Archive for July 2025
Potpourri day
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Circumstance and ‘getting things done’ finds me driving all over the City of Pittsburgh on the regular.
As a former New Yorker, one of the things you’ve got to get past here is a long encoded belief that ‘crossing the river’ or ‘rivers’ is kind of a big deal.
If I had to go to New Jersey from Queens, it would be an all day ordeal with the City of Greater New York throwing up random obstacles at every step of the way. In Pittsburgh, you just go.
Picklesburgh was recently offered to Pittsburgh, a resounding success according to all reports. The closest I got to it this year was the shot above, captured through my car’s windshield. It was in the high 90’s that weekend, which isn’t exactly ‘brined food’ weather.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The town of McKees Rocks was also recently transited through, and there was something about this truck parking lot which caught my eye.
Round three of scouting has begun, I should mention, now that I sort of know some of the shape of things out here, and I’ve been noting what I call ‘pregnant locations’ for a while now which I wanted to get a bit more granular with. This section of McKees Rocks is called the ‘Bottoms’ and it’s a visual treat. Kinda crimey, I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks has a lousy reputation, which sometimes includes ‘murder capital of Pennsylvania.’ It’s also got a medium busy rail yard with a CSX outpost. There also a rail company based out of here which I also haven’t seen on any of the tracks I’ve been watching. One of the two ‘white whale’ RR’s in Western PA which have so far escaped my camera.
I’ve spent a bit of time over the last few weeks in a quest for ‘points of view,’ and driving from place to place. I’ll spend some time in Google maps the night before, tagging locations via their street view before an ‘explore’ when I visit these spots in the real world.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A particular interest of mine at the moment, there’s a rail trestle over a highway in Carnegie which I’d love some shots of a train crossing, but so far I haven’t figured out how to get close to it. Pictured above is a service road leading to and from a U.S. Mail sorting facility, which dead ended right where Google suggested a route up to the trestle would exist.
Frustrating. Yeah, I know, use a drone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next door to Dormont, where HQ is located, is the tony suburb of Mt. Lebanon. It’s populated by tree lined streets with expensive homes, mainly, but nearby one of the T stops this massive apartment house and parking garage is seen. It really stands apart.
To the rails…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The scouting work pays off occasionally, and I’ve just found a point of view which looks downwards at Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Rook Street Yard.
There’s nearby parking, and this is definitively a spot you need to drive to. There’s a really cool shot waiting to be captured here, just has to be the ‘right time’ for this ‘right place.’
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.
Pittsboids part two
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every time that I try to say what kind of a bird a bird is, I screw it up, so I just make up names for them. I also think that birds are uniformly dicks, and would take my eyes if they could. This bird prejudice is a problem for me, as the Audubon Society can be harsh, and I shot these photos at the National Aviary where these flying lizard things are venerated.
Never forget, birds are jerks.
Those two are obviously Flamingos, but I didn’t see any signage to suggest what sort of Flamingo they were, so I’m just going to say ‘Variegated Antarctic Flamingo.’ They must really stand out against the permafrost and glaciation with their bright colorations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dual lobed Snail Gobblers. That’s what I’d name those two, which are actually and probably Pelicans. Simply known as gobblers to the world’s fishermen, these things.
They’re the National Pelicans, I would point out, as they’re housed at the National Aviary – which was so named by an act of Congress, which was signed into law by a President.
Remember that? Law? Process? Democracy? Predictability?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Five Eyed Cumulonimbus Hen, that’s what I’d call that thing above.
It was actually pretty neat having these evil eye stealing critters roam around during the event. There were ‘no touching’ signs and a goodly number of staff volunteers were watching out for their charges.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A songbird room absolutely captivated Our Lady for a bit.
Me? As stated, I think birds are assholes. Feathered lizards who will take your eyes and shit on you from high above. Maybe I’m scarred by all the Canada Goose problems I’ve experienced over the years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That character up there, and this time around there was sign, is a juvenile Bald Eagle. Teenagers, huh?
