Philadelphia Photostory: Bricks & Blooms

Infancy

From my favorite new alley called Try On. Gosh I'm so jealous of people who have these little courtyards with sakura trees! Also I feel a bit creepy peering through their gates to capture the beauty but I'm getting over it hahaa.


Slowly coming out

Another really spectacular small alley, I forget what its called but I got a lot of great pictures from that will be in another post soon.



Full brick & bloom

Same alley as above, I'm really loving the dark brick buildings around my neighborhood, I often feel a bit transported back in time when I come across buildings like this.



OMG when I entered this particular alley I was greeted by a HUGE cherry blossom dream tree, it was magnificent. I just love the whole environment of this alley.





Church in the bg, while I was taking this a pic two men were talking and one of them was saying how he was tempted to take a stem back to where he's from so he could plant a tree.





Taken at sunset, I love how my camera captures the sky reflected on windows. ♥

Philadelphia Photostory: Found Type

I've been taking photos for this photostory for a couple of weeks and its my most favorite one so far! As I was walking around I noticed some really great examples of typography on signs and row home addresses, but then I also found some cool uses on everyday objects and then of course the ultimate subversion of typography, tagging!



2006
Entrance of a row home, I kinda love everything about this pic, the textures, the paint splatter on the door and the decaying print of the letters. And the reflection in the glass, that was quite accidental.



Angled
This entrance was quite odd, its on an angle like that. This was located in a small side street called Tryon and it has some really fantastic houses and architecture, I'm waiting for a sunny day to go take some photos over there.



Apt 1 & Apt 2
I was actually walking around Chinatown and saw a collection of mail boxes and the type on them looked so fantastic, I didn't have my camera with me at the time! Which sucked because I saw a lot of cool stuff I would have liked to photograph that evening, anyway I'm glad I caught another cool looking set of mailboxes.



2010
This is a new house they finished building last summer, I don't think anyone moved in yet though but I love all the modern elements on the door compared to the 2006 door.



IPA advice
Lagunitas IPA beer label on my dark blue jeans. I was intrigued by the slogan, well the label had many sayings on it but this was the best one, "Life is uncertain, don't sip!". I'm not sure what that means though.



S is for schwinn

This is the same yellow bike I took a pic of a few weeks ago but this was taken in a totally different location haa. We meet again yellow bicycle! I just love the S on the seat and because S is my initial.



Books behind bars!
I was wandering around and came across this amazing old bookstore, I didn't go inside because I feel bad going in small local businesses and not buying anything, but they sell like really old 50 cent books.



Twerp
I'm kind of obsessed with Twerp's tags, I see them all over, there's even one outside my workplace!! Its on a small gold pipe, I haven't gotten a chance to take a pic yet because people take their smoke breaks there.



Meats and Provisions
This was painted on the afore mentioned bookstore building, I loved the old Western type and style.

All images copyrights to S. Bakr, please do not reproduce or repost without my permission.

Philadelphia Photostory: Street Graphics

My weekly pics post is late on here, this week my theme was Philadelphia street graphics, I don't know if I'd call it art necessarily but last week I got obsessed with the tags I saw around the streets that I take to and from work. Although I think tags can be a visual nuisance, the colors, shapes and humor I found were very visually stimulating. Plus now that I notice all these tags, its like a fun game to walk around the city and notice where some people have laid their names.


Stop Rape
This first one isn't a tag but I thought it was really bold and awesome. I found this at the end of small side street featuring many historic Philadelphia row homes. It was kind of a shock to see such a bold statement.






I love the humor in these two.







I see Twerp's tags everywhere now! There's even one right outside my workplace o.O;

All images copyrighted to S. Bakr, do not reproduce or repost without my permission.

Philadelphia Photostory: Branch Road

Spring Alley
This little tree continues to thrive and be pretty! I love the shapes the branch's shadow's make on the wall.



Sakura branches
While walking down Lombard I found another fledging sakura tree. Taking pics of branches like this is kinda tough because one little wisp of win and you have a blurry pic D: But this composition reminded me of sort of ukiyo-e style illustration but in photographic format with a modern building backdrop.



Blue and Orange
I haven't take sunset pics in ages! I was obsessed with sunset pics in college and I have a little photo album of the sunsets I saw from the various dorm rooms I lived in. The framing of this pic and the tree makes this pic seem set in a more exotic location rather than Philadelphia.



Red bloom
These little red blooms are terribly hard to photograph because they never show up well against the sky backdrop but they look great against this building.



Silhouette
The branches formed all sorts of amazing silhouettes during sunset, this tree is actually not that good looking under direct sunlight but it looks amazing here.



Sunset down the street
The view down my street while I was crossing it.

Philadelphia Photostory: Night & Day

I've gotten into the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere because there have been too many missed opportunities in the past where I see something weird, funny or beautiful that I wish I captured! These were taken from last Tuesday 10th to yesterday Saturday March 14th and are from around my neighborhood.



The week started off foggy and it looks pretty much the same outside right now.



Awesome yellow bicycle found on Pine street on my way to work



Beautiful heart shaped shoes from Anthropologie, too bad they were a size 8! And cost over $100 D: I'm a size 6 boo but they're still out of my price range



Twilight pic taken on the way home from work





The first signs of spring have sprung! Yey! Cherry Blossom time is one of my fav times in Philadelphia and I look forward to it every year! Here are some cherry blossom pics I took last year over by the Rodin Museum and around my neighborhood.