A Real American Hero

Happy Fourth of July! This is probably going to be my last photography entry on my blog for awhile (don't worry, other creative stuff to come). Let us all remember why we celebrate the Fourth of July, more commonly known here in America as Independence Day. July 4th, 1776 is when America declared its Independence from Great Britain which has made America the greatest country in the world ever since. I love my country! [Just because I love my country doesn't necessarily mean that I feel the same way about the government].

Many troops over the years have died for our liberties and continue to do so to this day. They fight so we don’t have to. Let us be grateful for this and to that I say, “Salute,” to all of our troops past and present. For that, many of us celebrate the day by having barbeques, watching fireworks, going to a baseball game, but most importantly spending time with our family and friends.

Below is a photo I took of my grand-father outside of his house about five years ago. He served our county in the Korean War. After the war, he got married and went on to have three children and four grand-children (me being one of them). He has been a family man since then and continues to help his family to this day.

Francis Chiavaroli Sr. (Gabby)

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