Archive for March 2024
Rain scuttling
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few odds and ends from a rainy day walk in Pittsburgh for today.
The shot above depicts the scene from a section of the metro area called ‘Uptown.’ The skyscrapers rising out of the mist are in ‘Downtown,’ and it was everything I could do to not break out into a song from the catalogue of the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ theatrical production.
At the end of the walk, my companion used his phone to calculate our mileage between the two parked cars, which ended up being something in the neighborhood of seven miles – if memory serves. My ‘Mobile Oppression Platform’ was waiting for us downtown, whereas his ‘two ton murder machine’ was behind us in Oakland.
I hope to never be unthankful to the good people of NYC’s Transportation Alternatives lobbying operation for introducing many hyperbolic terms to my vocabulary. A favorite from the last months I served as the Transportation Committee Chair for the Astoria community board was that when a driver placed a key into the ignition of a motor vehicle, they were entering into a state of ‘pre murder.’ Two wheels good, four wheels bad, just ask ‘em.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of murder, there’s a new Facebook group that’s sprung up which calls itself ‘Death Stairs.’ It took the Pittsburgh commentariot about three days to overwhelm the moderators, and entirely take over the group.
This lonely collection of ‘rises and runs,’ which led from ‘nowhere’ to ‘somewhere else you don’t want to go,’ captured our attentions when we walked past them and they demanded a shot or two.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Birmingham Bridge, connecting Pittsburgh’s peninsular section to the ‘South Side’ across the Monongahela River. There’s a few posts which I’ve offered about the span in the archives, including one where I walked over the thing. It’s a neat bridge.
Back with something different, from the Paris of Appalachia, at this – your Newtown Pentacle – next week.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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.
Soggy in Pittsburgh
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s Oakland section, where you’ll find the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University and a staggering number of cultural organizations like the Carnegie Museum, is the most ‘urban’ part of the metro area – to my eyes. It’s crowded with high pedestrian volumes, stores operating at street level which are selling sandwiches and tacos, and there’s densely packed automotive traffic as well. There’s people zipping by on bikes, and crazy guys screaming ‘President got his hand in my pocket’ to no one in particular. The streets are noisy and narrow and kind of dirty… like I said – ‘urban.’
My soggy companion and I diverted from the ‘main drag’ and soon found ourselves walking down one of the many ‘alleys’ or ‘Way’ streets. They call an alley a ‘way’ here. Guess ‘way’ sounds better than alley.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘Ways’ are proper but narrow streets, I’d mention, but this is where the garbage trucks operate and you see a lot of the surrounding building’s infrastructure along these alleys. There’s plenty of business addresses based along these back streets, I’d mention, as well as student housing and parking lots.
As described earlier this week, this walk was a bit of an experiment. My car was parked in the downtown area, and my companion’s was in a lot about a mile and change behind us. My friend and I’s goal involved walking mostly downhill from Oakland back to my vehicle, whereupon I’d drive him back here and we’d then go our separate ways.
It worked out, the plan, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a pretty interesting section of Pittsburgh, I’d also mention.
The post steel mill economic plan for the city is defined by the phrase ‘Ed’s and Med’s’ which indicates a ‘bend over backwards’ municipal policy to satisfy the aspirations of both the Universities (Ed’s) and the Hospitals (Med’s), and to draw in National level investments for both systems. Hey, the Polio vaccine was perfected by Jonas Salk just a few blocks way from this spot, so there’s precedent.
A few miles away, one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever heard of is being worked on – self driving and autonomous Semi trucks – so the plan is definitely pulling some bucks in from the tech industry and automotive sectors.
I’ve said it a bunch of times over the years – when there’s an example of a self driving locomotive, I’ll start taking that self driving car aspirational technology seriously. If ‘self driving’ hasn’t been sorted out on vehicles that operate on tracks…
Back 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.
