I spent three hours on South Street last Thursday morning photographing the construction/demolition of the sidewalks for a story by Inquirer reporter Sam Wood about the current impact of the future improvements.
The twelve quarters in the parking meter was the best $3 I've spent in a while (okay, I bought a couple cups of coffee too). It was a beautiful day. Nice light, not too hot, not too humid. Everybody - except one lady in a Lexus, in a big hurry, who was honking her horn at the workers when traffic wasn't moving fast enough for her - was in a great mood.
Sometimes I am having so much fun meeting people, recording the things I'm seeing, making photos that I can share with readers, I take many more photos than I know will ever get into the newspaper. This was that kind of day.
I began the morning at Jen Melchiondo's Bean Cafe in the 600 block. Customer Bridget Huffman arrived shortly after I did, and I photographed construction worker Ruy Matos holding the door for her as she left the cafe, crossing on one of the wooden gangways running from the street to the storefronts over a temporarily nonexistent sidewalk.
Jen has weathered a lot in the eleven years she's owned the cafe. Like the time Starbucks parked a truck in front of her place and handed out free samples of their product for a few weeks. I photographed her behind the counter as contractor Joe Strozzieri told her they'll soon have to completely shut down her business for a while, as they need to cover an old unused basement entrance right under her front door.
With Sam spending most of his time on the street at the Bean, I knew editors would be looking for an overall view of the cafe. Something what would include as many elements - heavy construction equipment, dirt, traffic barriers, warning signs - as possible. I always try to remember this most basic of photo assignment marching orders, and I always devote a lot of attention to making my "overall scene" as visually interesting as I can.
I've learned over the years it that no matter what else I shoot, if the newspaper uses only one picture, that's what it will be (unless there's only enough room for something small, then it'll be a photo of someone quoted in the text). The north side of South Street was still in shadows when I photographed a cell-phoning pedestrian, which worked as a picture, but I told myself I'll come back later and re-work it.
Yeah, right. Another thing I've learned about myself. I have a short attention span. By the time the light was better for the Bean storefront, I was looking at Matos and Strozzieri (that's him, stripped down to his t-shirt now, but still his in cap) and their coworkers through the orange mesh. I never made it back to the Bean, and that original photo was the one readers saw in their morning paper.
I had seen at least three different utility crews on the job, heads at sidewalk/street level, over the past month. None of those previous situations made a picture, so when I saw PECO guys Dave Mathews (his real name) and William Hempsey (the subterranean one), I was anxious to have the picture work this time.
But whenever Hempsey's hard hat popped up there weren't any pedestrians walking by, and whenever people did pass, he was either underground, or blocking his own face.
Two other things I really needed to capture for the story were not longer there - and that was exactly the point. The 300 block had for years been the leafiest on the street.
The "gum tree" in front of Ishkabibble's was even one of the highlights on Ride the Ducks tours. The trunk of the massive oak had been plastered with used chewing gum as high as anyone could reach.
I shot what was left of it every-which way I could, but the more conventional version proved to be more easily read. The one where I held the camera out at arm's length and aimed straight down, was just plain hard to figure out. But I still like the picture.
For the second "not there anymore" image I wanted to show the sky above the long-shaded TLA, which was now open for the first time in decades as the canopy of trees was removed. I was shooting from a real low angle with a fill-flash to open up the marquee which was in shadows when a 15-year-old boy stopped and struck a pose. I shot him with the flash still on, just to make him feel good. Then I suddenly realized his cap and body posture made a good looking silhouette there in the shadows. So I turned off the strobe and shot him again.
