hey guys. i am from NJ just across the Walt Whitman. been in south korea for almost a year now. will be home again for just a month or two in august. i just got my k-x in korea and when i get home i want to take as many city shots as i can. where are some of your favorite places in the city to shoot? a couple obvious places i want to shoot: south street, the art museum, citizens bank park (maybe an hour or so before a game!), germantown, penns landing, independence hall, FDR park, northern liberties, and fishtown. as i have never lived in the city (only a ten min drive) i might be missing out on some really cool photogenic areas or the city. tips? places to go at a certain time of day? any help would be amazing. cant wait to get some shots of my favorite city!

much love
todd

My 2 cents, very disorganized.

Rittenhouse Square is probably worth trying out. You won't be short for people to shoot. It's a nice place to hang out in the evening (not too late) as well.

I definitely recommend the Washington Square West area for walking around. Lots of old houses and side streets. I especially recommend the side streets. You get a totally different flavor walking down them. I think it's one of the distinctive things about Philadelphia. If you give off a good vibe and are lucky, you can get some nice street portraits as well. But I've found that income and willingness to be photographed are negatively related.

The Italian Market during the day is good. It's busy and the vendors generally don't mind you taking a few snaps here or there.

You may want to check out the ball field on 5th and Washington on the weekend for the soccer games.

The path along the Schuylkill river and the extension onto Kelly Drive (south and north of the Art Museum, respectively) are nice places to shoot and relax. There is free parking by Kelly Drive if you want to drive in.

I have had luck getting into restaurant kitchens to shoot the prep cooks. What you want to do is walk down the side streets and scan back doors. I think when the kitchens get hot the cooks leave them open for ventilation. I've found that if you ask nicely, these cooks and servers are pretty happy for you to take their picture. Just be quick about it. You want to do this a few hours before dinner service, way before anyone is even thinking about how busy they'll be.

The Penn campus is nice in the evening. I especially like the lighting on Locust Walk. For whatever reason, glow globes (can't think of a better way to describe them) are hung on the trees and lit after dark. There is also a bridge over 38th street if you want to photograph traffic or something like that.

I haven't done this (yet), but the roof decks of the Super Fresh and Whole Foods parking garages (10th and South) could be a nice place to shoot at night. Not sure what security would think about that....

If you're there during the day, there's a dog park behind the Super Fresh. Depends on if you like dogs or not. I don't own one right now, so I'm sure I'm leaving out bigger ones.

On MLK drive across from Boat House row at night can be good. There is supposedly a way to go up into City Hall, there;s an observation deck up there. I've seen pictures from there so it's pretty cool. From Jersey, near Campbell's field you can get a cityscape from across the Delaware river.

Post some pics when you're done. I would love to some of your shots.

Don't know I'd recommend that at night though, especially now that half the police have been laid off.

I'm from the Philadelphia region, but don't know Philly all that well, so I'll generalize here. Last month I was at Ruth's Chris on Broad Street and it was really cool at night looking down towards city hall.

Rittenhouse Square is definitely a pretty cool place to hang out in the early evening. Penn's Landing at night is pretty cool looking out over the river with the Ben Franklin Bridge and all. to me, the Chinatown region always fascinates me. I don't have a specific reason and I've never had a camera when I was in the area, but some time I will have to shoot over there. Although, in your case, maybe you've shot enough Asian style photos!

There are bus tours that start at 5th and I think Market. It goes from Penns Landing to the Zoo. There are around 20 stops so you can get on and off all day. I did it last summer and loved it. I think its about $25