Cemetery & Zombie Story

So one day, back in the day, I decided to visit a cemetery in South West Philadelphia. I got a lot of good shots, but wanted to share this one of an the abandoned room (I think it's cool) and did a story board for a zombie scene. I would have done better work with the makeup but I procrastinated. Thanks to the help of of my buddy Tony Trov (writer, film maker, musician) for helping out with this project.

Abandoned Cemetery Building (trying to show light shining down) [Scary]

Scene 1: Zombie Rich awakens from his slumber

Scene 2: Tony is praying for the fallen.

Scene 3: In deep prayer...

Scene 4: Startled

[Copy] Scene 4: Startled
(I wanted to through this one in there too since the emotion is startled and the  photo is off centered)

Scene 5: Dinner

Scene 6: Ahhh!

Random Photos

Here are some more random black and white photos that I wanted to share.

Erasmo @ Ippolito's Seafood filleting the freshest fish (circa 2007)

Star of the Art Museum

STOP or POTS

The Flash

Shadow 1

Shadow 2

Penn's Landing

Shooting night photography for the first time was tricky. I took a bunch of photos, but these two came out best. The first one is just of the sky and the lights reflecting on the water.The second is one of my favorites. When developing the photo, I had to process one side of the photo longer than the other (I think that's the term) as you can see the photo goes from darker to lighter from the left to right. The reason behind this is to show the submarine and the ship since there was less almost no light there when the photo was taken.

Reflections

Ships & Submarine

Self Portrait

So here is a self portrait. I used a tripod for the camera. This wasn't the best copy as you can see by the darkness of the sky, nevertheless, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Self Photo taken at the 1100 block of Cross Street in South Philly in front of an abandoned Ozzie's Cleaners
 (currently State Side) 

Photography 101

A few years back I wanted to learn a new a hobby that I was always interested in, photography. I took a basic 101 class in which we had to use a manual camera with a 50mm lens and use 35mm film. Using the camera, I learned how to use the shutter speeds, aperture, and built in light meter.

The class had to take various photos focusing Point of View, Abstraction, Depth of Field, Shutter Speed Variations, Quality of Light, Environmental Portrait, Sequence, Night Photography, Selective Focus, and a Self Portrait.

A few cool things that we had to learn were how to unload the film in a dark room, and do all of the developing ourselves. In my upcoming blogs I will share with you the various black & white photos that I created. Enjoy.

Playground

Urban Flower

On a Mission

The Lakes

Worm

Italian Market

No Sign of Things

Spokes

Clothes Drying

Water Ice

South Philly is known for its vast array of culture and food, but as the heat turns up this summer, everyone is enjoying a nice cold water ice (not to be confused with Italian Ice).  Nothing beats a water ice with a pretzel rod or you might want to even throw a bit of ice cream in the mix and have a gelati[i]. Water Ice is the best in South Philly!

South Philly’s popular water ice establishments are Italiano’s, John’s, and Pop’s. There are Rita’s locations too out here, but I’m just talking about the real local stuff. All three have been South Philly favorites for a long time. I have recently just tried all three again to refresh my memory.

Pop’s is located right off of Broad Street on the East side Oregon Avenue. Pop’s has a wide variety of water ice flavors and the taste has always been consistent. The after taste of the water ice has a robust and flavorful taste. You can walk across the street to Marconi Plaza afterwards and enjoy a stroll through the park.

Next is Italiano’s which is located at 12^th & Shunk streets in a quaint neighborhood of South Philly. Parking is tight, but so is everywhere else in the city these days. Just like Pop’s, the selection is vast. The water ice has a strong taste at first and has a finishing slushy type taste. Italiano’s is a favorite by most of my native friends.

Finally, there’s John’s water ice on the corner of 7^th & Christian Streets. If you’re ever walking down to South Street, John’s is a place to stop. The selection is small, but has other flavors on occasion. The water ice from here will make your mouth water. It is addictive.

It all comes down to personal preference. All three establishments are worth checking out if you live in the city or from out of town. John’s is my personal favorite, but I’ll let you decide.

---

[i] Gelati: A combination of both water ice and ice cream. Outside of South Philly Gelati (the plural form of gelato) is Italian-Style ice cream.