Travel/Photo Blog: Philadelphia (Week Two: SD@PHI)
By Andy Lopusnak, AndysPictures.com
September 14-15, 2013
For the
second straight year, I found myself in Philly doing an NFL game. I’ve already
done two blogs on the City of Brotherly Love the previous two seasons. You can
read my 2011 write up by clicking here and last year’s blog by clicking here. Philadelphia is a fantastic city to shoot and once again, the weather was great.
VIEW MY BEST OF PHILLY
PHILLY AERIALS
When
landing at the airport, the view from the right side of the plane into
Philadelphia is awesome. I’ve shot it numerous times and this time was again
tremendous. You can view all of my Philly aerial shots by clicking here.
BACK TO 1776
Like
Boston, Philadelphia has many buildings and historical sites within walking
distance dating back to the Revolutionary War. In a short vicinity from
Independence Hall, you can walk to Benjamin Franklin’s grave, the Betsy Ross
House, Elfreth’s Alley and Christ Church. This was the first time I hit all of
these historic sites via foot power.
I also took the Philly subway to get from my hotel to Independence Hall. It’s very confusing with multiple different rail companies and smelled like urine at the three different stations I went through. It makes the NYC subway system look like a palace.
I also took the Philly subway to get from my hotel to Independence Hall. It’s very confusing with multiple different rail companies and smelled like urine at the three different stations I went through. It makes the NYC subway system look like a palace.
INDEPENDENCE HALL
I’ve
photographed the exterior of Independence Hall numerous times, but went online
and got a ticket to go inside this time. It’s free, but there’s a $1.50 per ticket
charge for the online convenience. Independence Hall is where the Constitution
was built in 1753 and is where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution
were signed.
The best
preserved copies of the original Declaration and Constitution are currently
housed in the National Archives in Washington D.C. Today, you cannot photograph
the documents, but back in 2007 it was okay to shoot them without flash. You can click here to view the
two bedrock documents for the United States of America.
LIBERTY BELL
The
Liberty Bell was created to go in Independence Hall’s steeple. It of course
cracked the first time it was rung, but still was placed in the steeple. The
bell is now across the street from Independence Hall at the Liberty Bell
Center.
I’ve photographed the Liberty Bell from the outside previously, but had never been inside the Liberty Bell Center until this trip. It’s also free to go inside. The line is long, but goes very quickly.
I’ve photographed the Liberty Bell from the outside previously, but had never been inside the Liberty Bell Center until this trip. It’s also free to go inside. The line is long, but goes very quickly.
CITY HALL
In the
first two weeks of the NFL season, I’ve shot perhaps the best two looking city
halls in the country (Buffalo last week and Philly this week). Philadelphia’s
City Hall was built from 1871-1901 and for eight years it was the tallest
habitable building in the world (1901-08). Even today, it is the largest municipal
building in the US.
It is
topped by a 37-foot, 27-ton bronze statue of city founder William Penn and is
one of 250 sculptures adorned inside and outside of the building created by
Alexander Milne Calder. Penn’s statue is tallest atop any building in the
world. Baltimore, where I’ll be this upcoming weekend, has a great City Hall as
well (click here
to view). Since I’ve had numerous weeks of great city hall
buildings, I decided to create a City Hall photo gallery (click here to view).
BEN FRANKLIN’S BURIAL SITE
Around the
corner from Independence Hall is the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin
at Christ Church’s Burial Ground.
BETSY ROSS HOUSE
Apparently
there’s some doubt that this is actually the house that Ross lived in and
designed the original American flag. The house is original from around 1740 and
the remains of Ross and her third husband, John Claypoole, were moved to the
courtyard in the 1970s.
SAN DIEGO 33, PHILADELPHIA 30
Both
quarterbacks tossed for over 400 yards with San Diego’s Philip Rivers
completing 36-of-47 (77%) for 419 yards with three touchdowns (all to Eddie
Royal) and Philadelphia’s Michael Vick tossing for a career-high 428 yards with
three total touchdowns (two pass/one rush).