As mentioned, your humble narrator is also not a fan of being caught up in the tidal flow of a crowd of humans. The Aviary began to really fill up towards the end of our visit, and it was clearly time to start heading for the exit.
As a rule, I don’t do crowds. You’ll never see me at a protest march or a stadium concert. I’ve talked about this particular wrinkle in my psyche before, and an obsessive need to know where the fire exits are when in public spaces. When I stay in a hotel, I walk into the hallway and close my eyes, and then count how many doors it is to get to the fire exits. Just in case.
I know…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I shot this one, your humble narrator was thinking about the implied metaphor of the National Birds above. The one looking left seems indignant, and is completely ignoring the one on the right, which has its head up its ass.
Of course, a cigar is just a cigar. Don’t assign meaning or interpretation to images. That’s for the person looking at the photo to do.
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.
Pittsboids part one
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found your humble narrator, in the company of Our Lady of the Pentacle, on Pittsburgh’s North Side at a fundraiser event for the National Aviary. Read all about the Aviary at Wikipedia, or visit their site to hear it from the horse bird’s own mouth.
It was quite a party, with a tropical theme, and there was food and drink and entertainments involved as well. To wit, upon our arrival, a lion dancer troop were busily starting a performance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A locomotive trench, which I often shoot Norfolk Southern rail traffic along, is next to the Aviary’s property which is similarly located in Allegheny Commons Park, so this isn’t an altogether unfamiliar spot to me. Saying that, I knew that the Aviary was here, but circumstance hadn’t carried me and the camera here as of yet. Normally, spots like this are filed under ‘winter stuff’ for me.
Museums, zoos, interior spaces, churches. Winter stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a pretty well attended fund raiser. After getting the ubiquitous wrist bands, we entered the facility. They had bar and food set-ups, but I have to mention that the ‘way finding’ here was just awful.
Those ‘you are here’ wall maps you often see in public spaces like hospitals and museums would have been helpful to move the crowd along but… alas. There were, therefore, hundreds of people congealing and crowding wherever they first discovered a bar or catering style table.
This sort of event planning thing annoys me, and it is one of the many subjects which I’d jump and down about when doing tours and galas and all that back in the Non-Profit sweatshops of NYC. ‘You enter the event,’ ‘what happens then?’ Where do I send you, what will you find, where are the bathrooms? Where do we want them to leave their money behind?
You really need to figure all this stuff out in advance before the guests arrive. Every time is somebody’s first time there, so plan on that too. Greeters shouldn’t be clustered around the entrance, rather stationed at strategic points along the route you want to the guests to ‘discover.’
I have spoken.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a series of environmental set ups at the National Aviary, with this wetland one hosting a number of smaller critters. They’re flying around, and walking around, in the same area which the guests are. Neat.
If you’re wondering, tomorrow. Tomorrow is when you see all birds. Today is when you see the Aviary.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ok, here’s a few of the birds.
I was walking around with the wide angle 16mm lens on at this particular moment. Nobody likes hearing what I’m carrying in my camera bag more than Our Lady, and she was absolutely ‘rizzed’ by my lens choices. So exciting.
Her husband can be sooooo entirely pedantic when discussing his gear, which is part of why Our Lady is so long suffering.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m told that’s some kind of duck up there in that shot above.
This was a social event, so I was trying to travel light and left the heavy zoom lenses at HQ. I had a very basic kit with me – an 85mm f2, a 35mm f1.8, and the 16mm f2.8. This is the core of my night kit tools, as I figured (correctly) that it would be dark inside – as far as the amount of light that a camera would need. See? Pedantic.
Tomorrow – lotsa boids.
“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.
Done, Dirt Cheap
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Welcome back to Pittsburgh, where a humble narrator recently took a short walk in search of a couple of pints of beer and passing locomotives.
