Summer Concert Series: The Dead Milkmen in Clark Park

July 20, 2017 in Event

Summer is filled with spending days and nights listening to music in a parks. Just about every park that exists in the greater Philadelphia area hosts a weekly summer concert series; to give music geeks a place to go each day of the week.

Earlier in July, The Dead Milkmen headlined the 2017 Clark Park summer festival, playing for hardcore fans and Sunday park-goers alike. See the full photo recap below.

NEW! Food Photo Series - COMING SOON!

June 29, 2017

Food is my favorite. Whether it's making up recipes for a meal, trying out a new recipe I find online and figuring out to make it my own, or just scrolling through endless photos of delicious foods on Instagram and Foodgawker.

Photography is also my favorite; probably my first favorite because I can combine it with all my other favorite things. This is why I have decided to start a brand new Food Photo Series.

What does a Food Photo Series mean?

Well... Once a week throughout summer I will be making a dish for fun. Anything and everything is on the table, a fun dish for any snack time or meal of the day! As this gets underway I may increase from only once a week.

And depending on how things go during the summer, I may try to keep it going through every season.

When will I be starting?

This fun project in just a few short days on July 1st!

Where can I follow this exciting series?

There will be a separate blog set up just for this project, but don't worry about not being able to find it. It will be blasted all over Instagram and Facebook, and maybe even Twitter!

Stay tuned for more info and the very first post coming soon.

#WaybackWednesday: Henley Royal Regatta 3 years ago

June 27, 2017

With the prestigious rowing regatta in England beginning today, I thought I'd give a flashback to when I had the opportunity to go 3 years ago. I managed to get my ticket (for free) thanks to the rowing coach I had rowed with several times during my 3-weeks studying in London. When I left London to head the regatta I wasn't completely sure where I was going... but don't worry! Once I boarded the overground train all I had to do was follow the massive crowd wearing fancy regatta blazers!

Once I got to the town of Henley I once again only needed to follow the crowd to find the regatta enclosure. I picked up the ticket waiting for me at the box office(?) and made my way to check out what this brilliant and historic regatta is all about.

What is this regatta all about, you ask?

Racing. Tea Time. Picnics.

As I walked along the banks of the Thames, I witnessed tons of spectators dressed nicely sitting on the banks with picnic baskets. There were others setting up chairs and more fancy picnics including champagne. There were boats on the sidelines of the river holding spectators hoping to get a much closer view of the exciting races. I even saw two ladies enjoying their tea while floating in a canoe watching races.

Check out my favorite Henley Regatta photos below!

PHOTO RECAP: The Dad Vail Regatta before the Rain

May 24, 2017

The Dad Vail regatta is a huge rowing race and it's right here in the city of brotherly love! The regatta took place a couple weeks ago. Hundreds of teams were in Philadelphia from all over the country competing, many of them competing in the rain. I headed over the Schuylkill River Friday afternoon to see some good racing and take a pictures. I managed to catch a few of the Philadelphia University (PhilaU) races, but even if I hadn't I still always enjoy watching any rowing race! Unfortunately, Friday turned out to be the main day of this two-day event.

While rowers often find themselves out in all kinds of weather and it typically takes super bad weather in this area to cancel a regatta, this is exactly what happened on day two of the 2017 Dad Vail Regatta. The day before this year's regatta began the official race schedule got switched around a bit due to the weather forecast including high winds and lots of rain. This did not stop rowers from having a good time and competing as usual on day one of the regatta, and don't worry, they still managed to get all the grand finals for the varsity 8's and 4's finished Saturday morning. But it was the Saturday afternoon races, which because of the schedule change were mostly smaller boats (doubles and singles), that got end up being canceled. Hopefully this years rain out satisfies mother nature for a bit and the next couple years can go back to being beautiful weekends for the Dad Vail regatta.

Check out my photos of day one at the 2017 Dad Vail Regatta below!

Philadelphia University Rowing.

Everyone.

Baby Geese, just because!

Blossoming into Spring at the Philadelphia Flower Show, with a Bike Tour of Holland

April 04, 2017

Each year, Philadelphia brings in the new spring season with the annual flower show. This year, in March, the Philadelphia Convention Center was transformed into Holland (or at least a small sample of the country's best parts). Locals and tourists of all ages walked through a space filled with daffodils, bikes, and thousands of other colorful flowers. The first thing seen as excited attendees entered the show was a bridge covered in daffodils and bikes that could have been imported straight from the streets of Amsterdam!

This year's flower show definitely did a wonderful job of portraying the best of Holland through the different garden displays. As someone who has traveled to Amsterdam, I could spend my three hours at the show reminiscing about my trip abroad and I found myself visualizing myself walking through the streets of Amsterdam again. There was even one display in particular that while I can not tell you for sure what it was meant to be it reminded me of was the huge bicycle parking garages I remember seeing all over the city. This display was awesome, partially because of it reminding me of the bicycle parking garages in Amsterdam!

There were flowers and bikes hanging from the ceiling, there was a giant windmill in the center of the room, and most of the garden displays had various bicycle parts being used as part of the the garden, either functioning, as decoration, or both; this one of the things which I felt was the coolest part of the show.

The show was not only filled with bicycles and several giant windmills but the Anne Frank house was also represented at the show complete with the statue of her, which stand in front of the house.

The Camden Children's Garden exhibit was especially well done including a variety of things Holland is typically known for, while presenting everything in an organized and cute display.

That about covers it forthe highlights of this years Flower Show. This year was probably one of the best shows in recent years! For me personally, what made it so awesome was the accurate portrayal of the amount of bicycles in Holland, and how every part of the bike was used even if the designers did not want a full bike in their exhibit. They got really creative with the garden designs.

Check out the full photo gallery below!

Year End Reflection: A Photo Recap of My 2016 Highlights!

December 31, 2016

Throughout December everyone with a blog is posting their "year in review" posts. From the second that Thanksgiving is over it feels like that is all I see. Then, at the end of 2016, we also had many people talking about how terrible the year has been due to celebrity deaths and Donald Trump becoming President. I can't even tell you the amount of memes I have seen on Facebook illustrating a person being happy in the beginning of 2016 but then upset and angry at the end of 2016; it is all getting a bit ridiculous.

While I think back to last January and I skim through each month, I realize that this as been an excellent year filled with music, food, dogs, working, and traveling. I have used my love for photography to enjoy life; filling the year with coffee, concerts, and traveling! I did not let myself be upset over things I had no control over. I stopped myself from getting frustrated over not hearing back from 95 percent of the millions of jobs I applied for and interviewed for.

I am still sorting out how to start a business in a market that has no doubt become saturated, but I am having fun figuring it out. I am lucky to have family and friends to support me while I figure out how to make money doing what love. If I look a back on all the jobs I have done in the last year and all the photos I've taken for jobs and for personal projects I would not change a thing! And hopefully I will only be building on this in the coming year.

If you force yourself to be positive and look on the bright side, you'll see that 2016 probably has not been so terrible for you. Some of the highlights of my personal year include: I played with more dogs and cats than I can list here and I traveled and explored new cities.

Hopefully, in 2017 I can continue enjoying life. I hope to travel more and keep my camera with me as much as possible so I can capture even more events of 2017, whether I am being paid or not!