WhereaboutsPhoto

View of Leopold Kafe at Cady's Alley in Georgetown.

The shops at Cady's Alley.

Landmark bicycle shop at the entrance of Cady's Alley.

Cady’s Alley in Georgetown must be one of the most famous and less known places in the District of Columbia.  Admittedly, it is not easy to find, and most locals have never heard of it.  There may be a reason for this.  The alley is not only quite small, but also full of the type of stores that would put a serious dent on your trust fund if you succumb to their temptations.  Another reason may be that people could be having a little problem pronouncing or spelling the names of some of the resident businesses, like Ives Delorme, Ligne Roset, or L’Eclat de Verre.  They even sound expensive.  But most people making the trek to this well-kept secret location between 33rd and 34th Streets in Georgetown are doing so to indulge in the delectable Kafe Leopold and its Germanic cuisine.  In fact, that’s where all the activity appeared to be taking place during my Saturday visit.  The rest of the alley seemed devoid of life, which kind of made for good photography when you think of it.

The alley is really a study in contrasts, with just about all the action taking place on the 33rd Street end of the place.  The 34th Street side of the alley is dominated by the somber Ukrainian Embassy, with its fortress appearance enhanced by all the shut windows secured by iron bars.  Better stick to the other side of the alley where the window shopping is a lot better and Kafe Leopold’s wine list will keep you happy for a while.  When you are done, then you can walk one block to the main attraction: M Street and its always vibrant atmosphere.

Local hangout near 4th & South Street intersection.

Tourist carriage ride originating near Indedpendence Hall for visit to Philadelpia's historical neighborhoods.

Traveling street performers add color to the South Street neighborhood.

Mosaic walls are everywhere in the South Street area, adding a colorful backdrop to a very colorful neighborhood.

One of the first things I head when visiting Philadelphia over the weekend was that the only reason anyone went to South Street downtown was to consume the delectable Philly cheese steak from Jim’s Steaks.  I grant you that this local institution, which has been making cheese steak sandwiches for more than 70 years, is reason enough to visit the neighborhood, but it is certainly not the only reason.  OK, you can also go there to get a tattoo or to sneak into some of the local “adult” shops, but the colorful neighborhood with its mosaic walls and lively street life is what really attracts people to this part of town (at least I think so).  You can reach South Street from Independence Hall by walking down the quaint 4th Street, lined with some of the most exclusive (and expensive) properties in Philadelphia.  Along the way you will see some of the greatest city parks I have ever seen in any city.  They give the downtown a definite “green” look, and in a city this size, this is always a welcomed sight.  And then there are the historical cemeteries along 4th and 5th Street on your way to or from the South Street neighborhood.  Not to be morbid here, but for a photographer, these cemeteries with their Colonial era backdrops and twisted, weather-beaten tombstones, are the stuff people behind the cameras live for.

But the South Street neighborhood remains the main attraction, at least for this photographer.  This very informal part of town is not necessarily where you will find most members of the local tea society, but if it’s real people you’re looking for, this is indeed the place to find them.  Great coffee shops, cheap local restaurants, and street characters galore will keep you snapping those photos for hours.  In some sense, South Street could be considered the Bohemian side of Philadelphia, and worlds apart from the city’s historical center.  It is also quite an ethnic melting pot with over 60 eateries serving everything from the famous cheese steaks to fusion and Jamaican specialties.  For me, though, it was what was happening out on the street that made my trip there so rewarding.  People were extremely friendly, approachable, and didn’t seem to mind much the many cameras clicking away at them at a discreet distance.  Day or night, this is one of those unique neighborhoods you just can’t miss when visiting this great American city.