Norfolk Southern’s tracks ride on an elevated berm in this area, carven out of the cliff face of Mount Washington itself. The opening, beneath that trestle it’s riding on, is the transit tunnel normally used for buses and the T light rail. Said tunnel has been undergoing a rehabilitation project for the last few months.
I heard a train coming, and managed to capture a quick peek of #4462 when it appeared in a break through the verge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was about 4-5 in the afternoon as I was moving through this zone, and vehicle traffic was beginning to stack up, in the approaches to various bridges, and tunnels, and the on-ramps to high speed roads.
Me? I was in a mood.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nothing specific was wrong, in terms of triggers, just woke up unhappy and easily angered by minor stimuli. Like an asshole. I’d been trapped by obligation and climate for nearly a week, and really needed a day off.
This post is being written mid month, incidentally, whereas you’re receiving it at the end of July. I’ve managed to rebuild my ‘lead time’ here at Newtown Pentacle in the last month or so, and hope that I’m able to maintain a two to three week ‘ahead of schedule’ posture moving forward. Hate publishing a post when the ‘the pixels are still wet.’
I always strive for lead time here, but it seldom works out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The brewery I haunt, in this area, is found alongside a set of CSX’s Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks and it’s one of the choke points for that rail outfit’s operations here. If one of their train sets is coming through the city, heading east or west, it’s quite likely going to be moving past this spot. What? You’ve never gone fishing? You go where the fish are forced to go and drop the hook there.
That structure on the left is part of a concrete company.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #7030 appeared, and I wanted to get a slightly different point of view for this photo than I normally do when at this spot.
It was the only train that appeared while I was there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The locomotive was heading westwards, likely into Ohio at some point, after passing through McKees Rocks, where the company has one of its corporate outposts. I imagine there’s crew turnover there, but I’m just guessing. This is the POV I normally use when here, as a note.
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.
Sometimes, it’s just odd out there
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On a recent afternoon, your humble narrator just threw his hands up in frustration and announced to Our Lady of the Pentacle that he was going out for a walk. She recognized the look in my eyes, that of a wild beast yearning for freedom, and said ‘have a good time.’
One soon found himself at ‘The T’ light rail’s First Avenue Station, where the Panhandle Bridge spans the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This wasn’t going to be a long walk, at all. It was hot as heck, and I had a lot on my mind. Go to the bar and suck down a few beers sort of thoughts.
I’ve had to pick and choose my battles since returning from NYC, as the weather has been absolutely horrific all month. High heat and humidity, lots and lots of rain, and a set of competing priorities. As described yesterday, I’m currently enjoying a spate of medical tests designed to gauge and document my overall robustness and spot trends.
I don’t like being touched by strangers, let alone stripping down to my skivvies in their presence and letting them irradiate me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As I’ve mentioned in the past, one of my superpowers is the ability to containerize negative emotions while situational stressors are at work, and then allow the stored up psychic pressure to bleed off at a more opportune time. Essentially, I have a ‘rage bladder,’ and every now and then one needs to let off some steam and bleed it out.
I was by myself, of course. God’s lonely man.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pathway to the beer taps involved a short walk of less than two miles. This wasn’t an exercise day, and I convinced myself that the effort would be worth it if a few train shots were captured. I know that I mention drinking a lot, but I don’t actually drink all that much. A few beers, maybe once every couple of weeks, these days.
Back in Astoria, my crew of knuckleheads and I had a standing Friday night ‘after work’ meetup at ‘the local,’ but again – a couple/three pints of beer consumed over multiple hours is my deal. I sip, rather than chug.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Monongahela River and the Smithfield Street Bridge came into view, and one pointed his toes in the required direction. This is part of the same trail pictured above, incidentally.
That’s when I saw it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A single, abandoned, shoe. Can it be?
Has the Queens Cobbler followed me to the Paris of Appalachia?
Back next week with maximum Choo-Choo.
“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 