Fishtown in Silhouette
Low light, hoagies, and a walk under I-95 at dusk — the Fuji half of a Philadelphia World Cup day out.
he lighting inside the Hoagie Room proved too challenging for the X-T5. The space is dim, save for a slightly brighter pool of light over the chef’s prep station, and most of my frames ended up shot at ISO 10000 or 12800, f/2.8, 1/30s. The room itself is tiny, and even with the Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 R WR, the only Fuji lens I’d brought, there simply wasn’t the distance to compose a group shot. I hadn’t had the forethought to pull out the iPhone 17 Pro either, and by the time I thought of it, I was tucked into the far corner of the table with glassware and bottles blocking any clear view of the chef. Truthfully, I was too hungry and too pleased with the food to think much about photography.
The food itself was excellent, and we all enjoyed the hoagies. The grapefruit spritz was particularly welcome, a cool note after the walk over from Other Half.
FIshtown, Philadelphia · Friday 19 June 2026FujiFilm X-T5 · ISO 250 · 1/3000 sec
XF27mmF2.8 R WR · 27 mm · f/7.1
After dinner we walked back towards Other Half, since Mihir had parked nearby and it gave us an excuse for some post-meal exercise. By then I’d worked through the last of the 36-exposure Kodak Professional Pro Image 100 cartridge in the Minolta, finishing off One Roll – June 2026. The sun had swung round to the western edge of the city, and walking beneath the train tracks along Front Street, I found myself drawn to the silhouettes of the elevated tracks and the sweep of Interstate 95 above us. I set the camera to ISO 250.
Lamar, The Gold Standard in Billboards, FIshtown, Philadelphia · Friday 19 June 2026FujiFilm X-T5 · ISO 250 · 1/850 sec
XF27mmF2.8 R WR · 27 mm · f/5.6
One billboard caught my attention, a Lamar advert reading “The Gold Standard in Billboards,” lit against a dusk-blue sky. A billboard company advertising itself on its own billboard felt like a joke worth photographing.
Under Interstate 95, FIshtown, Philadelphia · Friday 19 June 2026FujiFilm X-T5 · ISO 250 · 1/850 sec
XF27mmF2.8 R WR · 27 mm · f/5.6
Further along, the north and southbound carriageways of I-95 curved apart to make room for the SEPTA line rising to meet their level, framing a strip of dusk sky and scattered cloud between them. I noticed the train running in the gap between two halves of the same highway.
Carvana, FIshtown, Philadelphia · Friday 19 June 2026FujiFilm X-T5 · ISO 250 · 1/200 sec
XF27mmF2.8 R WR · 27 mm · f/4.5
We’d noticed the Carvana tower earlier that afternoon, but by evening it had caught the light, its glass vending-machine facade glowing with cars stacked and lit on every level. In the distance, construction cranes stood against the sky as Philadelphia continues to rebuild.
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