Pitt
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is the Cathedral of Learning, which is the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh’s campus. The locals and students refer to this university as ‘PITT,’ so there you go – I’ve learned something. Mission accomplished, you 42 story tall gothic skyscraper you.
A particularly abundant band of rain had appeared, the minute we left the Heinz Memorial Chapel, which sits directly opposite and across a planted plaza from the Cathedral of Learning, so it seemed logical that we should scuttle quickly over to its entrance and check out one of the public spaces within.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My companion, an accomplished fellow who has published photo books about Pittsburgh and has resided in this city since the time of the Reagan Presidential Administration, informed me that this ground floor section is a PITT student center. There were dozens of kids scattered all over the place. They were doing what modern kids do – ignoring everybody around them and staring into computer screens with their headphones on.
Y’know… I’ve got a pet peeve about that sort of thing, and believe that when you’re in ‘meatspace’ the goal should be to interact with the fleshy eidelons of your fellows, rather than isolating into the abject loneliness and curatorial space of an online world. I also advocate that you shouldn’t turn on a television at a party, as the point of such gatherings is interaction rather than consumption of entertainment products. Online interaction tends to reinforce bias, whereas disagreements and arguments with real people in the real world are often an eye opener, and forces one into considering points of view and opinions from outside your daily round or experience. Talk, not type, say I. If you can’t get punched, you’re not really committed to defending an argumentative point of view.
One makes an allowance for sportsball related gatherings, as a note, as far as turning a TV on at gatherings.
Personally, I don’t back off the possibility of enduring physical violence in return for the advocacy of my own ugly points of view in the meatspace, and confrontation with others on my opinions has grown me as a person and forced me into becoming nearly empathetic. It’s a good thing to find out you’re wrong about something.
Kids these days, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eventually, the overly moist atmospheric conditions outside subsided, and my companion and I resumed our walking about. I’m told there’s other public areas at the Cathedral of Learning which are found ‘upstairs.’ Looking forward to someday conjuring up a situation, one where I might be able to see those spaces sometime in the future. We had miles and miles of rainy day walking ahead of us still, to get back to where I I had parked the car.
On the plus side: Hey, I say it all the time – cities always look their best when it’s raining.
Back 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.
Heinz Chapel
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was hanging out with a friend while on a recent walk, and we were trying out one of my ‘clever plans.’ As mentioned in the past, one of the things that’s been driving me batty is the fact that there’s large sections of the Pittsburgh Metro which you basically have to drive to. This negates the point of, and puts a delimiter on, how far a walk can range as you eventually have to get back to the car. Solution?
We tried out an ‘I park my car at the end of the walk, whereupon you pick me up and we drive to the beginning point of the walk whereupon we park your car, then walk all the way back to my car whereupon I then drive you back to your car’ scheme. It worked out pretty well, this, but it was absolutely pouring during the interval we were walking. Whatcha gonna do? Best laid plans, amirite?
When it’s raining like this, part of the photowalk deal is finding interesting places that you can step into and wave the camera around, which is how we ended up inside the Heinz Chapel, in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section, which found on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh (or ‘PITT’ as it’s colloquially referred to hereabouts).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Heinz Chapel itself is pretty lovely, but we had less than a half hour inside available to us, as the staff were about to start a private tour of the place for some group. We were allowed us to briefly photograph the joint, but were in a bit of hurry due to the tour’s starting time looming.
Officially, it’s the Heinz Memorial Chapel, which opened for business in 1938, and its founding and construction were funded by Pittsburgh’s own Heinz family – as in the 57 varieties, ketchup, and baked beans Heinz’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d love to get in here sometime with a proper tripod and do some photographic studies of the interior space, but since we had a deadline I used my ‘platypod,’ and a 16mm wide angle lens was affixed to the camera. The platypod gizmo is an easy to carry camera accessory, and one which is almost always found in whatever camera kit bag that I’m carrying on any given day.
