Author Archive
falling on
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On September 10th, one found himself at the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, here in NYC’s borough of Queens. The Tribute in Lights at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan, and this section of Newtown Creek has pretty good views, so there you are.
This shot was gravy, I was there for a musical performance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pals at Newtown Creek Alliance helped out with this event, called the Newtown Odyssey. Kind of ethereal music, the high concept kind, was being performed. As part of the ensemble, they had rigged up these floating doohickeys with ukulele’s. A bow attached to a connected but separate float that rose and fell with the water differently the ukulele one did would play the ukuleles like violins.
There you go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Astoria, on September 13th, and I was at a bar drinking a beer when this “Smash My Trash” truck came by. Do yourself a favor and check out the site link for this outfit.
At last, lords and ladies, real anti-zombie equipment is in the field. Mobile, fuel efficient, smashing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 14th, a humble narrator waited until about a half hour before sunset to sally forth for an evening constitutional. This was a relatively short walk, all in all. One of the type where I walk somewhere sort of far away from HQ and then take the train back to Astoria. On this particular night, my penultimate destination was the Hunters Point Avenue 7 train stop in Long Island City.
I stopped by “hole reliable” at Sunnyside Yards, and photographed trains for a little while.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a relatively busy interval at hole reliable, and commuter trains were zipping around down at the track level of the Sunnyside Yards. The one, on the left coming at you, is an Amtrak heading for the Hell Gate Bridge via the NY Connecting Railway, and the one on the right is a Long Island Railroad heading into the City.
I’ve literally taken this sort of shot, from this vantage point, thousands of times. Can’t get enough of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One decided that since I hadn’t been to Dutch Kills in a couple of weeks, and inspected its collapsing bulkhead on 29th street, that it would be a good idea to do so.
South, headed a humble narrator. 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.
furtive groping
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, one was perambulating through a long walk back to Astoria from East Williamsburgh in Brooklyn, and transversing Maspeth. There’s lots to see, and even more to photograph on this route.
Along the Long Island Railroad tracks nearby the legendary Haberman siding, a company involved in the minerals trade was filling rail cars with their stock products.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A brief sit down in a shady spot along Rust Street was enjoyed, and one of those Spotted Lantern flys landed on a branch nearby. I wish that I had a macro lens on the camera for this one, instead of the long lens telephoto job that was already onboard. This is an extremely cropped and zoomed in photo, if you’re wondering.
One continued down hill, and along the way ran into an old friend with whom I argued about vaccines for a few blocks. She was heading off in another direction, and I was heading for the sort of place which is everybody’s last mailing address, eventually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was told that this is a Kestrel, by an actual Ornithologist, and it was spotted sitting on top of a statue monument at First Calvary Cemetery in Long Island City’s Blissville section.
It’s been a long, long time since I wandered through Calvary, a place where I used to spend a lot of my time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All the familiar places, huh? Leaving NYC at the end of the year, and the psychological process that’s kicked off, has made me soppy and sentimental. Every time that I find myself in a place which has had meaning for me in the past, I think “this is likely the last time I’ll see this.”
The last boat trip on Newtown Creek, the last East River Ferry ride, the last walk through Calvary… that’s me, right now. I’m also trying to see a few friends whom I’ve not been in the physical presence of for a while, because realistically – odds are I’ll never see them in person again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing out of Calvary, and over the Long Island Expressway, I was in “proper” Long Island City and heading north. Along the way, I had the horrible realization that the teenagers are physically back in school now when walking past Aviation High School.
Brrr… teenagers… no impulse control.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some will tell you that the section of Queens you’re looking at above is in Sunnyside, but most of them are Real Estate Agent Shit Flies. I stand hard on the notion that Sunnyside starts at 39th street. Don’t argue with me, I’m right and you’re wrong if you disagree. This is LIC.
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.
subdued sort
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After returning from Pittsburgh, a humble narrator set about developing photos and chilling out for a couple of days before resuming the normal round. Some Newtown Creek Alliance business found me in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburgh section, alongside the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge, on September the 8th.
We were checking out a venue for our annual fundraiser – the Tidal Toast – and needed to do a walkthrough. NCA is awarding a humble narrator with the “Reveal” award in this – my last year on Newtown Creek – on October 20th. If you’d like to attend, and support a great organization which has been central to the last 15 years of my life, click here for more information.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a week of traveling in Pittsburgh, and all of those heavy breakfasts, the idea of a walk back to Astoria afterwards sounded fantastic to me. The weather was great, and my camera batteries full.
This is the view from the venue that the Tidal Toast will be held at, which is the Brooklyn studios of a hand painted advertising sign and billboard company called Colossal Media.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan for the afternoon was simple. I walked down Grand Street, towards the Grand Street Bridge crossing on Newtown Creek’s tributary English Kills, where Grand Street transmogrifies into Grand Avenue when it enters the Maspeth section of Queens.
Along the way, there’s a lot of sights. Pictured above is a metals recycling operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Grand Street Bridge, which is going to be replaced fairly soon. Something I’m going to miss out on.
Since I was in the neighborhood, one pointed his toes first at the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, and then at the Maspeth Creek tributary.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were a passel of Canadian Dicks Geese in the poison waters of Maspeth Creek, swimming around and dunking their heads into the slimy liquidity, to eat up whatever debased forms of life they subsist off of.
