East Coast Recap: Philly

Lately, I’ve been prone to thinking about how much my camera has influenced my life. It’s not magic or anything like that ( just a tool to create the images I do) but one without which I’d have missed out on SO many wonderful things over the past two years. For instance, if there was no camera in hand, there would have been little reason to attend Melissa Jill’s MJ2Day workshop in Arizona last year. Had I not attended that workshop, I would have never met the sweet, funny and fellow-attendee-turned-fast-friend Tina Hertzler. And had I not met Tina, I wouldn’t have found myself on a plane last week, bound for Philadelphia (followed by a bus ride to New York City) to visit new places, try new things and fully appreciate the way God keeps granting me these opportunities to live my 20s exactly the way I desire—TO THE FULLEST.

(A friendly disclaimer: I have to give Tina mad props as a hostess. She welcomed me into her wonderful home with a bouquet of tulips beside the comfy bed I slept in each night and a pantry full of Pop Tarts. Yes, that’s right. POP TARTS. She remembered they are my weakness. And isn’t that what friends are for? To enable you when it comes to such indulgences?   Oh, and to help a girl out with some photos since I forgot my wide-angle lens — d’oh!! Tina’s 35mm lens came to the rescue, so a few of these shots are hers!)

Oh come on… if you were in Philly, you’d give a shout out to Rocky with your fists raised too (the best was watching random businessmen in suits coming up the museum’s stairs, raising their hands like Rocky as their co-workers took photos of them on their Blackberries…I could have watched this tourist scene play itself out all day!)

But we couldn’t do that when we had to move on to the next “must-do-in-Philly”— CHEESESTEAKS!!!!!

Then we had to hit up a bit of history, taking in both Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell

We had wonderful weather while Tina indulged me in my tourist take of her city and I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was, the trees in bloom. We came across this little azalea garden and well, being two photographers and all, had to take some photos of one another!

I think photographers may be of a different breed when it comes to random sight-seeing. We were literally drooling over the doors of these courtyard apartments. At one point, the older woman behind Door No. 1 (aka, the Blue Door) came out and I know she was thinking, “WHAT ARE THESE GIRLS DOING?!” But hey, we’ll do anything for a fun shot, right Tina?

Loved this apartment with the cat doors. It’s how we remembered where we parked after dinner— HA!

And finally, ending with another shot Tina took of me. When I look at this picture, I just feel happy because I feel like I can SEE how relaxed I am. How traveling does this to me— forces me to live in the moment and leave all the stress of jobs and reality behind. So thank you Tina, for taking what may be my favorite photo (of myself…I know..oh the (hu)vanity!) It’s now my Facebook profile too

More shots to come this week from New York — stay tuned!

See more of Gail’s work at www.gailwernerphoto.com. Friend Gail on Facebook. Follow Gail on Twitter.