I’ve got two bag setups, if you’re curious. One’s a ‘sling bag’ and the other is a knapsack. Both get an insert packing cube sort of thing which is customizable. I’ve got two of those which are set up in slightly different fashions. The Knapsack is great and voluminous, but the form/function of the bag gets in my way when I anticipate changing lenses frequently, as I was planing on doing this particular afternoon.
The sling bag is a lot better for that sort of thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The problem with the platypod is that it’s essentially a table top camera support, meaning that you’ve got to find a surface for it to rest on – as opposed to a traditional tripod which is freestanding. Saying that, the platypod is brilliant when you’re in a natural setting.
The four ‘feet’ of the thing are connected to its central plate by quarter inch 20 turn screw holes (which is pretty standard for camera ‘stuff’). There’s a set of spikes which come with the thing which you can press into soil or whatever to anchor the camera plate down to the planet, but I made a set of ‘feet’ for it which use silicone furniture casters so as to not scratch or damage finished surfaces, nor mar the paint on the hood of my car when I set it up for that sort of circumstance.
It’s also pretty compact, which permits the capture of odd angles like ‘worm’s eye’ views, with the camera sitting just above ground level.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was dark within the Heinz Chapel, which called for the sort of camera support described above, but I could have gotten away with handheld/high ISO shots if I wanted to – as in the shot above (f4, ISO 3200, 1/60th of a second). My preference, however, for shots like these is a narrow aperture of f8, ISO at 100, and set whatever the exposure time to whatever it’s required to be. Higher ISO equates to noisier images, and I like the smoothness of lower sensitivity.
I’d really like to spend a bit of time in here at some point, and get all ‘tricksy’ with the shots, using exposure and focus blending. One exposure for the stained glass, another for the walls, etc., combine them all in my digital darkroom. That sort of thing, all artsy fartsy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Heinz people told us it was time to split, as their private tour was about to begin.
One last handheld shot, and then we stepped back outside into the rainy day. Being the kind of nerd I am, I had to inform my companion of the fact that it wasn’t actually raining, rather we were experiencing a precipitous mist. Didn’t change the fact that it was pouring rain, but it was an opportunity for me to start a sentence with ‘Actually…’ and seem intelligent by offering trivia, and that is something I cannot resist.
Look at me – I’m smart, not dumb, like people say.
As you’ll see tomorrow, we were lucky enough after stepping out into the precipitous mist to have another fairly epic public space to visit, and seek cover from the rain. Back 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.
Disfunction Junction
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A gorgeous spring-like day saw a humble narrator walking all over Pittsburgh, as detailed in last week’s posts. The end of my longish scuttle occurred, and I settled in at an often visited brewery which is located along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail and the ‘Colors Park,’ where outdoor seating and active railroad tracks used by the CSX outfit are found.
I’m very fond of this spot, as it’s a grade crossing (the tracks intersect with a local street) with signal alarms that alert you when a train is nearing, and thereby you have ample warning to get into position and frame your shot. Also, there’s beer.
Choo Choo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One ended up having more than one glass of beer, I’ll confess, and it was dark when I set out for the T Light Rail station to acquire a ride home. I was testing out the ‘fail zone’ of a newish 50mm f1.8 lens on this leg of the day, I should mention.
The 50mm lens is pretty bare bones, electronics wise, and doesn’t offer ‘image stabilization’ technology inside the housing. My camera has an internal sensor based stabilization system, which gives me about three stops of wiggle room, but when I attach a stabilized lens to the thing I get an amazing eight stops worth of mechanical assist. The lack of stabilized glass on the thing caused me to throw away a few train shots, which just weren’t sharp enough to ‘make the grade.’
I made a mental note about sticking with my stabilized f1.8 35mm, or 85mm f2, for handheld night shots like the one above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back home in Dormont some five miles away, and just as I was leaving the T Light Rail station, a Pittsburgh bound T train set was seen leaving the station. Couldn’t resist.
Back tomorrow with something 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 