Photo Safari - Ninth St Italian Market, Philadelphia

The Italian Market in South Philadelphia has to be one of the most colorful areas in the city.  Colorful enough to film a few Rocky segments. 

Rocky Movie Locations

An open air market of stalls selling fruit, vegetables, live poultry, seafood and clothing, combined with indoor shops of cheese, meats, spices and of course restaurants defines the Italian Market. Although some of the Italian flavor now has Latino and Asian overtones, it remains just as colorful. When you add in the odors and genuine characters that work there, the sum is what makes the Italian Market a wondrous place to visit and photograph.

To give you a small tour and taste of the market, there is a two hour photo safari planned along the Italian Market in South Philadelphia on Sunday, July 22, starting at 9am.

The photographers will gather near Geno's Steaks at the corner of Passyunk Ave and Ninth Street. The safari will step off heading north towards Christian Street stopping along the way to capture photographic images. Guidance for creating better compositions, exposure and camera use will be customized to each attending photographer. At the other end of the market the group will have the opportunity to stop for a sandwich and a drink with Q and A continuing for an hour.

The images in this post (except for Rocky) were captured at the market last Monday. Monday is the only day of the week when most of the shops are closed. None the less, there were several opportunities for photographs.


Come on down and join us in South Philly for what will be a memorable photo safari. Contact:dativersafari@gmail.com

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Depth of Field at the Garden Shop

During my lunch hour the other day, I stopped by the garden section of my local home improvement store.  I just happened to have my camera with me.

Below are a few examples of how the relationship between lens focal length and aperture relate to depth of field.

Colorful tomato cages 200mm @ f/13

I changed the focus from the yellow to the blue cages and lowered angle a bit.  The yellow and red cages seem to be in focus less than when the camera was focused on the yellow cages.  You will need to look into hyperfocus.
200mm @ f/13

At a long focal length, 200mm, the depth of field is shallow even at a rather small aperture, f/13.

I used a shorter focal length here, 42mm @ f/4.4

Here the aperture is close to wide open, f/4.4, the depth of field is greater then the above two photographs because of the shorter focal length.

Pelargonium 135mm @ f/22

Here again, long focal length decreases the depth of field.

Try some test images on your own camera.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved