Magic Gardens!

Most people will sit around and call Delaware the most boring state to live in...however, there are many adventurous locations with short travel times you can discover and have a great time at! One of these locations I found to be extremely unique is the Philadelphia Magic Gardens, about 45 minutes from Wilmington. You don't have to be a fan of art to enjoy these beautiful and breath taking mosaics. The Philadelphia Gardens is a nonprofit organization located on South Street in Philly. It is the largest work of art created by mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar. His mosaics are made up of anything you can possibly imagine-from bike wheels to kitchen tiles to China plates to Latin American art. A few weekends ago, I visited the gardens with my two friends on a trip to shoot some pictures for my photography class. My class urges and encourages us to go outside of our normal realm and shoot objects from different perspectives. Below are a few pictures I took while taking the day off to enjoy the beautiful Philly art:

Healthy Cheat Day Substitutes!

No matter who you are and how much you workout, it's always important to give yourself some a break sometimes and have a cheat day. Cheat days don't have to occur often, but they are crucial to your health and often give your body a break from constant work. However, these cheat days don't always have to be brutal filled with an overload of excessive calories that delay the point and purpose of your workouts: there are endless healthy alternatives that replace unhealthy ingredients, that don't leave you feeling like crap....

1.) 3/4 cup of olive oil for every cup of butter called in a recipe 

2.) two tablespoons of molasses for every cup of white sugar called for 

3.) whole wheat flour for white flour

4.) unsweetened applesauce for sugar/oil/butter 

5.) marshmallow fluff for icing 

6.) vanilla for sugar 

7.) meringue for frosting 

8.) Graham crackers for cookies 

9.) pita for bread 

10.) corn tortilla for flour

Although these may seem like very minute changes while cooking, they will go a long way for your body (post cheat day) and get you right back into your normal workout routines without leaving you feeling cruddy!!! 

Over the past couple years, one of the most important pieces of advice I have received is “making a living is not the same thing as making a life”. This quote often pops up very often in the back of my mind, especially as a senior in highschool leaving for college in less than a year.  Twenty years from now, I don’t want to be sitting at home constrained with having a job that I can’t leave, regretting the days I wasted not traveling the world, photographing unique people and places and their traditions. For me, photography is an extremely unique point of view on life that I love working with. Will I waste away potential years of ‘living’ sitting in a classroom studying for a class that I have absolutely no interest in, while I could be traveling the world meeting new people photographing their daily lives and learning the culture and traditions of new, exciting places?

Which One Are You?

The Budweiser Made In America Festival is a massive musical celebration, located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway taken place over Labor Day Weekend, kissing summer goodbye for good.This large musical festival hosted by Beyonce and Jay Z contains dozens of top performers and multiple stages. Rihanna and Coldplay headlined for the festival, while there were plenty of other enjoyable artists there representing all types of different genres. Music festivals are a great way to get outdoors and enjoy some groovy music while with your friends in the nice weather. When enjoying yourself throughout the weekend, there always seems to be the distinct ‘concert groups’ you could call them that classify every personality in the book. Listed below are just a few I encountered over the weekend. If you're reading a section and can’t think of anyone you know who would fit into that category...chances are it's you.

The Partier: Everyone knows this friend. The crazy one. The one who is always down to meet new people and dance with them like they’ve known them forever. The outgoing one-singing along to every song shuffling to the beat like it's so natural to them.

The Tech: Don’t be this guy. Social media is a cruel thing nowadays. Many people are so wrapped up around the fact they are at a concert, boasting about it over social media to their friends sitting at home, they forget the fact they are there to enjoy the music and be around friends, not brag about how you saw Rihanna three rows back. They are always too busy and preoccupied recording every single song on their phone, rather than enjoying the music in the moment and reflecting back later with the mere reliance of memory.

The Awk: Oh, the awk. The awkard. The “I don't know how to dance” or “I don't even know this song why would I dance”, as they awkwardly sway their awkward body to the music tapping their awkward foot to the beat. Let loose! Have fun! Let your body relax and stop worrying about what other people will think about your dancing! Nobody is ever ‘too cool’ to dance to a upbeat song, afraid of the judgment of those around them.

 The Social Med: There were tons of these types of girls all weekend long. This person is usually best friends and paired up with "The Tech" to be her personal photographer. Like mentioned before, people will go to reckless limits to get a good picture for their IG feed to get the maximum likes possible. This person is usually an obnoxious girl, asking her friends to take 'candids' of her every move she makes, and don't worry... you will see them on all her social media accounts later.