And now I have the tune from Passion Pit’s Take a Walk stuck in my head. But I really did take a walk, on Saturday, as part of the Click Magazine & Clickin Moms‘ Clickinwalk 2015 – Philadelphia/Chestnut Hill Section.
I signed up for this walk as an exercise and a practice run of sorts for an upcoming road trip. Even though I live only 27 min away, I’ve never visited this part of Philadelphia … just like cities and locales on my road trip to visit the southern states of Ga, NC, & SC (and all those in between). And, as I always seem do, I’ve packed a lot of destinations into this one week road trip, so I want to be as prepared as possible and make the best use of the time I’ll have at each stop.
First, the gear. I want to travel light as I wander around, but still have options, to explore city streets to old plantations. So, on Saturday, with just two lenses, a 50mm and a 24-120, I started out. The 50 mm was just right for strolling along Germantown Ave and taking in Chestnut Hill’s shops & restaurants and capturing some of its quaint city charm…
to its more metropolitan… 
and its vintage appeal… 
I kind of questioned the time selected for this walk, definitely not “ideal” for photography… midday and sunny on a busy Saturday in spring. But, as it turns out, these were ideal conditions to prepare for my trip, as I am pretty sure I won’t always be able to pick and choose the conditions during our road trip either.
Next… Observation. A scheduled 2-hour walk, on the main drag through Chestnut Hill, which by the way still has the cobblestone and trolley tracks ~ hmm, should have gotten a shot of that (note to self: Go back on a quiet Sunday morning to get the shot and also so no life is risked trying to get the shot) ~ Anyway, 2 hours is not a lot of time. So instead of just shooting away, trying to capture it all (something I’ve been guilty of more times than I care to admit), on this walk, I stopped and really took a look at things, and then looked again through the view finder.
Of course, it’s not too hard to spot the big things right in front of you…
But discovering the not so obvious… that takes a little practice, especially when you don’t have a lot of time. So, stopping to peek behind walls and fences…
or getting down low…
and, of course, looking up…
I found quite assortment of possibilities in just a couple of hours.
Look out Georgia (North Carolina and South Carolina too), this Yankee’s coming 😉
’til next time,
Maria
