Clamps, clamps, clamps
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator had been involved in a fun scuttle for a couple of hours, when the photo above was captured.
Depicting the Fort Pitt Bridge over the Monongahela River, this and a couple of the other shots in today’s post were shot in the name of testing out a new piece of gear, recently added to the camera bag.
I should mention that I’m obsessed with unique camera support devices. One of the few spaces wherein I ‘tinker’ revolves around building novel support mechanisms for the camera. I’m forever attaching tripod heads and ARCA Swiss plates to all sort of things – bean bags, blocks of silicone, you name it.
The new addition is a ‘Super Clamp.’ Clamp, clamp, clamp.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It needed some modification, ‘out of the box,’ to fit my particular ‘use case scenario.’ Specifically, an extended bushing which introduced instability into the mount needed to go. I ordered a smaller bushing from Amazon which I swapped in – a tripod mount screw size (1/4 inch 20 turn) on one side and tripod head mount size (3/8ths 16 turn) on the other. That allowed me to securely attach a tripod head to the thing.
I screwed a ten stop ND filter onto my lens for these, to ‘slow’ down the flowing waters of the Monongahela and capture reflections.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The beauty of this device is that it allows me to clamp my camera onto fences, poles, even fire hydrants – offering a rock steady mount.
Given that I was quite taken with the thing’s performance, it’s become a regular carry ever since. My problems have now transferred over to the lens filters themselves. The ones I’ve been carrying – for years and years – are screw on filters, which are a pain in the neck to manipulate in ‘the field.’
My problem is encapsulated in the shift to the next shot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had time to unscrew the filter, and ‘rekajigger’ the camera settings away from ‘long and loving’ exposure over to a ‘freeze the moment’ setting, for this shot. It isn’t always the case that I can do this quickly enough, so I often miss stuff when the camera is set up for filter usage.
Accordingly, I’ve spent a bit of cash on a new set of lens filters, which use a magnetic system in lieu of the screw in system. You do have to screw an adapter into the lens, which is ferrous in composition so when a magnet enabled filter gets close to it, the glass disc just snaps right into place.
Just got these delivered, at this writing, so the verdict is out on whether or not I pissed away my money, or if the things will work as I hope and help rather than hinder my efforts. I’ve been ‘feeling’ longer exposures again for some reason.
Comparing the two bridge shots above, you can really discern the amount of color cast which my older filters alter the scene with. All ND filters have a ‘cast,’ some more severe than others.
Also, clamps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Can’t miss a Towboat shot though, can I?
Gotta say, I’m missing the smell of salt water these days, and it’s been a long time since I was on anything but a tourist boat.
This is about when I heard the hissing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This Canadian Doofus was angry at me.
A bit of recent research in this direction revealed that – in Pittsburgh at least – the Canada Gooses segregate into two groups. There’s a purely migratory population of them, and there’s a static one which occupies the waterfronts all year long – even in winter. The latter are larger in stature and weight, according to the Pennsylvania environmental peeps. These monstrous iceholes enjoy Federal and State protection, and their only natural predators are Coyotes, Eagles, and Owls.
These predators don’t mess with adults like the one pictured above – mind you – instead preferring to pick off either the newborn Goslings, or sick and or elderly adult Gooses who can’t fight back.
I stand by my conviction that Canada Geese, as a specie, are dicks.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Just step right up, and hear a tale…
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Chokepoints. Pittsburgh is full of them. Especially so when you’re on foot. I’ve mentioned this a few times. It’s a city which is set up entirely for the convenience of automobile and truck drivers, and for vehicular ‘flow.’
That latter concept is a city killer. You want people to park their cars, walk around to local shops, and spend their money. This ‘system’ of highways facilitates the exit of that money to distant suburbs, and other municipalities, where it will be spent and the sale will be taxed by a different municipality instead. You want your citizens to spend money as close as possible to where they earned it.
Also – It really sucks to be a pedestrian in areas like this. Street crossings, in particular, are fairly scary. Meh!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One scuttled up the ramp to the Fort Duquesne Bridge. This section of Pittsburgh’s ‘North Shore’ where it’s found received quite a bit of attention during the late winter and early spring here at Newtown Pentacle.
