Archive for February 2022
rumour ran
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in prior posts, one has been making a real effort to keep up with kicking his feet about the neighborhood, and maintain a regular schedule of long and short walks. One of the stops I always make on my way to somewhere else is at the Sunnyside Yards, here in Long Island City.
“Hey asshole, why do you call it LIC when the word “Sunnyside” is in the rail coach yard’s name? You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about thereby, and all you say is false” is the sort of thing you’ll see in the comments section here occasionally.
If it’s west of Woodside Avenue, north of Newtown Creek, and south of Bowery Bay – it’s technically Long Island City. Astoria, Long Island City Heights Sunnyside, Hunters Point, and Blissville are all LIC – as in they were part of the pre 1898 municipal entity which dubbed itself as LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sunnyside and Astoria have since become “kind of” their own thing. I refer to Northern Blvd. and the yards as “LIC” as they stand apart from the residential and mixed usage zones of Sunnyside and Astoria. Skillman Avenue west of 39th street is LIC, whereas east of 39th street it’s Sunnyside – for instance. I can say the same thing about Queens Blvd. west of about 37th street, which is where it stops being Sunnyside and starts being LIC.
The blurred lines and neighborhood borders of Queens are endlessly fascinating. Woodside and Winfield, or Astoria and East Elmhurst will yield subjective one side of the street versus the other opinions from the Queensican Commentariat. I call these gray zones “the angles between neighborhoods.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One actually sweats this assignation of nomenclature. The real estate people will claim that parts of Brooklyn which are closer to Nassau County than they are the East River are “Williamsburg” or “Bushwick” or my favorite – “Ridgewood,” which is actually found in Queens. Remember when a whole section of Manhattan went from being “midtown” to “West Chelsea” about twenty years ago?
I generally rely on what things used to be called prior to the REBNY era, which is before the real estate marketing people began assigning twee names to undesirable locations. Heck, I actually prefer the pre-1898 city consolidation names, in truth.
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“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.
solid crag
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What had drawn me to the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek on this particular night in early January was the presence and promise of snow, and the hope that my favorite little tree might have some adorning its branches. No such luck, unfortunately, but that didn’t stop me from getting a shot of it anyway.
I’ve been shooting that little tree in every season for a couple of years now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way back to HQ, curlicues of snow blowing off of a factory building’s roof nearby the Sunnyside Yards caught my attentions. I did wish that I was carrying a zoom lens with me, but my “night kit” is typically two fairly bright lenses – an 85mm f2 and a 35mm f1.8.
I like to travel light whenever it’s possible these days. Generally, unless I know it’s going to be a day when I need “reach” or that conditions will be changing at every corner, I leave the big and heavy zoom lenses at home. Besides, if I’m using the zooms at night, I pretty much have to rig up with the tripod if I don’t want to be in sky high ISO ranges. It’s also the difference between carrying around a 1.5 pound camera bag versus carrying an 8-9 pound one, ultimately.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as I crossed over into Astoria, one encountered another neato ride. This particular “Bobcat” was outfitted with a snow plow, and there were several plow vehicles parked nearby – parts of a private outfit who had been clearing the large parking lots connected to an electronics store and a movie theater.
This would be my ride, if it was street legal. Instead of a plow, I’d have cameras mounted to its front end.
Back next week with more, 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.
thickening till
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Shortly after the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself dipped behind New Jersey, one decided to engage in the usage of a tripod to conquer the night. One was also involved in a bit of experimentation as well, capturing multiple images and combining them using the focus stacking technique. The one above ain’t fancy, it’s just a longish exposure at a very high ISO setting.
Canada Geese don’t seem to migrate away from the Newtown Creek these days, and I’m fairly sure it’s because of the guy in Maspeth who puts out food for them. I see these dicks all year long nowadays. All geese are dicks, and Canada Geese are especially so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one and the one below are “fancy” gimmick shots. Focus stacking is a technique used in landscape photography wherein you use a tripod and lock the camera in place. You’ll then move the point of focus around in the shot to foreground, center, and then far/infinity. Back at home, when you’ve finished your photoshop photo developing, you use the application to combine the three or more shots into a single image which has a uniform level of sharpness and a deep depth of field.