This is not a happy post.  I say that because after paying a short visit to what used to be a unique downtown section in Fairfax County, it became readily apparent that the relentless march of “progress” is slowly swallowing a big chunk of Virginia’s history.  My initial impression after walking the few local streets for a while was that of a desolate town that appeared to have had the wind knocked out of it by some invisible force.  Once a vibrant historical site anchored around the Old Fairfax Courthouse built just as the 18th Century was coming to an end, the Old Town section appears to be loosing the war against developers, law firms, and speculators trying to capitalize on the sprawling government complex housing the Fairfax County Courthouse and Public Safety Center.  This complex is the new town center, with its uninviting architecture and the uneasy feeling brought about by the knowledge that somewhere within its walls you will also find the county jail.  That’s right, this is ground zero for the county’s legal community and a sure one-stop-shopping for anyone committing a crime within this jurisdiction.  It just doesn’t make for a nice downtown.

But from my conversations with some of the locals, it appears that not everyone is “going quietly into that goodnight,” and some of the folks who have been around for a while continue to hang on as much as they can.  There are still a few quaint, elegant restaurants like the Italian Bellissimo and at least one good music venue like The Old Fire Station left in town (see photos above).  But walk through the Old Town on any particular day during the daylight hours and you are most likely to find yourself there alone staring at empty establishments.  The only real action in town these days seems to come from the multitude of people who have been summoned to court against their will, the lawyers with their overstuffed briefcases, and the bail bondsmen who most people would rather never meet.  What you will no longer see, though, are elegant couples walking in the early evening hours to the former world-class Bailiwick Inn, with its beautiful decor and small, gourmet restaurant that was the perfect setting for a romantic night out.  Where former lovers met at the start of some wonderful rendezvous, you will now find business offices, tacky signs, and a hanging business banner directly staring at the potential costumer visiting the courthouse across the street.  Sadly, the lovers appear to have moved away.

A few blocks from the imposing King’s Gardens in Copenhagen, you will find the historic, but somewhat unassuming neighborhood of Nyboder.  At the center of this colorful district you will find the intensely orange housing units that were originally built to house members of the Danish naval forces.  But while these orange row houses seem to dominate the area, there is much more to Nyboder than these orange dwellings, which give the area its unmistakable “military” atmosphere.  Walking along the Gerdersgade street and past the imposing St. Paul’s church (see photo above), you get the feeling that this both a family-friendly neighborhood and a historical military district.  Of course, the fact that around 09:00 in the morning its streets were pretty much deserted kind of gives away the fact that the military no longer inhabits the neighborhood, but the past continues to live through the architecture and neatly-kept streets.  The center of activity on the morning I visited seemed to be the local bakery (see photo above), where people seemed to trickle in slowly, but steadily, as in an orderly procession to purchase some of the best baked goods I’ve tasted in a long time.

And then there are the roses.  All along Kronprinsessegade, which runs through the middle of Nyboder, the somewhat strong facade of the row houses is dramatically softened by row after row of colorful rose bushes which even in the early morning hours of the day were being meticulously cared for by local residents.  Roses seem to be quite popular in Copenhagen, but in Nyboder they kind of assume a more prominent role when splashed against the deep orange walls of its humble buildings.  Nyboder is indeed a great off-the-beaten-path neighborhood to explore on your way to visiting the adjacent Copenhagen University or the Gefion Fountain area with its views of the Opera House and the historic Kastellet.  What’s even better, this is a great place to take photos without having to bump into fast-moving tourist groups exiting large buses on their 10-minute stop.  No, on the contrary.  You’ll be pretty much alone here, but that is precisely what makes Nyboder such a wonderful neighborhood to explore.

Undoubtedly, one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in Copenhagen is the small canal in Nyhavn, with its colorful attached houses and its magnificent sailboats docked next to some great local restaurants.  This part of the city is easily reached within a 10-minute walk from the famous pedestrian shopping district of Stroget.  The entire neighborhood is anchored at one end by a small square and the majestic Hotel D’Angleterre, with its imposing white facade, and at the other by the Royal Danish Playhouse with its imposing architecture.

