The USofA, 3rd and final part.

My sister and me arrived in Philadelphia, at Kyle’s place where Jules was waiting for us because Kyle had to work. My sis stayed just a day, because her workweek started again, but I stayed for some more days, before heading back to Boston.

First night my sis, me, Jules & Brian went out to have some food and drinks, before Kyle joined and they showed us around Philly a bit.
XD-7, 50/1.7, Neopan1600.

Jules at the fountain, which was a good thing they showed me, it turned out to be my orientationpoint for the rest of my stay, haha.

Kyle.

Jules and me were messing a bit with the external flash. This is Kyle trying to tell us we should set the aperture at f/8. (Obviousy I wasn’t synched up with the flash).

There I was! But the lensopening was too wide, haha.

That’s better.

No flash and some tasty bokeh.

Back home and Jules flashing me while coming down the stairs.

Next day my sis and me had some breakfast around the corner. Cheap 200iso colourfilm (Schlecker to be precise! Very similar to Superia.)

I gave that dude my coffee and he proclaimed us his “new Dutch friends”, which resulted in a conversation with this guy:

Josh. I still got his phonenumber :O

He told us he was a musician and how he loved music and wanted to make the world a better place via it, blablabla.

His friend joined. And they invited us to go to this Chinese garden. But first they had to drop by home, so we went with them (yes, in retrospect I know how dodgy that sounds).

When we arrived there we met some more of his friends. Honestly, I had a good time. But smoking the bong at 11 am is a bit too much for me, even if I’m Dutch.
Needless to say we never saw that teagarden.

Hanging out in a park, later that day, with Kyle.
We walked my sis to the bus, Kyle went to class and I continued to wander the streets of Philly on my own.

To have some sort of purpose I made it my goal to shoot people who came up to ask me for something. Oh wait, I did the same in Boston and already told that. Anywho.
This guy asked for a light. He just came from the library and had rented Frankenstein and the Elephant Man. He told me he loved the classics. The classic drama’s. They resembled his life, although his life wasn’t dramatic (I nodded, but when I write it down I realise I had no clue what he was talking about).

That night I rode Brian’s bike for a bit and totally loved it, so the next day I wanted to do that again, but I broke it. At least I think I did. So I went to the artmuseum. I wasn’t really feeling it, because I wanted to ride my bicycle (can you already hear Queen in the background?). To be honest, I was damn cranky. It was a good museum though. But I was really damned cranky.

Is it art or is it just a phone? Who knows?

I went home and Brian just got home so we went into the city to get the bike fixed (for free even!) and hang out a bit. My day started to get better, little did I know it would even get better and better.

This is tri-x by the way. And the next photo was my first frame on the roll, you know just a random frame to make sure the film is advanced far enough.

But does it also remind you of this? 49 to go still!

Ok, I’m getting sidetracked. Brian and me passed a mural which I liked so he took me to the garden of Isaiah Zagar.

That was a pretty damn cool place!

By that time I was far from being cranky.

Hello Isaiah!

Hello Brian!

Oh and hello me.

We got caught up in a conversation with Isaiah.

Such a sweet man.

Suddenly I realised there was so much colour around and I was shooting b/w. So I switched to my beloved Superia800.

I like b/w better… it’s more about the textures than the colours I guess.

Brian and me said goodbye to Isaiaha and we went for some pizza on South Street and he just showed me around for a bit. I had a fantastic time. Brian, if you ever read this, thanks so much for showing me around and your great company.

We went to a pub (I think it was called Tattood Mom?) and Kyle and Jules joined. Yep, still getting better and better that day.

PBR… Our poison of that evening. Along with tequila!

We headed to another pub and another and another and wounded up somewhere playing pingpong, haha.

Awesome shot by Jules!

Awesome, but slightly OOF, shot by me.

I was trying to throw Kyle’s opponent off balance by shooting him. Damn motionblur.

Outside having a cig. I kinda like the motionblur here though, gives a nice sense of immediacy.

Steve the Bartender. Had a great chat with him. He’s actually a DJ and just bought his own place. He gave me a free shot.

Last frame of the evening.

I woke up that night, saw Chestnut there, made a frame and fell back asleep.

Next morning being hungover and hanging out with Kyle.

Switched to Superia800.

When my friends back home were flipping through my prints, and these frames showed up, they were like: “Aww!”

“Awwwww!”

“AAWWWWW!!!”

Sad to be leaving Philly I got on the bus. Kyle, Jules and Brian… once again thank you so much for the hospitality and the good times! Miss and love you guys.

On the busride I had music in my ears, camera in my hands, mozzarella sandwich in my bag, great memories in my head and on my way to more. The happiest I’ve been in a long time.

Back in Boston. Still with Sup800 loaded

I had my hair cut.

Had fantastic conversations about all sorts of things with the landlady. Here she’s showing me some photos she took on her holiday in the Netherlands.

I hung out in Little Italy.

Thank God I’m not an employee, I don’t like to be told what I should or should not do.

Tri-x. I was having tea, a cig and I was shooting. Multitasker, booyeah.

My sis doing her thing in the lab.

We went to a Halloweenparty later that night, but I’m not sure where the roll of film is I shoot that evening. Oh well.

On the last day in the States I was hanging out with my sister, when suddenly my camera was acting strange. It was like the apertureblades wouldn’t pop back in place.

My sister trying to detect the problem.

By this time we were really confused what was going on.

My sis even shed a tear.

So from then on it was kinda over with taking pictures, because the cam was frustrating me too much and I put it away (inbetween these last frames a lot of black frames occured). Luckily it happened on the last day in the States.
Back home in the Netherlands I fixed the problem: the spring that regulates the aperture was semi-stuck. I made it smoothly working again with some stuff and it has worked ever since
Kind of an anti-climax of my trip though, hm? But damn all in all I had a fantastic time! Thanks for sticking with me, I hoped you enjoyed the photos!