Tag Archives: Philadelphia

Remember Dobie Gillis and Maynard G. Krebbs?

“Rodin’s Thinker”
Rodin Museum, Philadelphia

Remember the “Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” TV sitcom back in the late 50’s and early 60’s? Each episode started and ended with a little soliloquy of Dobie talking in front of “The Thinker.” Dobie was always contemplating on what the important things in life were: Girls and Money (used to get Girls). Things were much simpler back then. I decided to make good use of my “social isolation” time and did a little searching and found season 1, episode 1 of the show. It made me smile as I thought back to those simpler times and the start of the “beat” generation.

Fifty plus years later, I found myself standing along Rodin’s “The Thinker” in downtown Philadelphia. It was a difficult time for me then. I took the time to admire Rodin’s sculpture, clear my mind, and refocus my thoughts on what was the most important thing I could do moving forward. The answer was simple, live each and every day to its fullest.

Today was one of those days. I started sharing coffee and breakfast with my dear wife. We had a nice discussion, then went out to work in and enjoy our developing landscape. Later I came in for lunch and a nice afternoon nap. I woke up, did a little reading, then reviewed some of my older photography work, including this image of “The Tinker.” It triggerd old memories and I watched the episode of Dobie Gillis. Enjoying time with my wife, enjoying nature and getting a little exercise, reading to stimulate my mind, studying some classic art through my photographs, and watching a little past history … it was a simple, wonderful, and full day.

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Witherspoon Building

140612_Witherstone Bldg Sign by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF55-200mm @ 55mm, f/4.5, 1/200 sec, ISO 800

Walking around downtown Philly, I saw this old stately building with ordinate sculptures decorating the facade.  This image spans the main building entrance.  From my viewpoint the vertical lines were perspective distorted.  I took the opportunity to work with perspective warp in photoshop to clean up the distortion.  Below is the overall main entrance facade.

140612_Witherstone Bldg Facade by 2013 Karl Graf.

 

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Lazy Day

140601_Lazy Day by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF18-55mm @ 53mm, f/8.0, 1/60 sec, IS0 800

Today was a beautiful late Spring day.  The temperature was 75 degrees.  People were out in droves in downtown Philly.  The lawns of Rittenhouse Square were covered with people laying in the shade enjoying the beautiful day.

I used NIK Color Efex Pro’s  Classic Soft Focus and Glamor Glow filters to create a slight soft dreamy look for the Lazy Day.

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Kimmel Center Reflections

140527_Kimmel Ctr 3 by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF 18-55mm @ 55mm, f/5.0, 1/420 sec, ISO 400

The reflections of the window frames within the windows are what attracted me to this perspective of the Kimmel Center.  The frames remind me of giant metal claws.

I tried working with B&W on this image.  I liked the sky blue and the structure blue-grey interaction over the grey scale of B&W.

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LOVE

140527_LOVE Sculpture by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF18-55mm @ 55mm, f/4.0, 1/1200 sec, ISO 400

I could not let this iconic sculpture in downtown Philly pass by.  It was Red, so I shot it of course.  To further highlight the red, I converted to B&W with NIK Silver Efex Pro and used selective color.

I am posting this today for my wonderful wife on her birthday!

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Musical Curves

140526_Kimmel Ctr 1 by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF 18-55mm @ 55mm, f/5.0, 1/3 sec, ISO 1600, handheld

The curves of the balconies and acoustic structures inside the Kimmel Center main concert hall are fascinating.  I recall attending a classical concert and getting lost gazing around all the curves and listening to the musical score.

Balancing the composition of all the curves was the challenge for this image.  I wandered about the hall with my camera to my eye to balance the curves, shadows, and lights.  I took multiple shots to get acceptable sharpness at 1/3 second shutter speed.  I can’t wait to come back and do more exploring.

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The Other Side

140523_Swan Fountain 2 by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF 18-55mm @ 28mm, f/22, 1/17 sec, ISO 200

This image is from the other site of Swann Fountain, depicting the other two rivers:  Schuykill and Delaware.  My focus for this image was just to come up with a symmetric balance between the sculptures.  One lesson learned here is to pay attention to the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO trade offs.  I braced the camera on the fountain wall to get a reasonable sharpness at 1/17 second.

 

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The Wissahickon

140522_Swan Fountain 1 by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF18-55mm @ 50mm, f/11, 1/80 sec, ISO 500

Swann Memorial Fountain (aka The Fountain of the Three Rivers)
Alexander Stirling Calder1924

This fountain in Logan Circle depicts the three rivers that converge at Philadelphia:  the Schuykill, the Wissahickon, and the Delaware.  In this image I was trying to capture the fountain image and the Philadelphia City Hall in the background.  I also wanted to capture limited blur in the flowing water.

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Tuscan Girl Fountain

140521_Swimmers by 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF18-55mm @ 46mm, f/10, 1/20 sec, ISO 400

Tuscan Girl Fountain
Oskar Stonorov, Jorio Vivarelli, 1965

Philadelphia is full of sculptures. Walking around Center City, sculptures are everywhere you look.  The overall sculpture draws my initial attention, but typically does not make an interesting photographic image to me.  It is very difficult for me to capture the three dimensional aspects.  I then usually just walk around and try to get a detailed aspect and perspective of the sculptures essence.  I moved around this sculpture to capture an interesting element and a “nondescript” background to frame the image.

 

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