Author Archive
disconcertingly adumbrated
How ghastly, it’s Tuesday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’re reading this, a humble narrator is either on his way to Manhattan for his second vaccine shot, or returning from that accursed island all juiced up with the stuff. Other than a bizarre desire to stand in front of an operating microwave oven while browsing Amazon for the latest model of X-Box, I didn’t have any side effects from the first shot. I’m told that the second shot is a different circumstance, but life is all about the little surprises and unexpected moments, ain’t it?
A big box store of some kind is meant to be occurring fairly soon nearby the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek here in Long Island City, so the demolition crews have rolled through recently. This has luckily opened up a point of view for the venerable Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant across the water in Greenpoint, so hooray.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Vaccinated Mitch, I would suggest, is going to be behaving like the proverbial bat let out of hell. I’ve got plans, I tell you! To start, I will be switching my schedule around and leaving HQ while the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself is bobbing about in the vault above. Never thought I’d look forward to riding the subway, but there’s that too. I want to do some of the tourist things before they all start to reappear this summer – the Empire State Building and Hudson Yards observation decks, CircleLine, even ride on one of those goofy double decker buses. A Pentagenarian Superman invulnerable to the plague, armed with a camera, me.
First thing I’m doing is actually going to involve trying to burn off these pandemic pounds I’ve accumulated. Fat as a house, I am, which is dangerous. First, I’m going to walk all of the East River Bridges back and forth to the City, then work my way out to the edges of the City – Arthur Kill, Jamaica Bay, maybe even visit that legendary mystery called the Bronx. My ignorance of the Bronx has been carefully cultivated, and I’ve gone out of my way over the last fifteen years to pay no attention whatsoever when it was discussed in my presence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has an odd habit of saving things for some future infirmity or other unfortunate circumstance. There’s a couple of books Our Lady of the Pentacle has been recommending to me for the entire span of our relationship, which I’m saving for a broken leg or similar interval. Same thing goes for the “Battlestar Galactica” remake from a few years ago, and the entire Borough of the Bronx.
What I’m really, really, looking forward to is pointing the camera at different things which aren’t strictly within walking distance of Astoria. I’m proud of the fact that I kept on shooting, and managed to keep y’all somewhat entertained during this interval. Saying that, the depths of my boredom and desire to see new or novel things have seldom been deeper.
Once more unto the breech…
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, March 22nd. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
steaming planet
With dread do I pronounce this day as being a Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered during the second week of February, on a brutally cold night in Long Island City. One had geared up in response to the wind and cold, as well as the crunchy ice coating the sidewalks and roadways. Gearing up – for the curious – takes the form of thermal long underwear and a pair of walking boots that sport hard plastic cleats on their soles, in addition to the usual “Mitch suit” and ubiquitously filthy black raincoat. I’ve also got a snazzy new pair of gloves which allow for the interaction with and usage of touch screens.
The shot above, depicting an Amtrak holding area at Sunnyside Yards here in LIC, is one of the first ones cracked out with the third member of my new trinity of lenses for the Canon RF Mount on the EOS R6, specifically an 85mm f2 prime lens. I tell you, the amount of stress and effort that went into choosing the new lens kit was immense, but I think that I’ve made the right choices – from a budget versus technological point of view. There’s a few mouth watering lenses that Canon offers for this new camera mount of theirs, but you’d be able to put a down payment on a decent automobile for what they’re asking for them. In a couple of years when there’s a used lens ecosystem, maybe, but right now… no way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned several times over the years, if you want to figure out which buildings in your neighborhood are owned by NYC, wait until it snows. The ones that don’t make any attempt to shovel their sidewalks are going to end up being City owned. Even abandoned or “awaiting demolition” buildings get shoveled somehow, but City properties don’t. That’s what I call “political privilege” at work right there, boy.
As I was saying to a friend the other day – Coke and Pepsi are fundamentally the same thing – carbonated sugar water or “soda.” Doesn’t matter if you like the one in the red can or the blue can, soda is pretty unhealthy and the people who fill and sell these cans don’t care about you, they just want to sell more of the stuff. They’re not going to do one little thing to let you know about green cans like 7Up and Ginger Ale, or healthier choices like Seltzer unless they’re filling those cans or bottles too. Want to read that as a metaphor for politics, or a caution about the privilege of politicians? That’s on you, girl.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My wandering through the cold wastes found me, as usual, nearby the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek and at the former headquarters of Irving Subway Grate. The Lyft ride share outfit has recently moved into a factory building nearby, and stout gates have been erected around the entire Irving Campus. A demolition project is underway on the two industrial building ruins on the property. The office building on the property has become a hive for raccoons in recent years, and there are apparently a couple of burst water pipes within, which created a fairly magnificent ice sculpture.
More tomorrow.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, March 22nd. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
last void
A nightmare to some, Shabbos to others, Friday has come.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yup, fence holes day! As mentioned last week, several new apertures in the fence lines around Sunnyside Yards have appeared during the Annum Pandemicum and a humble narrator has been assiduously cataloguing and exploiting them. Pictured above is a Long Island Railroad trainset heading towards Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another Long Island Railroad train, this one heading away from an accursed island called Manhattan, and photographed from a fence hole I call “the old reliable.” Truth be told, the old reliable almost caused a case of frostbite for me when shooting this. There was a steady 10-15 mph wind, and given that the old reliable is a 3 inch square hole found in the middle of a large steel plate, all that wind pressure was focusing through it like a laser.
