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Philadelphia at Night
This past December, my son, Nick (11 years old), and I, made an unexpected overnight stop in Philadelphia. We were enroute from Fort Lauderdale to Lake Placid for a youth ice hockey tournament, when dense fog shut down the Philadelphia airport. Our flight from Fort Lauderdale was one of the last to make it in to Philadelphia that night, and our flight out to Albany was one of the last to be canceled that night. As all flights out that night were canceled, there were almost no hotels available within 15 miles of the airport. We were lucky to get a room at the Omni in Independence Park. Once we arrived at the hotel at 11:30pm, I realized we were only a block from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. My son hit the sack and I hit the streets. I had recently purchased a 12-24mm lens for my Nikon D70 and this would be my first time using it.
All of these images were hand held. I was not expecting to do any low light photography and had not packed a tri-pod.
First stop, just outside the hotel:
At the first intersection, I believe this is Chestnut and 6th Street, Independence Hall is in the background:
Next, I circled Independence Hall. Here are the shots:
This was my first time ever using the 12-24 lens, and my first time ever attempting night-time, long exposure shots, again hand held.
Here is the next morning, in a diner down the street from our hotel. We had to get up very early to try to make our re-scheduled flight. My son couldn't stay awake waiting for the waitress to come take our order.
As an epilogue, the fog was so bad, that the Philadelphia airport was shut-down again in the morning. We had to drive from Philadelphia to Lake Placid, about a 6 and 1/2 hour drive. All in all, it took us 30 hours to get from Fort Lauderdale to Lake Placid. A major pain in the butt, but well worth the adventure in the end.
All of these images were hand held. I was not expecting to do any low light photography and had not packed a tri-pod.
First stop, just outside the hotel:
At the first intersection, I believe this is Chestnut and 6th Street, Independence Hall is in the background:
Next, I circled Independence Hall. Here are the shots:
This was my first time ever using the 12-24 lens, and my first time ever attempting night-time, long exposure shots, again hand held.
Here is the next morning, in a diner down the street from our hotel. We had to get up very early to try to make our re-scheduled flight. My son couldn't stay awake waiting for the waitress to come take our order.
As an epilogue, the fog was so bad, that the Philadelphia airport was shut-down again in the morning. We had to drive from Philadelphia to Lake Placid, about a 6 and 1/2 hour drive. All in all, it took us 30 hours to get from Fort Lauderdale to Lake Placid. A major pain in the butt, but well worth the adventure in the end.
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Best of luck to the team!
Next tme you're in town, check out City Hall lit up at night (Broad and Market Sts - not too far from where you were).
The riverfront has a plethora of great shooting opportunities as well, not to mention the bridges. This can go on and on, but I'll sum it up:
My favorite is independence hall framed by the trees.