Archive for January 2023
north by northeast
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After doing a sunrise tripod session (described yesterday) with the camera at the West End Overlook park on the 21st of December, a humble narrator pointed the nose of the automobile east after having crossed the Monongahela River to the southern side of the Golden Triangle. A number of rail lines snake through here, and there’s a couple of small rail yards as well.
I was mainly trawling about trying to develop an idea of the surrounding area, and looking for spots to return to when light and atmosphere would combine and align to get a proper photo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the things I’ve been doing, while randomly driving around Pittsburgh, is to motor up the prominences and see if there’s any sort of point of view I can find without trespassing. I guess that I was about 15 or 20 miles back on the Monongahela from the Downtown area where the three rivers converge.
I’m being extremely careful about the trespassing thing. Pennsylvania is an open carry state, and embraces “Castle Doctrine” which essentially makes it legal for somebody to start blasting away if they feel “threatened” while on their own property. There are gun shops in the shopping malls here. It’s probably a big part of why everybody is so polite in this part of the country.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the places I wanted to take a look at is Braddock, which is around ten miles east of Downtown. Beyond making a mental note to drive Forgotten-NY’s Kevin Walsh here if he ever visits, I was in absolute jaw dropping awe the entire time I was there.
Braddock is home to United States Steel’s Mon Valley Works, a still active steel mill which incorporates the 1875 Edgar Thomson works into its operation. Never in my life have I seen a working steel mill.
Wow. Yes, I will be back.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Seeking some sort of prominence from which I could get a view of the enormity of the Mon Valley Works, I crossed the Monongahela and looked around but couldn’t find a spot where I was certain it was “kosher” for me to shoot from. That’s something to figure out for the future, thought a humble narrator, and I decided that it would be a good idea to head back home and have lunch.
The pathway back to Dormont carried me through McKeesport, which is the second largest urban area in Allegheny County, after Pittsburgh. Truth be told, I’m fuzzy on where Pittsburgh ends and McKeesport begins, but all of that will sort itself out in the fullness of time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as I was thinking to myself “hey, I wonder if this rail bridge is active” a CSX freight train appeared and started transiting over it.
Forgive my ignorance here, as I like taking pictures of trains but I’m not a “train guy.” It seems that this bridge is the beginning of the “Pittsburgh subdivision” for CSX.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The water which the bridge spans is apparently the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers. It’s down the block from the municipal center of McKeesport, where the politicians and the Cops live along with their friends in the Fire Department. There was a little park set up under the bridges, which led to a couple of waterfront trails. Again, noted for spring and summertime exploration.
More tomorrow from Western Pennsylvania, at your Newtown Pentacle.
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baby steps
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Time, as in the sort of time I normally devote to wandering about taking photos, had come at a premium price for me in the months of November and December of 2022. On December 14th, I was recovering psychologically from the “have-to” of driving from NYC to Pittsburgh the previous day, which is an all day sort of thing. This is the day after the “threshold moment” when all of my belongings were packed up into a moving truck at the apartment in Astoria. A walk was in order.
That’s my new neighborhood pictured above, in the Pittsburgh Borough of Dormont. As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, the hills here ain’t no joke.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the very top of the hill I live on is a light rail transit line called “the T.” Pittsburgh’s “master cylinder” as far as mass transit goes seems to be buses, but one of the things that made the South Hills area – which Dormont is a part of – attractive to Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself is this street car line. $2.75 is the fare for us, but it’s a “zone system” operation. The T runs free in the downtown area, but you have to pay after it crosses out of a certain geography. Essentially, you pay your fare when boarding a Pittsburgh bound car, and pay as you’re getting off on one heading away from Pittsburgh. That’s “Pittsburgh” as in the downtown municipal center area where the office buildings and the stadiums are found. It’s all very confusing, really.
In another post coming later this week, I’ll show you some more T action. As the title of this post indicates, I’m exploring bit by bit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of my friends kept on saying that Pittsburgh’s weather was ferocious during the winter months, but that isn’t really true. It’s more or less the same weather in NYC, we just get hit here a couple days in advance of the City. I haven’t lived outside of NYC long enough yet to weave “the old neighborhood” or “back home” into my speech pattern like some mobster on witness protection. This is what Dormont looked like on the morning of December 18th. The shot looks towards the bottom of the steep hill seen in the first photo in today’s post. The horizon line at the top of the shot is the street where the T line runs.
The local news was all agog about the arctic air and windy condition which would be arriving at Christmas, which seemed like it would be quite unpleasant to deal with. Our Lady and I decided that the best move would be to hunker down in the house for a few days, accordingly. A quick trip to the local market and we were sorted out as far as comestibles go. It was still relatively seasonal, however, with temperatures floating around freezing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 21st was a cold day, saying all that, and since recent exertions had seen me rising up and out of bed at 4 or 5 a.m. for a few weeks, it was normal for me to be out and about before the sun rose anyway. I decided to take advantage of this rare early morning phase of mine and head over to a park in a nearby neighborhood, called the “West End Overlook,” for a sunrise session.
