Photo Challenge: Face
Weekly Photo Challenge: Face
Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Photo Challenge: Earth
“To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves a riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now they are truly brothers.”
— Archibald MacLeish, American Poet
It never ceases to amaze me to watch the earth pass below as I sit comfortably in an airplane gazing at the landscape before me.
“The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic.
— Aleksei Leonov, Russian Cosmonaut
Photo locations (approximate):
- Greek Islands
- Pyrenees Mountains, Spain
- Mediterranean Sea
- Delta along Chesapeake Bay
- Alps
- North Wildwood, New Jersey
- Cape Henlopen, Delaware
Chinese Lantern Festival Lights Up Franklin Square
When the Chinese Lantern Festival came to Norfolk, Virginia, my sister and her family reported back that the display was amazing and not to be missed when it comes to Philadelphia. On opening night, the display was spectacular, illuminating over seven acres of Franklin Square!
Artists create the lanterns using cloth and heavy wire, creating a mosaic-like effect. In addition to light shining through the cloth, thousands of LCD lights outline some of the designs. Against the night sky, the colors looked brilliant. Wheels whirled along one of the pathways, and a two-hundred foot dragon glowed with yellow and red.
The festival marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, typically held around the beginning of February but postponed in Philly to April for friendlier weather outcomes.
Not to be missed: a ride on the carousel . . . for all ages! Spinning around while riding the horses, viewing the kaleidoscope of colors, truly a magical moment.
Photo Ramble: Filter Square Neighborhood, Philadelphia
To Meander: following a winding course: a meandering lane. Proceeding in a convoluted or undirected fashion.
The Philadelphia Photo League sponsored “Meandering with Mike K” street photo walk. Members met at the Good Karma Cafe at 331 S 22 Street to drink coffee before heading out on our late afternoon trek. Below is the street scene along 22nd and Good Karma’s back patio.
Filter Square is located in the area west of Center City, bordered by the Schuylkill River. Mike, who presented commentary and helpful photo suggestions, led us down Rittenhouse Street and Delancey Place, where we admired and photographed the Victorian architecture.
We then paused as we passed through Filter Square, a quaint residential neighborhood park built more than a century ago. Surrounded by mature trees stands the park’s central feature, a Victorian-era fountain surrounded by an iron railing and a ring of white flowers. Children chalked on the sidewalks and neighbors chatted on the benches as we photographed the goat and other animal sculptures.
From this neighborhood, we walked several blocks to the Schuylkill River Park, where the skyline of Philadelphia poked above the trees, and as Mike put it to give us the opportunity, “to take the golden hour skyscraper shot.”
We finished our meander on the Schuylkill Banks boardwalk, which I followed back to 30th Street Station to catch my train. What a delight to visit this section of Philly, finding so many places to photograph and enjoy being in this picturesque city.
Photo Challenge: Future–of Democracy Depends on Citizen Participation
This quote serves as our inspiration for the Word Press Weekly Photo Challenge:
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
– Peter F. Drucker
Participation in civic life is paramount to support a healthy democracy. Whatever issue is important to you, it’s time to get involved to change the future. Elected officials must represent us rather than direct the policy decisions to citizens.
On the march . . .
Photo Challenge: Landscape, New Zealand
On the shore of Te Anau, a town in the Southland area of the South Island of New Zealand.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Landscape
New Zealand, A Hobbit Journey through Mountains, Forests, and Shores, 2009
Photo Challenge: Half-Light
When I think of half-light, I recall “Twilight Time,” sung by The Platters, and written by Buck Ram.
Heavenly shades of night are falling, it’s twilight time
Out of the mist your voice is calling, it’s twilight time
When purple colored curtains mark the end of day
I’ll hear you, my dear, at twilight time
Deepening shadows gather splendor as day is done
Fingers of night will soon surrender the setting sun
I count the moments darling till you’re here with me
Together at last at twilight time
Here, in the afterglow of day, we keep our rendezvous beneath the blue
Here in the same and sweet old way, I fall in love again as I did then
Deep in the dark your kiss will thrill me like days of old
Lighting the spark of love that fills me with dreams untold
Each day I pray for evening just to be with you
Together at last at twilight time
Photo Challenge: One Love
The photo challenge for this week is inspired by this quote:
One love refers to the universal love and respect expressed by all people for all people, regardless of race, creed, or color.