Mainly so due to the presence of two ‘T’ Light Rail stations nearby the stadiums, which allowed one such as myself a quick and easy ‘debark’ point from a mass transit service that tracks back to HQ in Dormont.
Essentially, anytime I’ve gone ‘out’ for a scuttle in the last year or so, the plan has always involved using mass transit for at least one leg of the effort. Partially, this is economic, but it’s also kind of become a ‘challenge thing’ for me. Let’s see how far away I can start a walk, and…
For this particular day, the rideshare dropped me a couple of miles north for my starting point. The challenges offered by any choice in my route were;
a) finding a path which hadn’t already been polluted by my presence but was still photogenically ‘interesting,’ b) figuring out a roundabout way to get back to the T, c) not getting squished by a car while crossing streets.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been noticing odd things.
While walking over the Fort Duquesne Bridge, I was keeping an eye out for what looks like a former pedestrian path, one which has been abandoned and intentionally clipped off. It breaks off of the riverfront trail, and is attached to an onramp of this bridge.
There’s a concrete barrier, pictured, which blocks the path towards the Point State Park, but the counter side of that path leading from the park is still accessible. Weird.
Go figure, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another closed pedestrian lane is present up on the bridge itself.
Normally, this POV is locked away from prying eyes, but the gate was unlocked and just hanging open, so I cracked out a shot. This pathway just terminates, at a spot where there were likely stairs or a ramp connected once, but which would now just offer a dead drop into the Allegheny River, from high above.
Fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path from this area was pretty simple:
Bypass Downtown Pittsburgh by skirting its edges, and then cross the Monongahela River via the Smithfield Street Bridge. Ultimately, I was heading for that familiar brewery on Pittsburgh’s South Side where the CSX tracks are found and I like to shoot trains.
Still had a decent amount of walking to accomplish.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! Speaking of CSX, and the southern shoreline of the Monongahela River…
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
In the air, and everywhere
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you might recall from last week, your humble narrator was scuttling through Pittsburgh’s ‘Chateau’ neighborhood on the city’s North Side.
There’s lots of lovely homes here, many of which are in a sad state of repair. Condemnation signage is common, as are empty building lots.
I just like to follow my nose around this area, and had only a vague directional notion of where I was going. That little compass dangling off my camera bag was consulted a couple of times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A sudden rush of research activities, centered around a former Standard Oil cannery (behind me, and discussed in a prior post), which revealed that this was a populous but fairly poor neighborhood back in the 1950’s – with churches, shops, and homes.
In 1963, Pittsburgh decided to ‘fix’ this area under the guise of urban renewal/slum clearance, which took the form of erecting an enormous series of highway viaducts and access ramps in lieu of that former mixed use setup. The project eradicated what used to be here, and used the rubble of that civilization to landfill into the Ohio River.
If your residential or commercial property was on the ‘wrong’ side of the new highway, it’s now zoned for ‘heavy industrial,’ so get the ‘eff out.
A 2006 survey revealed that only 39 people were living in the Chateau neighborhood, which kicked off a fresh round of urban renewal.
Don’t know anything about what the population numbers are right now, but the ‘powers that be’ have just started another of their ‘this will save Pittsburgh’ developments nearby. This time around, there’s going to be a Ferris wheel.
Always have to remind, they had a Rachel Carson here in Pittsburgh, not a Jane Jacobs.
Robert Moses always talked about wielding a ‘meat cleaver’ for his projects, wherein if something was in the way he just chopped and chopped at it with the metaphorical cleaver until it was gone.
They really seem to have embraced that ‘Powerbroker’ philosophy here in Pennsylvania.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To get an idea of the sort of grandiose buildings lost to these generational cascades of Urban Renewal, look at the surviving blocks of Chateau – where Chateau’s streets merge into the Manchester neighborhood.
Admittedly, this mansion sized home is an outré example, but holy smokes – it looks like Batman grew up there.
Check that out, spooky looking Victorians, yo. Magnificent.