West End’s Elliot, where the park is found, is a pretty old section of town I’m told, and West End was originally founded under the name “Temperanceville.” The park sits high over the Ohio River, nearby the McKees Rocks Bridge (I got that one wrong, and thx to NP reader Jon’s comment on this post – I can now tell you that it’s the West End Bridge) spanning the waterway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While shooting these, I decided that I’d need to come back here at sunset sometime. It was quite chilly on this particular morning, with atmospheric temperatures in the low 20’s. Luckily, this spot is about a 20 minute drive from my house, so…
After the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself had fully risen into the vault of the sky, I packed up the gear and turned on the heating in the car. Y’know, when I let the Toyota guy talk me into heated seats, I thought I’d never use them…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After shooting the sunrise, I got into the car and drove over the Monongahela River from the south side of the water, where West End and my new HQ in Dormont are, to the Golden Triangle side of the Monongahela. I spent the morning heading eastwards along its banks, where enormous properties once devoted to industrial steel production now sit fallow.
I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, and was mainly scouting for photographic opportunity. I had built up a small set of waypoints in advance of this scouting mission, things that looked interesting in the top down view of Google maps.
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.
a day in the neighborhood
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, when you’re driving through Pittsburgh and you want to stop and get out of your car, you can find a metered parking spot pretty easily. As in, you drive somewhere and there one is. They use an electronic system here, one where you go to a nearby kiosk, enter your license plate information, and then pay your due. They also use coin meters here and there, but there you go. It’s mostly the kiosk version downtown, by my very limited observation. As a former New Yorker, this is a startling innovation to me.
When you leave an abusive relationship, normal courteousness seems revelatory to you.
Coming back from the Allegheny Observatory, I stopped off at the river it’s named for, and set up the tripod to take advantage of the late afternoon lighting. That’s downtown Pittsburgh pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I found myself a slightly elevated location to shoot from where I wouldn’t have to worry too much about watching my back. This allowed me to concentrate on what I was doing. The entire time I was shooting, I was hearing the words and songs of Fred Rogers, as in Mr. Rogers. “I like you just the way you are,” “everybody is special,” and so on. I wasn’t going crazy, instead I was at the Mr. Rogers memorial!
I should mention that I love Fred Rogers, and if you’re Generation X as I am, you probably do as well. That guy…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the American culture, we venerate warriors and businessmen and killers and sports heroes, generally. It’s not often that someone rises to the top of the heap for being kind to children. Rogers was a Pittsburgh native, and his show was produced at the local PBS station – WQED. A friend of mine who’s lived here for a few decades described seeing Mr. Rogers regularly at a local supermarket in the Squirrel Hill section where they both lived, and often overheard him talking to kids – “you seem very smart… I bet you know how to spell Broccoli, don’t you?” was the gist of how he described those encounters to me.
The monument to Mr. Rogers is wired for sound, and plays a repeating reel of him singing, and his various sayings. Fantastic!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had set myself up for “landscape” mode with the camera, shooting “low and slow” as I describe it. This is when I feel “creative” while shooting, rather than just being a shutter monkey. The problem you encounter with this setup – which involves a filter and a series of settings designed to reduce the amount of light moving through the lens – is when something is entering the frame and suddenly you want to capture it, without it going all motion blurry.
That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge and the entrance to the Fort Pitt tunnel which pierces Mount Washington pictured above.
Luckily, I’ve learned to be prepared for this change of circumstance when the camera is in landscape mode by the University of Newtown Creek, and I can be shooting “fast” images within about 20 seconds of rapid dial twisting and settings adjustments and without having to remove the filter or otherwise alter the operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I saw both the freight train and the tugboat coming together from opposite sides of the frame, and managed to pop off this shot.
It was time to head back home to Dormont. I packed up the gear, hopped back in the wheels, and made a decision that I was going to rely solely on my own sense of direction to get back to HQ rather than use any sort of navigation software. I’m going to come back to this spot at dawn sometime soon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way, I hit a small patch of rush hour traffic wherein the vehicle and I were only traveling at about 20 mph through downtown Pittsburgh. Heh. Traffic… what was that I was saying about abusive relationships?
I got stuck at a few traffic lights during this interval, but I popped open the moon roof on the car and took advantage of that on the way.
More next week, 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.
allegheny observatory
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
According to every authority I could find, the highest point in Pittsburgh is 1,223 feet above sea level and it’s at the Allegheny Observatory, on Pittsburgh’s north side. Saying that, there’s supposedly another spot up here that’s higher – 1,370 feet at Brashear Reservoir, but I didn’t know that when I came to the observatory. Next time, I guess.
Having accomplished all of my have-to’s during the prior day, I set off in the car to experience this prominence. It was about a twenty minute drive from our new HQ location in Dormont to get there.
One of the nice things about Pittsburgh is that if something is only 15 miles away, you don’t have to prepare for three to five hours of travel time due to the chronic bullshit of MTA, nor to compensate for the average traffic speed in NYC of 4.1 mph.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Operated and owned by the University of Pittsburgh, this 1912 building is the second observatory to stand here, with the first one having been erected in 1859. The institution supported itself historically by supplying telegraph transmitted chronology information to the Pennsylvania Rail Road and other national level carriers, a service which became known as “Allegheny Time” which the far flung network of rail would use to synchronize their clocks three times a day.