Lately, I’ve been playing around with following moving objects through the frame with the focus stack technique in mind, which creates a “timeline” effect of several moments in time inside of single image. Notice that reddish zone at the bottom of the shot, where a bunch of Canada Geese were doing dickish things.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were only four Geese in the shot above, for instance, but when I combined the multiple shots into one, there was suddenly a full gaggle in frame. I plan on finding an overpass sometime soon and using this technique with passing cars. I like the idea of creating a traffic jam where there wasn’t one.
More 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.
insipid novels
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first decent snowfall of this year was at the end of the first week in January, and like the heavy fog which drew me over to Astoria Park, the weather system produced an interesting series of atmospheric conditions. This time around, I left HQ in the late afternoon, as I had timed this “long walk” to the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek in Long Island City to coincide with sunset. Luckily, the storm which had just dumped the snow was still visible, but moving quickly away towards the south.
High clouds equal lots of color in the sunset, low clouds mean murky and muddy skies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Far and away, my favorite part of Newtown Creek is Dutch Kills. Lots of bridges which offer points of view over the water, and a feature rich landscape of fairly low lying industrial buildings that don’t block the light. I’m quite fond of other spots on the creek, Industrial Maspeth and the area surrounding the Kosciuszcko Bridge are “happy hunting grounds” for the camera. What all of my favorites have in common is some form of access to the shoreline without having to climb a fence or trespass on private property to get there.
Dutch Kills is my jam, though. It’s the first section of Newtown Creek that I explored and studied, all those years ago, and is a relatively “easy reach” for me when I’m headed out for a walk from HQ in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The leftie contingent of politicians here in Queens hate capitalism, but they love big real estate, which is a dichotomous situation. They believe in the “YIMBY” or “yes in my back yard” ideation, which states that in order to have “affordable housing” you need to demolish the existing and currently affordable housing stock, and then replace it with luxury condo buildings which will offer a small percentage of rooms in the new structures as “below market rate” “affordable apartments.” Given that “below market rate” is often offered at a 25-35% higher in rent price than what they replaced…
Nothing matters, and nobody cares.
Hey, check it out – from what the YIMBY’s refer to as “a transit rich corridor along Borden Avenue” you can see the sewer plant in Brooklyn, looking south past the tracks of the garbage train, and a giant recycling oriented waste transfer station which is down the block from an even bigger facility that handles putrescent garbage, alongside a Federal Superfund Site. Or, as the real estate people refer to it – the Borden Avenue Corridor.
“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.
hidden byway
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having accomplished the “distant foggy” shots which drew me out of HQ, a humble narrator began the scuttle back home but I was far from done with the evening’s exertions. For those keeping score – the walk to Astoria Park and the waterfront adjoining Shore Boulevard from HQ and back is found somewhere on the dividing line between a “long” and a “short” walk for me. Basically, it’s further away than you perceive it to be when leaving the house, but not all that far, really.
At least it’s mostly flat. I’m pretty sensitive to discrete changes in altitude and declination for some reason. If you pay attention to the “lay of the land” it’s possible to ignore the built environment’s masonry distractions and “see” what the actual topography is like.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Obviously, the area surrounding the early 20th century vintage Hells Gate and Triborough Bridges had been thoroughly worked over by crews of laborers. There was an “Astoria Park” prior to the modern shaping, which you can observe on old maps from the 19th century, but it was nothing like the modern park other than location.
One hung around the park for a bit, shooting from various spots, but I won’t bore you with those photos since they really weren’t anything special. The fog had started thinning out in anticipation of a forthcoming bout of rain, so I pointed my toes back towards HQ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Good golly, do I ever enjoy the weird lighting offered by food trucks for some reason. It’s funny the way that you suddenly become entranced by something that was formerly ignored. Throughout the pandemic months, I’ve found myself noticing things – gas stations, for instance – that I used to just scuttle right past.
Tomorrow – something completely different 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 