But it is what’s in between these two great Danish institutions that will catch the attention of most mere mortals.  Just walking around the canal in the early morning hours when the orange sun begins to bounce off the multi-colored buildings will give you the impression that you are in one of the traditional rose gardens that seem to dot this wonderful city.  This is a great place to watch the city come alive in the mornings, and you can do it all while enjoying a cappuccino at any of the many restaurants lining this colorful canal.  Finish your coffee and your Danish pastry and then hop on to one of the boats to take a canal tour of the many waterways surrounding the city and its adjacent islands.  Later, walk north along the waterfront until you reach the Museum of Danish Resistance (Frihedsmuseet) with its displays depicting the Nazi occupation of Denmark during WWII.  This whole area is indeed a testament to the diversity and great history of the Danish people.

If I were to describe a city as a “state of mind,” I would be talking about Copenhagen, Denmark.  This beautiful Nordic city, full of winding, narrow streets and grandiose buildings is both a vibrant modern city and a laid-back community where bicycling seems to be most common form of transportation.  In fact, the city’s pace seems to be dictated by the speed of these ever-present bicycles, and we are not talking Tour de France here.  Everyone seems to ride them, from ladies in colorful summer dresses seemingly taking their time to get to wherever they happen to be going, to young professionals obviously in a hurry to get to work.  It all happens in somewhat of a rhythmic dance where pedestrians, cars, and bicyclists seem to miss each other by what to the visiting photographer seem to be the narrowest of margins.

This is specially the case in the historical Latin Quarters located between the law faculty of Copenhagen University on Fiolstraede and the King’s Gardens on Gothersgade.  The neighborhood is replete with quaint city squares lined with shops and cafes that are jammed-packed during the current jazz festival, which seems to bring music to just about every corner of the city.  Anchored in the middle of this old neighborhood are the Trinitatis Church with its larger-than-life round tower and the ultra-hip First Hotel Skt. Petri with its famous Bar Rouge.  But what it does seem to lack is any form of parking, so forget your car if you are coming here.  However, you can pretty much cover the Latin Quarters in a morning of brisk walking, but that would be a pity.  To fully appreciate the ambiance in this student area, it is the lingering on an outside table in one of its many bistros that will make you truly appreciate how wonderful a place this is.  Somehow, here in Denmark, time seems to take a backseat to life.  What a concept!

Annapolis, Maryland must be one of the most photogenic cities in America.  The home of the U.S. Naval Academy and one of the great boating sites anywhere in the world, Annapolis is one of those places where old and the new have struck an apparent seamless coexistence.  But what really distinguishes this Capital City of the State of Maryland is indeed its naval tradition.  To say that Annapolis is about water and sailing would be a gross understatement.  Expensive yachts, suntanned boat hands, and nautical paraphernalia are everywhere.  What’s more, walking its many quaint, narrow streets lined with wooden row houses will transport you to another era when these houses must have been occupied by sea-fearing sailors who found freedom in the open oceans.  Of course, the expensive BMW and Lexus luxury sedans in front of them now will quickly remind you that poor, blue-collar boat hands don’t live there any more; but hey, what’s wrong with a little daydreaming.

The heart of Annapolis remains the downtown dock area, bordered on one side by Dock Street and on the other by Compromise Street.  Here is where you will find the greatest concentration of boats and people, all mixed into a somewhat overwhelming visual experience.  Photographically, you really don’t want to be caught there around noon, as the blinding glare coming off the water and the surrounding buildings pretty much washes away the colors of this most colorful city.  Get there early in the day (and before the few public parking lots in the city get full) or head on down to the area late in the afternoon during the summer months if you want the best sunlight for your photos.  And if overhead city photos is what you are after, then head on out to the top deck of the public parking lot sitting between Gorman and Main Streets.  This tip came thanks to a local gentleman who stopped me down Main Street to give me some well-intended photographic advice.  Not mentioned by my new-found friend, but well deserving a visit was the well-off section of Eastport right across the short bridge connecting Compromise and 6th Streets.   Only about a five-minute walk from the downtown dock area, Eastport is replete with restaurants, bars,  and marinas, not to mention multimillion dollar waterside properties that will make you wish you would have paid more attention to your business courses in college.  It’s very easy to fall in love with this place.

