When people ask me which city I was most surprised by during my trip to the US, I always say Pittsburg! I had no idea how beautiful it was. Anyway, it gave me another chance to experiment with a new technique, which you can see in today’s photo. Now, when I take cityscape shots, I purposefully cut off the top of the buildings so you can’t quite tell what city it is. From sharing travel photos from so many places around the world, I notice people really enjoy trying to guess where a place is. Showing the whole skyline, therefore, makes the photo a bit more predictable and boring!

Pittsburg from Above

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-04 19:01:50
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time2.5
• Aperture4
• ISO125
• Focal Length86.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

What a great city Philly is! On my first night here, I was staying over there on the left at the Ritz-Carlton, and then I went out to take some night time photos. Usually, when I arrive in a new city, I have an unexplained high level of energy. I love to use this energy to go out and get lost in the city and take photos. The whole city felt very safe to me, so I had no problem roaming around and finding scenes like this. That’s the giant City Hall right there in the middle. It’s a well laid out city because there are four long roads that all lead right to that iconic building.

Night View of Philadelphia

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-07 20:47:21
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time2.5
• Aperture8
• ISO320
• Focal Length72.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias+2

Here’s a fun photo captured by Curtis while we were in Pittsburgh together. I don’t normally climb stuff, but in this case, I climbed up one of those bright yellow bridges there! We spent the day with our Brazilian photographer friends Rodrigo and Ricardo Polesso… navigating our way all through the city throughout the day and the night.

Trey in Action in Pittsburgh

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-11-19 08:35:12
• Camera
• Camera Make
• Exposure Time
• Aperture
• ISO
• Focal Length
• Flash
• Exposure Program
• Exposure Bias

I must have walked back and forth across these bridges like 30 times! They were so photogenic and really popped as the night colors came online. The bridges had a great pedestrian walking area too. The city is smartly laid out with parks all over the place so it gives you a reason to wander around from bridge to bridge and park to park. I’ve been in many cities where the downtown area is very poorly planned and they are not walkable at all. A few cities that pop into mind are places like Dallas, Orlando, and Reno. They’re fine cities… don’t get me wrong… just not really a “joy” to walk around like Pittsburgh.

Yellow Bridges in Pittsburgh

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-06 03:23:46
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time3.2
• Aperture4
• ISO125
• Focal Length65.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Who know Pittsburgh was this beautiful!?! I certainly had no idea! I didn’t know it was so colorful… that was maybe the most surprising thing to me. There’s a little hillock/mountain that you can ascend via a funicular. We took it up around sunset so we could take a variety of photos as the sun was setting. This tends to be my favorite time to shoot: just after sunset so there is a mix of artificial and natural, ambient light.

Incredible Pittsburgh

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-05 01:59:45
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time2.5
• Aperture4
• ISO125
• Focal Length40.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Philly had some great neon signs! I would pass this one almost every night on the way back to the Ritz-Carlton. By the way, thanks again to everyone that came out to the art talk there. That was a really special and fun night. It was great to see my friend Joseph Mina (@hawaiianstarman on Insta) again too! 🙂

The Diner in Philly

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-07 20:33:09
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time0.6
• Aperture8
• ISO320
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

That’s not true. It’s usually sunny. I ended up at a rooftop bar. I forgot which one… they all blur together at some point. But whichever one I was at, I saw this incredible sunset blooming over southern Philly. What a great town! I know it’s called the town of brotherly love, but I really did sense a real brotherhood there. People on the streets were really nice and fun… maybe just a tiny bit more than some other cities! I mean, I find nice people in all cities, but maybe Philly just had them beat by a few molecules.

It’s Always Cloudy in Philadelphia

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-08 18:10:05
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/800
• Aperture4
• ISO1600
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

If I was a true baseball fan, I would know the name of this place in Pittsburgh where they play baseball. I at least know the team is called The Pittsburgh Pirates. Maybe it’s called Pirate Stadium? Or, knowing the USA, it’s probably called “Geico Stadium” or some horrible name like that. Now that I spend more time back in the USA vs. NZ, I’m so surprised how everything has to have a brand on it… it’s like this brand-crazy place. It’s not a bad thing or a good thing… just a weird thing.

The Ballpark in Pittsburgh

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2019-08-06 03:14:25
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/5
• Aperture4
• ISO125
• Focal Length36.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

During our USA Photo Walk, we had a cool situation when we got to Philadelphia because one of the photo walkers brought a cool lightstick. If you don’t know what that is, it’s actually pretty tough to explain! Basically, it’s a long stick that has LEDs that change. If you do a long exposure as the stick passes in front of the camera, you get some pretty cool results!

Hi Philly!

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-09-07 13:10:28
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time15
• Aperture10
• ISO125
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias