Another weekend and a new city. Kind of funny that I’ve lived in Pennsylvania for almost 5 years now and still hadn’t gotten down to Philadelphia. In fact, I’d only passed through once before many years ago for a museum visit, seeing nothing of the city itself.
But I spent Saturday down there shooting an engagement session for an long-time friend and her fiance, where we went just about everywhere, from the University section to center-city, and then out into the suburbs.
Surprisingly, I didn’t mind Philadelphia. As cities go I’d classify it as being plenty interesting, without most of the madness that goes with Manhattan. In other words, I didn’t lose my mind driving through it and wouldn’t mind visiting from time to time.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s a city seemingly filled with good places to eat. We passed more good-looking restaurants than I could keep track of. Plus we got lunch at Shake Shack, which was easily on par with Five Guys in terms of big, delicious cheeseburgers. (Since I think the cheeseburger is the apex of American cuisine, I’m easy to please.)
So there’s my deeply informative review of Philadelphia, complied after extensive research. Essentially, “it didn’t suck as bad as most cities and I’d willingly go back.” And more importantly, I’ll be sharing the images from the session soon.
Brent Pennington is a professional photographer and the driving force behind The Roving Photographer. When he’s not working with commercial or portraiture clients, he’s usually out in the field pursuing nature and wildlife shots.
You can go to Shake Shack anywhere. On your next trip to Philly hit Pats or Genos – they are 2 awesome cheesesteak places across the street from each other.
This is why I feel like a country bumpkin in any city – I get excited about burgers when there’s famous sandwiches nearby!