Good news is that all that air pressure really cleaned up the lens, blowing any and all dust off the glass. Multi task, motherflowers, multi task.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At Sunnyside Yards; you will commonly see Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, and as pictured above – Amtrak rolling stock. Amtrak has their Acela high speed service here too, but the fence holes surrounding that service’s facilities are difficult to work with. One can hope that somewhere down the line they’ll need to pop a hole in one of the fences and… what dreams may come, huh?
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, March 15th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
undreamed of
It’s called Thursday, if you’re bold enough to speak its name.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s Gas Station day at Newtown Pentacle. The one above is the first thing you see when entering Long Island City after crossing Newtown Creek on the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge and it’s in the Blissville neighborhood. Remember the long gas lines after Hurricane Sandy back in 2012? They sure do at this gas station, as a 2012 customer lost their patience when the pumps got shut off, produced a firearm and proceeded to murder somebody who worked here. I think there’s different owners for the franchise location, and if memory serves – I don’t think it used to be a Gulf filling station. Might have been a Sunoco. Have to look in my archives.
Motherflowers. People walk around like they’re safe or something… what this City really needs is a good plague… oh… whoopsies…
Wonder how many of the other things we used to say while milling about in front of CBGB’s will come true someday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One hasn’t got a murder story to tell about this gas station, found at the corner of 49th and Greenpoint Avenues at the risible border of Blissville and Sunnyside, nearby the Long Island Expressway. A Mobil franchised filling station, this is a deucedly difficult setup to photograph. Something about the contrasty lighting and “red, white, and blue” neon brand colors necessitates a complicated and somewhat contradictory exposure triangle for the capture.
49th Avenue proceeds in a generally westerly direction, transversing from the altitudinal prominence of Laurel Hill, which Greenpoint Avenue rides along and Calvary Cemetery sits atop. 49th Avenue crosses Van Dam Street, and in doing so transmogrifies into Hunters Point Avenue shortly before crossing the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, and then regains it’s numerical dub at 21st street nearby the 7 train station.
It’s all very complicated.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When you start with homicide, that’s all people want to hear about. This Sunnyside/LIC gas station on Queens Boulevard also sports a car wash, but I don’t have any tales of death or dismemberment associated with it in my quiver.
Another one of the weighty questions I’ve got about Queens is “where does LIC stop and Sunnyside begin”? I kind of place “proper” Sunnyside at no farther west than 36th or 37th street along Queens Blvd. If you’re south of Queens Blvd., however, Sunnyside continues all the way to the LIE. The eastern border is definitely Woodside Avenue/58th street, and Northern Blvd. provides another hard border for the area. Saying that, I consider Northern Blvd. to be an “LIC corridor” just like Skillman Avenue west of 39th street is, all the way from 31st street to Broadway.
Of course, any neighborhood in Queens whose zip code starts with a “111” is part of the historic municipality of Long Island City, which actually includes all of Astoria and most of Sunnyside – or at least the 11104 part of it.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, March 15th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
designs graven
Wednesday is a shocking realization, to some.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My beloved Creek. Unfortunate truths for the wandering mendicant and itinerant photographer include the fact that if you want to accomplish a shot of something you have to go get it, and the weather be damned. That’s why I often find myself out in storms, heat waves, or cold snaps. Luckily, I’ve learned how to be prepared for the inclement. On the evening revolving about getting the shot above, it had just finished snowing and the air temperature was in the high 20’s. It was also fairly windy, and quite uncomfortable despite my having worn several layers of insulating garments beneath the filthy black raincoat.
Truth be told, what lured me out of HQ was the presence of snow on the ground, and the visual possibilities thereof. Part of my governance, philosophy wise, is to only shoot things as I encounter them. No set ups, no lights, no “move it a few inches into frame” or any other alteration to circumstance is allowed. Trust in the Newtown Creek and especially the Borough of Queens, they’ll show you something interesting every time.
Of course, on this particular evening I was crossing Newtown Creek on the Kosciuszcko Bridge and heading into Brooklyn – Greenpoint specifically.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Graffiti truck is still sitting down there, in Greenpoint, so at least there’s some consistency left in this world. One thing about smashing about in industrial zones in the dead of night is that you want to pick your path carefully. Twist your ankle or fall in a hole on a Friday night, it won’t be until early Monday morning that somebody shows up and notices you. When snow is fresh and ice has newly formed, I will often leave the house with a cane in hand. The third point of contact with the ground changes your walking equation when it’s slippery.
Ideally, when my physical degeneracy and advancing age have robbed me of such mobility, I’d like to ride around in something resembling the Martian Tripods from Wells’ War of the Worlds. Scaled down to a two seater, my commuter tripod would be referred to as the “mobile oppression platform” and be street legal to park in front of HQ. Wait till the bike people see the tripods, huh?
Two wheels good, four wheels bad, but what’s best is three legs with a heat ray that can melt armored vehicles on the ground and cook war planes out of the sky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One debarked the Kosciuszcko Bridge, found a semi private spot to release some water back into the environment which I had been internally filtering since leaving Astoria, and looped around to the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge crossing of Newtown Creek about 3/4 of a mile west of the larger Kosciuszcko. One thing about the Annum Pandemicum which is seldom commented upon, except by me seemingly, is the nagging problem of human biology versus these sanitarian prophylaxis rules. Where do you piss?
As a bloke, this isn’t too much of an issue for me. There’s always a couple of trucks you can find some temporary privacy between. The old system, wherein you’d walk into a diner or something and order a cuppa joe and ask to use the terlet doesn’t exist anymore due to the COVID rules.
Me? I’ve been painting the town yellow for the last year. You?
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, March 15th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