In recent years, Newtown Creek has become infested with noisome and quite aggressive Canada Geese.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A cast away automobile was visible on the shoreline when I was passing by. Visibility is related to where you are in the tidal cycle for this sort of thing.
The geese didn’t care, nothing matters to them either.
“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.
stark objective
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a pretty long drive, Pittsburgh to NYC. Give or take, it’s about 370 miles, which is an all day sort of affair. On the way to Pittsburgh, my pal Max and I used the northern route, which was picturesque and scenic. On the way back, we used the southern route along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which was tedious and somewhat difficult driving. The tedious part comes in because of road work, which narrows the high speed road to two rather meager lanes, which is where the difficult part comes in. At one point, we encountered a 40 miles long stretch of concrete jersey barriers on either side of us, and the block of traffic we were moving with included dozens of semi tractor trailer trucks which were moving at 70-100 mph. No fun.
Max and I split the driving up, and whenever he was behind the wheel, I had the camera in hand and set up for high speed captures. The shots in today’s post are “snapshots” randomly captured along the route, rather than composed photos.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a few spots along the Pennsylvania Turnpike where they just dug out a tunnel going through the base of a mountain rather than routing the road over it. I doubt there’s ever been anyone more qualified to do this sort of thing than mid 20th century Pennsylvanians, given their history in the mining industry. About a mile in advance of these tunnels, you start seeing signs telling drivers to remove their sunglasses and turn on their headlights. That’s how long these tunnels are.
Saying that, it’s really something when you exit one and “boom” – there’s a valley with heavily wooded slopes leading into farmland. Beautiful sights.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Oddly, we didn’t see too much of this sort of thing. The fellow who committed one of his fields to free advertising for a NYC Real Estate huckster’s political ambition – pictured above – seemed to have a property bisected by the highway. On the other side of the road was a decrepit semi trailer which had a hand painted “Trump” logo which was accompanied by the screed “God. Guns. No Socialism.”
This of course, pissed me off. There is no business sector in these United States more dependent on “socialism” than farming. There’s tax benefits, direct handouts of money and supplies, oversight, price controls… Honestly…
Whatever, opinions are like assholes, everyone’s got one and I’m not interested in seeing or hearing about anyone else’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the day wore on, we passed through Pennsylvania’s Capitol Harrisburg and the very rural central section of the state that’s referred to as “Pennsyltucky.” I had one of my biannual McDonald’s double cheeseburgers in this section, and killed a couple of dozen Spotted Lanternflies while we were gassing up the car. Apparently, Harrisburg is the national “ground zero” for this invasive species’ infestation.
Soon, we were hurtling along at 70 mph again, heading towards the Atlantic coast of America, and the archipelago Megalopolis which squats rudely along its edge against the ocean.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was actually surprised at how many horses I saw. I mean, I wasn’t expecting not to see livestock, but usually it’s cows or pigs or maybe sheep. Horses.
My pal Max handled the drive from Harrisburg to New Jersey’s Allentown. From there, I took over the wheel and dealt with the maddening set of pinch point barriers that multiply and fester as you get closer and closer to NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The one above is the last shot from this excursion. Somewhere in the blue mountains, which are, as you can see – actually kind of blue.
Something different tomorrow, 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.
over running
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My most recent trip to Pittsburgh ended with a boat tour at sunset, one offered by the Gateway Clipper outfit which operates out of a dock on the south side of the Monongahela River. Truth be told, one was rather excited to exercise his hand held night shooting skills.
Haven’t had too much of a chance to do this lately, what with all the tumult associated with preparing to move out of NYC and to this amazing City called Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself descended behind… Ohio… a few lens swaps were required. The trusty 25-105 zoom lens went into the bag, and the 85mm and 35mm primes came out.
The photographic situation and circumstance is difficult – you’re on a moving boat, and everything around you is either clad in deep shadow or brightly illuminated by artificial light. Sometimes, it’s both.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, unlike NYC, Pittsburgh still uses old school sodium lamps for their street lighting. NYC uses modern LED luminaires. The LED’s cast a cold blue glow whereas the sodium ones emanate w warm yellow/orange light.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Gateway Clipper ride is about an hour in length, and is narrated by a tour guide. The boat itself has a bar onboard, but I wasn’t at all interested in libation. Truth be told, I was actually perspiring a bit as I was hard at work. Typically, I move about when onboard a boat, jotting from bow to stern, and port to starboard frequently.
Got to make the most of your investments, when you’ve actually paid for a ticket.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above is one I dearly wish that I had the zoom lens on for, but it was a “worst case scenario” kind of subject. A fast moving freight train, backlit by very bright and strongly colored lights, seen from onboard a moving boat.
I keep on telling myself that there will be all the time in the world, starting next year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s downtown Pittsburgh, as seen from the confluence point of the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny Rivers.
For a mega massive panorama showing this scene with both the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers – click here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We headed back to dock and my pal Max and I summoned a ride back to the AirBNB we were staying at. While waiting for the car, we noticed several people milling about who looked like super heros. Turns out that the local Marriot Hotel was hosting a bodybuilders convention over the weekend and a group of very fit people were flexing about.
It was time to pack up though, the next day would see us returning to NYC, and a long drive awaited us.
“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 