.

I made it back to the safety of downtown but I didn’t find anything I want to photograph next week.  Any suggestions?

And, if you were wondering where I stole the title of this post watch this 

Yeah, the weather is heating up and clouds across the country are starting to show a little billow.  That’s good news for me because I love thunderstorm season.  With my new Canon 5D Mark III, I’m sure that this year I’ll be able to bring you some really unique thunderstorm photos.  The photo above was taken while rocketing across the desert in central Nevada.  We were flying Newark to San Francisco — our last leg before a couple days off.

They say you shouldn’t upgrade your camera until you start bumping up against the limitations of your old camera.  Well, here’s a photo that would not have been possible prior to the this latest generation of pro DSLRs.  This is a view of San Jose, CA.  The sun had already dropped below the horizon.  I love the light at this time of day, but with my old camera there was just too much noise to make a pretty picture from the air with light this dim.  Using my Mark III you can see detail in the rattlesnake infested hills at the lower left corner and there is minimal (but some) noise down in the dark valley.

Have there been enough photos taken of New York City?  Is it possible to take an original photo of Manhattan?  Today, I felt up for the challenge.  It was a perfect spring morning and I took the train in from Newark.  Exiting Penn Station, I made my way on foot to the High Line.  The High Line is relatively new.  Maybe I could find my unique photo there?  The above photo and the three following were all taken while walking the High Line.  Try not to notice that one of my super original pictures is almost exactly the same as the photo used in the Wikipedia entry for the High Line.  Mine, however, has a crispy goodness that Wikipedia can only dream of — creative commons, Ha!  

I saw on the news that today they would be hoisting the spire to the top of the new World Trade Center Tower.  After getting off the High Line I headed south to see if there were any crowds gathered.

Despite flying in and out of NYC hundreds of times, I don’t know much about city.  I’ve only been inside Manhattan five times.  The amount of cobblestone and streets ending in water views surprised me.  On a gorgeous spring day, lower Manhattan seems like paradise.

After walking due south for 3 miles, I found my street suddenly blocked by the World Trade Center construction site.  The security at the site was massive, two huge barriers, guarded gates, and heavily armed law enforcement.  The New Yorkers were obviously used to the construction.  Hundreds of pedestrians made their way to work like it was any other day.

I’m not sure if this was the moment the spire made it to the top of the tower, I was too busy taking pictures.  This was, however, the first time I ever saw inhabitants of a large city look skyward at the same time.  I thought looking up at the tall buildings was a sign that one was from out of town.

And, I’ll end this with a photo that is a compositional mess.  This picture breaks every rule of basic composition.  The tops of the buildings are cut off, people are sliced at the edge of the frame, and the wide angle lens distorts everything in a bad way.  For some reason though, I like this shot.  I think it’s the bright colors, sunlight, and the little kid at the bottom center.  Near miss or good enough?  I don’t know, but I do know that I have to keep trying to push the envelope if I don’t want my pictures to look like eveybody else’s.

Thank you hotel guest services for giving me a not requested 5:30 am wake-up call.  Since I couldn’t fall back to sleep I took my camera out to enjoy the early morning light.  Did I mention I’m in Newark, NJ?  If you can make a pretty photo here you can make one anywhere.

I’m going to get some free hotel breakfast and then head into the city for a day of adventure.