Hlidskjalf in Pittsburgh
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent afternoon’s desire for diversion saw a humble narrator purchasing a ticket for one of those double decker tourist buses. There’s two versions of the service available here in Pittsburgh – one is a ‘hop on/hop off’ dealie with designated stops, the other is a ‘just the tour’ option which means you stay in your seat for about 90 minutes. As I’ve never actually done one of these tours, I figured on giving it a try. My ticket saw me boarding the thing for the last scheduled outing of the day, for the ‘just the tour’ option.
The bus’s route meanders through Pittsburgh, hitting several major attractions and areas where you can expect to find lots of restaurants and bars. Me? I was onboard to wave the camera around.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a fairly difficult thing to get shots from a moving vehicle, and especially so when that vehicle is riding on a highway or other high speed road. I used the same technique which has been mentioned in the past, in connection with my ‘from Amtrak’ series, which is ISO 6400 at F8, and a shutter speed of between 1/5000th and 1/8000th of a second. The trick is to focus your shot on where you’re going to be rather than where you are, just like in a video game. The other trick is to just keep on shooting and not worry about exposure too much, since as long as you’re in the ball park you can always push it a bit in post.
That’s the West End Bridge, if you’re curious.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As opined above, the tourist double decker bus makes several predetermined stops for its ‘hop on/hop off’ customers, including ones nearby the stadiums on the North Side. That’s the entrance to PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates sports ball company. My complete and utter lack of interest in this sort of thing is a bit of a handicap, socially speaking, I will admit.
What’s that crazy Norse word in the title mean? Hlidskjalf is the throne found at the top of the world in Asgard, a “high chair” from which Odin kept an eye on mundane things. One couldn’t help but look around for ravens or wolves following me around when I was sitting on the double decker bus. I was digging the depersonalized perspective from this outing, some 20 feet or so over the ground plane, and the different point of view from the one that I normally have.
Back tomorrow.
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