Folks can express that love in unconventional and humorous ways. This sign on Lebowski Bar window in Reykjavik, Iceland, offers such respect. Some of our politicians (I’ll let you fill in the blanks) would not pass muster for the criteria for entrance.
More on my recent post: Iceland, Land of Frost and Fire.
New Freedom African-American Historic District Tour
New Freedom African-American Historic District Tour
Philadelphia Hiking Meetup Group sponsored a tour of West Philadelphia that focused on African-American historic sites. The organizer, Jed McKee, plans hikes that are transit friendly and is one of the reasons I selected this walk. The tour began at 30th Street Station, which is a hub of the rail lines, including Amtrak and Septa, that go in and out of Philadelphia.
Our group met under the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, a 39-foot monument commemorating the Pennsylvania Railroad employees who died in World War II. The bronze sculpture, Angel of the Resurrection, represents Michael the Archangel raising up a dead soldier out of the “flames of war.” Assistant Organizer, Scott Maits, our guide and local historian, began his commentary with a history of the station and of early Philadelphia.
As Scott led us west along Market Street, crossing under the freight train tracks, he told us the story of Frances Harper, who protested segregation on the trolleys in 1858. Frances refused to give up her seat or ride in the “colored” section of a segregated trolley car. Frances, an abolitionist, was also a writer and poet, author of the poem, “Bury Me In A Free Land,”
I ask no monument, proud and high,
To arrest the gaze of the passers-by;
All that my yearning spirit craves,
Is bury me not in a land of slaves.
We crossed through the campus of Drexel University into the area known as Black Bottom, a predominantly African-American community that was almost completely destroyed in the 1960s for “urban renewal.” Penn, Drexel, University of the Sciences, and Presbyterian Hospital worked together to acquire properties for eventual demolition.
Kitchen Sink Sculpture
Scott gave us an opportunity to view the facilities of the Community Education Center, that once housed the Quaker Friends School and Meetinghouse, rebuilt at the turn of the 20th century. Local community members founded the CEC “to promote shared experiences and nurture fellowship among its varied neighborhoods across cultural and economic differences.” The Center supports local community art programs, especially dance and performance.
The neighborhood varied from grand mansions to row homes.
Dupree Studios just won their long battle with the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA); the agency has ended condemnation proceedings to acquire the property by eminent domain.
We walked along Lancaster Avenue, originally called the Lincoln Highway, finding these wonderful moments along the way.
Lovely old building needing funding to restore to former glory,
Inspection Station with mural and mosaics.
Included this photograph of CBM Tires because I like old gas stations!
Bicycle Shop with clever display of wheels and gears. Can’t find anything like this at the mall.
Welcome to Belmont Mural
Murals on Lancaster Avenue/Lava Zone Mural
40th Street and Lancaster Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. mural. Mural recreates “Freedom Now” Rally held on August 3, 1965, during the Civil Rights movement.
Our last stop was at the intersection of Lancaster Avenue, 42nd Street, and Brown Street, near the New Africa Center Muslim-American Museum, before heading back to 30th Street via Number 10 trolley.
The contrasts on Lancaster Avenue are striking: blighted stretches of store fronts and sidewalks in desperate need of cleaning juxtapose with the creative art displays, both public and private. Derelict buildings stand next to colorful sidewalk mosaics. After years of economic decline, revitalizing the neighborhood is a challenging task: to create a prosperous commercial corridor while preserving and encouraging a mixed-income community.
Extended thanks to Jed McKee and Scott Maits for giving our Meet Up group an opportunity to visit and to learn about the history of this important Philadelphia neighborhood.
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