Every time I set foot inside a train station, be it here in the United States or in the grand stations of Europe, I can’t help but feel that these stations are a lot more than mere transportation hubs.  Of course, they are that, but there is a certain romantic air that permeates these places that you generally do not find in airports, or bus stations for that matter.  Not sure what gives rise to this feeling, but I tend to think that the sheer magnitude of these places, combined with their slower tempo and meandering crowds, have something to do with it.  Walk the hallways of Union Station in Washington, DC, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.  This is a grand,  102-year old station that is the hub of ground transportation for the city of Washington and a great place from which to start a visit to this great city.  Filled with restaurants, bars, and tourist connections, you can pretty much start and end your day at this building.  Walk downstairs and you can either catch various metro lines or pig out at its huge food court.  And of course, there are the more upscale restaurants on the main floor, which are quite good.

But it is the overall atmosphere at Union Station that makes it so special.  You can’t walk through it without feeling that some great change in your life is about to take place.  You are going somewhere, or returning from a journey, or meeting a loved one, or watching people on their way to-and-from imaginary places.  It is all a rhythmic movement of people whose lives we like to imagine as being a lot more sophisticated than our own, but which perhaps are just as ordinary.  Movement, however, gives these lives a sense of purpose and we as observers tend to busy ourselves filling in the blanks as to the purpose of their journeys.  Surely that couple must be on its way to participate in a New York fashion show.  That girl with the guitar, I’m sure that she is a folk singer on her way to some gig in Philadelphia.  And the the couple kissing at the departure gate must be be saying goodbye because one of them is headed to military service and possibly to war in faraway lands.  In these sumptuous stations we can’t help but imagine these great stories.  I’m sure too that for many of these people the guy with the cameras walking around talking the pictures above also conjured some romantic notion of the carefree travel photographer who never has to go to an office to earn a living.  If only we could make each other’s fantasies come true!

The famous Capital Pride Festival took place in Pennsylvania Avenue today and as always, it was quite a colorful event.  Lots of food, lots of performers, and a lot of people just out to have some fun on a very hot Sunday afternoon.  In fact, the only discordant note for the day was the relentless heat, which gave everyone in the District a taste of what it feels like to live in the tropics.  It was brutal and I’m sure that there must have been a run on the local pharmacies today looking for anything that would block the incessant heat.  Of course, people made the best of it while checking out a whole slew of promotional booths selling you everything from exotic travel vacations to Chinese food.  There was even a dog booth, but frankly, I’m not sure what the purpose was.  People just seemed to be playing with the dogs, which could very well have been the whole idea.  And then there were the cardboard replicas of Hillary Clinton (obviously a friend) and the Virginia Attorney General, Kenneth Cuccinelli (obviously not a friend).  You could have your picture taken with them while onlookers encouraged you to do all sorts of things to the props.  Only one got hugs and smiles, and it was not the Attorney General of Virginia.  But it was all clean fun and a great group of people coming out to have a good time on a scorcher of a day.

If there was ever a mismatch between the name of a building and what goes on inside of it, the Torpedo Factory building near the Alexandria waterfront would undoubtedly be the poster child for this contradiction.  Of course, the place was indeed a busy torpedo factory during the period between 1918 and 1945, but since then it led a somewhat circuitous path until it began its artistic transformation about three decades later.  Today it is one of the premier art venues in the area, with a myriad of resident artists who busily go about their work while vast amounts of visitors marvel at their creations.  These pretty much run the gamut from wire sculptures to colorful abstract renditions of imaginary landscapes.  Don’t get me wrong, this is high-end art, but with a definitive modern twist.

The place is quite photo friendly too.  All the artists and gallery people I talked to had no problems with me taking some pictures, and the only restriction I heard all afternoon was that no direct closeups of the completed paintings were allowed.  But not all the galleries will allow you to snap away, so you need to look out for the “no pictures” signs that some of them had prominently displayed near their entrances.  And if it is low-light (high ISO) photography that you are after, this is certainly the place.  Next time, though, I’ll make sure I bring that big, old tripod along.