Additionally, the first descriptions of sunspots were accomplished here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are three telescopic domes in this building, and it’s still a working observatory. For a full description of the building’s history and the technical specifications of its equipment, click this link.
The neighborhood which hosts the observatory is called Perry North, and the actual building is housed within Riverview Park. Perry North has a terrific number of late 19th and early 20th century homes, many of which look like mansions – to the eyes of this bloke from Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Complaining about how phone based navigational software works is going to be an entirely new topic to bitch about here, and despite there being a properly graded secondary arterial road which goes directly to Riverview Park from one of the primary interstate routes that run through Pittsburgh, the “Waze” people instead set me upon a path that involved driving through residential local streets which were set against the terrain at 20+ degree angles, ones which also demanded switch back turns where the car would need to negotiate 90-120 degree turns in alarmingly short distances and at speed.
This is truly annoying. I don’t mind a challenging drive every now and then, but it can’t be “the more efficient route“ if you’re making a 120 degree left turn while the car is sitting at a 25 degree angle with its nose up in the air. Grrr. I fear that Waze will drive me off a cliff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were deer running around up here at the Observatory. There’s also a dog park, and I chatted with a guy who was setting up a long skateboard getting ready to slalom the mile and half back down to the relatively flat land at the bottom of the prominence.
The views of the city from up there were all fairly occluded by trees, which was a bit disappointing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My day was just getting started, I would mention. I hadn’t discovered much time to wave the camera about quite yet, what with the unpacking of a few essentials in the boxes we drove out personally, and setting up the house with furniture and such. These shots are from the 5th of December. I’d be heading back to NYC on the 8th to deal with some “ending” business and deal with the movers, so the 5th was all I’d be getting this particular interval as far as exploring.
On my way home to the new HQ in Dormont, however, I had to stop and get a few shots from a certain place. It was, after all, a wonderful day in the neighborhood.
“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.
wandering pittsburgh
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sun sets rather quickly in Pittsburgh, due to its inherent geology, and especially so due to a prominence called Mount Washington. When the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself descends behind it, Mount Washington begins casting a deep shadow across the combined valley of the three rivers. Couple that in with the famously cloudy skies of the place, and you’ve got maybe twenty to forty minutes when there’s color in the sky. Big difference from the oceanic skies I’ve known my entire life.
I slowly navigated my way towards the location where Our Lady of the Pentacle was enjoying her afternoon at the Convention Center, making random rights and lefts and building a mental map of the golden triangle. That’s what they call the peninsular center of the City where the skyscrapers are found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Rail infrastructure is everywhere here, and you regularly see freight trains hauling minerals and chemicals about. Notice that there aren’t abundances of illegally dumped crap, or graffiti. This is something which keeps on jumping out at me in Pittsburgh.
The other thing which is absolutely foreign to me is the fact that I can just walk into any old shop or restaurant and ask to use the bathroom – whereupon they look at me like I’m crazy and say “it’s right over there.” I’ve also encountered – get this – Porta Potties that are installed nearby public transportation. It’s nuts… they actually acknowledge human biology here. Wow. You don’t have to piss in the street like a dog.
A humble narrator kept on truckin, and rolled about on Pittsburgh’s Allegheny coastline just as the sky got pretty.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve walked over that bridge, during one of several prior trips I took out here in 2022. Future exploration of this area, with its crazy terrain, might just involve me purchasing some sort of electric bike or something which I can keep in the back of the car. A shuttle craft, if you would, which I can break out of the main “ship” when I want a better point of view. I’ve felt hampered by being tied to the car, when out with the camera.
Whereas the car is a genuine boon, and allows me to cover enormous areas quickly, I definitely miss the granularity of being on the street with the camera. It’s a “photowalk” not a “photodrive” which makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something on any given day. The problem is that you have to get back to where you parked, and the solution just might be a shuttle craft.
Yeah, everything comes back to Star Trek with me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The hour was growing late, and my assignation with Our Lady grew near. I was still early, so I kept on shooting.
The area I was in clearly used to be steel production related, but many of these enormous industrial structures in this area have been repurposed towards other usage including theatrical production. Pittsburgh has, apparently, a fairly thriving TV and Movie industry.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Closer to the center of the City, and I was shooting through a fence hole over the demolished remains of a cold storage warehouse towards the Allegheny River and the Sixteenth Street Bridge. I had to wait a few minutes for a large crowd of either Amish or Mennonite Steelers fans to vacate the sidewalk, as a note.
That is a whole side of Western Pennsylvania that I am eager to find out more about, incidentally. You see a lot of people roaming around with home made hats in this part of the American universe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The low lying building on the left is the Pittsburgh Medical Examiners Office and City Morgue, and on the next block is one where I’m told is the “lowest point” in the area as it’s the HQ of the local sewer people, and the City’s “ultimate” drain is located somewhere deep below their facility.
Finally, the appointed time arrived and I picked up Our Lady. Back to Dormont we went, and another day in this new place had ended.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 