This entire ‘zone’ that I was cutting through was once part of a separate municipality called ‘Allegheny City,’ annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907.
Just like Queens back in NYC, as soon as the annexation/political consolidations we’re finished, the larger city began exporting its dirty industries, chipping away at the lesser entity’s neighborhoods, and began ramming highways and sewer plants through to serve the larger entity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Street Furniture was spotted.
It was a fairly warm day, but breezy and overcast.
Luckily, I had dressed for ‘high summer,’ with shorts and one of my silly Guayabera shirts (they offer four secure pockets, bro), and an even sillier fishing hat that I had purchased at a Costco for $9.
One had the ‘full’ camera kit onboard, and was carrying it all in a knapsack. Didn’t end up using much from the bag, other than the bottle of water I now carry. Basically did a ‘one lens’ sort of walk, with an ‘all in one’ 24-240mm zoom lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a very convenient lens, but it’s huge and kind of heavy, and has limitations on aperture. I refer to it as ‘the brick.’ Reliable, but heavy.
As far as all the crap in my camera bag – if I didn’t have it with me, I’d desperately need it. I carry a bunch of non-camera related stuff in there too – a basic first aid kit, lengths of para chord in case I pop a shoelace, or if there’s a failure in the straps of the camera, or the bag itself.
There’s also a flashlight, a very loud whistle, gum, a series of tools for field repairs on the gear, a scanner radio set to railroading frequencies, and all sorts of discrete or handy items which I’ve gathered over the years that are useful to have with you, when wandering about with a camera. Everything is filtered according to its weight, of course.
When the bag is full of all this junk, and lenses, and the tripod is attached, it clocks in at about a thirty pound load. When you’ve walked literally tens of thousands of miles over the last twenty years, as I have, you just learn that there’s ‘stuff’ you want to have with you – just in case – and the ‘carry’ is justified.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I got to see Allegheny Valley RR’s #6004, again.
This is the same locomotive that was pictured a few posts back, sitting inert in a rail yard, but this time around it was hauling what looked like a series of empty gondola cars – the sort you’d normally observe black minerals within, likely coke or coal – rolling through the rail trench at Allegheny Commons Park.
Hey Now!
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Standard, high, uniform quality
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the sort of post which I often describe as being ‘serendipitous.’
After marveling at a rail yard, and a bit of overbuilt pedestrian infrastructure on Pittsburgh’s North Side, your humble narrator had pointed his toes at Chateau Street. While scuttling along, the intricacy of the masonry on that building pictured above (2034 Chateau Street) caught my attentions and I stood there for a few minutes admiring it. I took a photo.
A fellow had just parked his truck, sauntered up, and said ‘Hi.’
I’m terrible with names, so he was either a ‘jim’ or a ‘rob’ or a ‘dave,’ since his name immediately exited my brain after the handshake. I asked if he knew anything about the building, whereupon he said that it housed his family’s business – the one advertised on the signage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I mentioned my appreciation of the finery apparent in the masonry, and that the building looked ‘1920’s’ to me, opining that this sort of decorative and expensive brick work indicated that this building had some sort of grand past.
Rob/Dave/Jim laughed, and told me that the building was built in the 1920’s (good eye, he said), and that it was originally a Standard Oil Cannery operation. Further, he invited me to come inside and look around, but I declined that offer.
Rob/Dave/Jim said I should make sure to get a shot of a big, century old oil tank at the edge of their property, which is a part of the original Standard Oil setup.
This building’s tale set your humble narrator off on a spate of interesting reading, centered around this area. Specifics of the cannery operation were just out of historic reach for most of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems that Standard operated the cannery out of this site through the end of the Second World War, whereupon the property was sold and converted over to be the HQ of an interstate trucking company in the 1950’s. Said trucking company specialized in unloading cargo from rail cars and then onto a truck bed, for localized delivery. ‘Intermodal’ is what that’s called.
I also learned that in 1963, Pittsburgh pretty much annihilated another living ‘mixed use’ neighborhood, which was found right here, in the name of urban renewal, progress, and erecting more high speed roads and ramps. The neighborhood was flattened, and its rubble used to land fill in the Ohio River, creating its modern coastline.
