The Newtown Pentacle

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One forces himself to get out and shoot, even when ‘I’m not feeling it.’ Such was the case a few weeks ago when a humble narrator drove over to West End Overlook Park to crack out a few exposures. It was foggy/misty out, and low lying clouds had obliterated any notion of light from the vault above. I was hoping for atmosphere, but I got ‘murk.’ The wrong time of day, and the wrong day as well. Bleh.

So, why do I present these shots as part of today’s post? Because I think it’s important to show the ‘screw up’ stuff along with your more precious shots, that’s why. As often mentioned, I’m always messing around with the various formulas I use when shooting. In the case of the shot above, that experimentation didn’t work out as intended. Technically speaking, it’s all there – sharpness, etc. – but the shot just doesn’t ’click.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

On a slightly happier note, I met a deer. Pittsburgh has a deer problem, I’m told, one which revolves around an overpopulation in the abundant urban forests of the City’s suburbs and parks. The multitudinous Deer thereby find their normal food depleted and scarse due to their reproductive success, which in turn causes these sprits of the forest out onto city streets, and highways, and into the neighborhoods in search of forage causing a dangerous situation for man and beast alike. Y’see a lot of dead deer along the highways in the region. I mean… a LOT.

This situation has spawned a wonderful political argument, incidentally, which I’ve been following all summer.

– One group of ‘nature loving ex hippies’ want the government to distribute contraceptives to the deer. I’ve been waiting for a reaction by the Catholic Church to this plan.

– Another group, best described as ‘guys with pickups, beards, and guns’ have offered to just hunt and kill all the deer in Pittsburgh, so ‘problem solved’ if only the Government would get out of their way.

It got pretty political, pretty fast, this story. I enjoyed the heck out of it, while reading the local newspaper and watching the TV news. Nobody suggested releasing Wolves or some other large predator, but that’s the most effective control mechanism there is for Deer. An adult wolf eats about 50-60 pounds of meat a week, I’m told. I like that one best.

To combat this particular pickle, the Mayor’s office of the City of Pittsburgh has decided to allow an organized posse of 50 specially licensed bow hunters to cull the herd, under scientific and the State game authority’s guidance, in the various urban parks and wooded areas wherein the beasts dwell and multiply. The archers will be allowed a limited number of kills, but the meat from some percentage of their prey will be given to needy families that live on public assistance. No word on the contraceptive angle, yet, although the political estate promises new solutions next year.

The nation in a nutshell, this.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This shot is better than the first one for me. It ‘clicks’ to my eye. More or less the same settings but what’s the difference… composition? Subject? (West End Bridge over Ohio River with Rivers Casino and I think that’s Pennsylvania Route 65, aka the 65th Infantry Division Memorial Highway) I really don’t know.

That’s the whole point of forcing myself out into the world, I guess. Sometimes it pays off. Most of the time, in fact… but there’s the odd ‘off’ day where nothing much works.

Funny thing is, as I was driving home, I absolutely knew that the contents of my camera memory card weren’t all that enticing. I was annoyed by this, in fact. A humble narrator, thereby declared that he’d have to go back immediately.

I went back to HQ, set an early alarm, and was driving back to this spot, in the dark, at about 5:45 in the morning. Check that sequence out on Monday, lords and ladies – at your Newtown Pentacle.

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