The
Chargers’ kicker Nick Novak hit a 46-yard field goal with seven seconds left to
win it. Three players caught over 100 yards (SD’s Antony Gates had 124 while
DeSean Jackson posted 193 yards with a touchdown and LeSean McCoy had a career-high
114 receiving yards. San Diego’s 539 total yards is the most for the Chargers
since 1985 and Royal became the first to have two receiving TDs in back-to-back
games for the Bolts since Wes Chandler in 1982.
If history
is any indication, then the Chargers should go on to win Super Bowl XLVIII.
Philadelphia’s first home game for the previous four seasons all went on to win
the Super Bowl. It started in 2009, when the Eagles hosted the New Orleans
Saints, then the Green Bay Packers, then the New York Giants and last year the
Baltimore Ravens. All went on to win the Super Bowl each year. Will this weird
streak continue? Vegas doesn’t seem to think so with the Chargers a 40-to-1
odds of winning the Big Game (SF has the league’s best odds at 6-to-1). You can view my complete gallery of pregame shots from this game by clicking here.
THE TIME LAPSE
I set up
both GoPro cameras and of course the fancy, new Hero 3 sucked because the
battery is a joke not evening lasting until kickoff (just one hour and 42
minutes). The Hero 2 was once again a rock star lasting five hours and 32
minutes. I found that the Battery BacPac for the Hero 3 was blinking red, which
might be the reason why it sucked so much.
This is my
fourth different time lapse of Lincoln Financial Field. Click the links below
my other views of HIGH END ZONE, BEAUTY
SHOT and HIGH
SIDELINE. For
this time lapse, I set up my GoPro Hero 2 back where I did my first time lapse here in the corner by the CBS "beauty shot." Click here to see my Lincoln Financial
Field photo galleries.
MEMORIAL HALL/PLEASE TOUCH MUSEUM
This is last
surviving major building from the 1876 Centennial Exposition, which was
officially the first World’s Fair, and celebrated the 100-year anniversary of
the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Luckily, I
got here at the perfect moment with perfect lighting to get photos. In 2008,
Memorial Hall was transformed inside to become the Please Touch Museum, which
is targeted for kids seven years and younger.
CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL – SMITH MEMORIAL
ARCH
In
Fairmont Park less than two hundred yards from Memorial Hall are two huge
arch/pillar structures on each side of the road. Built on the grounds of the
1876 Centennial Exposition. The Smith Memorial Arch is adorned with 13
individual portrait sculptures, two eagles standing on globes and reliefs of
eight allegorical figures. It was started in 1897 and finally finished in 1912.
I had no
clue this was here in Philly and will come back to shoot it when it isn’t that
dark. Sadly, this monument isn’t lit up at night. It would be an awesome shot
if this was in a busy intersection to get the car trails and the double
arches/pillars.
CHINATOWN FRIENDSHIP GATE
Marking
the entrance of Philadelphia’s Chinatown district, the Friendship Gate was the
first built in the United States by Chinese artisans. The gate weighs 88 tons
and stands 40-feet high. The four Chinese characters translate to “Philadelphia
Chinatown.”
EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY
Built in
1829 and closed as a jail in 1971, the Eastern State Penitentiary is considered
the world’s first true penitentiary. Al Capone was once jailed here. It was
also used as a setting in the 1995 film Twelve
Monkeys. It wasn’t open when I drove by and will try to take a tour next
time I’m in Philly.
UP NEXT: Houston at Baltimore
Once
again, I’m doing the Texans-Ravens game. It marks the fifth time overall and
the fourth in the last three seasons. To say I’m excited to do this game or go
to Baltimore once game is just a lie. In my CBS travels the teams with the most
games covered are these two, so I’m pretty sick of Baltimore-Houston as a game
and the respective cities. This time, I’m going to focus on some Inner Harbor
for day and night shots.
SAN JOSE AERIALS
On the way home, I got some good aerial photos of downtown San Jose. Here's one of them. The window was very dirty, so hopefully I can get some better ones in the coming weeks.
On the way home, I got some good aerial photos of downtown San Jose. Here's one of them. The window was very dirty, so hopefully I can get some better ones in the coming weeks.
BEST OF THE BLOG
Here’s my
favorite photos from this weekend.
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