This ‘zone’ is largely flat, thereby, and this 1963 project is ‘why.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Standard oil tank, back there.
Of course, there’s oceans of nasty chemicals in the ground down below the surface, floating around on the aquifer. Researching this former Standard Oil property revealed yet another set of surprises about Pittsburgh’s past, which will – of course – lead to other scuttles around this fairly interesting area.
According to old maps I’ve seen, the original waterfront facing street around these parts was actually Chateau Street, where I was walking, which is why Standard was here as they had access to both docks and rail.
Me?
It’s a ‘walk,’ not a ‘stand around and ponder,’ so I leaned back into it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plan for the rest of this effort was to head south, cross the Allegheny and then the Monongahela Rivers, have a quick beer at that brewery with the trains, and then catch a light rail ride back to HQ in Dormont.
From the point in space pictured above, the peregrinations prior to arriving at the light rail would require around four to five additional miles worth of walking.
Another abandoned and condemned house caught my attention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whereas I’d be pretty jazzed to have a rail yard just on the other side of my back yard, I can understand how that would grind on you. Moe the Dog would definitely not enjoy this.
Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #9871 just kind of appeared, hauling a set of specialized track geometry and testing cars. Neat!
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Built environment
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post is a bit of an aside, placed parenthetically within the contents of a longer walk, which will continue tomorrow.
At the intersection of Chateau Street and Beaver Avenue, on Pittsburgh’s North Side, there’s a ramped structure which allows pedestrians and bicycles vertical egress from one ground level up to the next one, and it seems to be attached to a series of highway ramps that overfly a train yard.
How complicated… tell me more…
I looked around a bit, but couldn’t find a name assigned to the structure, although it obviously has one – given how overbuilt and undoubtedly expensive this whatzit was to build. You don’t spend millions of the public’s money on something and then not give it a name.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Steel, concrete, engineering, construction… all super expensive.
Pretty wide ramps are on offer, and these pathways offer sharp right angle turns at the corners where they spiral around the core structure. I’d guess that the thing climbs up about 50-80 feet in elevation. I ran a picture of the whole assembly yesterday, here it is again.
I don’t want you to imagine that I think I’ve found the lost ark of the covenant here, but this is a pretty odd thingamabob.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If you had to, you could probably drive a non SUV sized police car through here. Width wise, it would be tight but possible. That’s about how wide these ramps were. Gently graded they are, I’d mention, so people with mobility issues and bike riders were definitely a consideration when designing the thing. These are the sort of ‘people mover’ ramps you normally see at stadiums.
Above this thingie are a series of highway trestles which overfly rail tracks, with the trestles connecting southbound drivers to the approaches of the West End Bridge, or to the interplay of ramp options that are offered nearby leading to the Fort Duquesne Bridge, and Crosstown Boulevard, interchanges.
Whew, how’s that for a geography lesson?
I just had to keep on going, until this whatzit got me up to wherever it might be leading to. This is exactly how I’m going to die, I often think.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Basically… up top, there’s another street level series of ramps, and then an overhead series of highway ramps, which this massive pile of smaller pedestrian ramps leads up to. No Shake Shack up here. Now I know.
Also, man oh man, are there ever a lot of vehicle ramps flying through the sky here in Pittsburgh or what? Feck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An eye was kept on the Allegheny Valley Railroad train sitting in the yard below, all inert. This outfit does ‘switcher’ and ‘last mile’ duty for (mainly) Norfolk Southern, and I understand they have a few Pittsburgh area clients of their own which these AVRR ‘Carload Express’ engines service. I imagine the crew was taking a break, and eating lunch or something, as they were sitting static for better than half an hour.
That above, by the way, is pretty much the sum total of what I know about these cats at AVRR. If I got something wrong, or you’d like to expand the knowledge of your fellow Newtown Pentacle readers – I’d ask you to leave a comment below.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As it turned out, that conspicuous building – pictured above – was a pretty cool find for me, but all that’s for tomorrow’s post.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 