The Newtown Pentacle

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Ahh, the return of warmth and a fortuitous angling of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself has resulted in a vast series of walks, which form something of a survey when viewed homologously. Temperatures may continue to underwhelm, but the glorious light which distinguishes the western coast of Queens has woken from its hibernation, and so has your humble narrator.

A shabby juggernaut once more scuttles forth!

from wikipedia

Long Island City station was built on June 26, 1854, and was rebuilt seven times during the 19th Century. On December 18, 1902, both the two-story station building, and an office building owned by the LIRR were burned down in a fire. The station was rebuilt on April 26, 1903, and was electrified on June 16, 1910.

Before the East River Tunnels were built, the Long Island City station served as the terminus for Manhattan-bound passengers from Long Island, who would then connect to a ferry to the East Side of Manhattan. The passenger ferry service was abandoned on March 3, 1925, although freight was carried by car floats (see Gantry Plaza State Park) to and from Manhattan until the middle twentieth century. Today ferry service is operated by New York Water Taxi.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Experimentation with the digital image, from both the capture and the processing angles, resumes.

To wit, “single image HDR”, images- wherein (non photography people can just skip over this part) a single raw image is rendered 1 stop higher and then lower than the metered exposure and then combined in photoshop to highlight the “sweet spot” from all three iterations. Garish, the images nevertheless reveal a wide range of shadow detail and highlight compression otherwise unattainable in a single exposure. A digital image, indeed.

from wikipedia

The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It begins in Long Island City and runs directly across the middle of Long Island, terminating in Greenport approximately 95 miles (153 km) from its starting point. Along the way, five branches diverge from the Main Line. Eastern portions of the Main Line are also identified by branch names. These branches, in order from west to east, are:

• Port Washington Branch (at Wood Interlocking in Woodside, Queens)
• Hempstead Branch (at Queens Interlocking along the Queens/Nassau County border)
• Oyster Bay Branch (at Nassau Interlocking in Mineola)
• Port Jefferson Branch (at Divide Interlocking in Hicksville)
• Ronkonkoma Branch – name given to the Main Line east of Hicksville
• Central Branch (at Beth Interlocking at Bethpage) – a single track with no stations, connecting the Main Line to the Montauk Branch
• Greenport Branch – name given to the non-electrified Main Line east of Ronkonkoma

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Highly “monkeyed around with”, there’s just something about these HDR shots which draws me in- but of course, your humble narrator was once a comic book artist and is naturally drawn toward these sorts of primary colorscapes. This section of the megalopolis could easily be called “Gotham” rather than “Long Island” City.

I would be remiss if the arrts-arrchives pages of historic photos and deep historical insight weren’t linked out to, so click here and here and here. These are VERY cool pages, and worth your time.