Archive for the ‘Astoria’ Category
poignant abhorrence
It’s inevitable. Monday is here again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My kit continues to evolve, and I’ve spent some of the cash which I’ve been squirreling away for the last year and change on a new camera – the Canon EOS R6 mirrorless model. One has been wanting to upgrade the camera for a while now, as my old Canon 7D’s limits have long been explored. The new camera is fairly amazing, given that its combination of a full frame sensor, and “in body image stabilization” or “IBIS,” allows one to pull off handheld shots which would have required a tripod with the older model. As you do with a new camera, I’ve been shooting and shooting.
These shots are amongst the first I cracked out with the thing, literally the day I got it. The entire day I received the thing was spent consuming the manual, which is oddly something most people don’t do. Reading the manual, I mean. Am I the only person who does this? Talking to others, it seems that I am.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of these shots were gathered in fairly close proximity to HQ here in Astoria, and specifically composed for the somewhat difficult capture of their subject matter. Very bright and very dark in the same frame, moving objects, small contrasty detail, etc.
In the couple of weeks since, one has been on a holy tear around Western Queens, wandering about in the night. Disturbingly, one of the things I can report to you is that things have gotten a bit mean out there – it’s been sort of “crimey” in a manner I haven’t seen since the early 1990’s. There were a couple of close calls in the industrial zone over in LIC recently, wherein encounters with denizens of the street could have gone badly were I not as fully aware of my surroundings as I continually am. During the end of the summer and most of the autumn, I’ve had my headphones stuck in my ears while listening to the usual potpourri of podcasts, audiobooks, and music. For the last few weeks, not so much, as I need all of my early warning systems to be operating at defcon 3 levels.
A bit of 1980’s advice for the coming interval is “be aware, be paranoid.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the neat features on the R6 is a flip out screen which is attached to the camera body on a pivot. A touch screen, I’m able to control camera functions using it, and when the gizmo is up on a tripod I don’t have to contort my posture to see what I’m doing in the dark. This also allows me to achieve shot angles which formerly required me to lie down on the sidewalk or stand on something.
It’s been a lot of fun working out how to operate the thing over the last couple of weeks, and one has been on an absolute tear with it. Unfortunately, one feature on the thing I really haven’t been able to test is it’s revolutionary eye tracking autofocus mode, since I’m avoiding human contact as much as possible right now.
Cooties.
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, November 30th. 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.
dreaded murmur
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happy Thanksgiving week, which I’m taking off. Single image posts will greet you between now and Monday the 30th of November. I’ll be out taking pictures, in between dodging microbiotal clouds of expirant and looking over my shoulders for other sources of existential danger.
Today’s photo depicts the intersection of Steinway/39th st. (originally Harold Avenue) and Northern Boulevard (originally Jackson Avenue) one recent night, a crossroads right at the border of Astoria and Sunnyside.
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, November 23rd. 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.
leer evilly
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Prior to writing this post, a humble narrator trimmed his fingernails. It made me curious, so after a bit of investigation it turns out that your fingernails (which grow at a far more rapid rate than toe nails, according to medical science) advance from the cuticle at an average rate of some 0.14 inches a month. A quick bit of calculation thereby reveals that I’ve likely grown and discarded just under seven and half feet of fingernail over the five and change decades I’ve been alive. It also seems that nail clippings can serve as important biometric markers and a laboratory analysis of them can help to determine several things about your diet, current homeostasis, overall metabolism, and identifying any particular poison which you might be environmentally accumulating.
What can I tell you, I’m the curious type. Ever wonder about how many yards of hair you’ve chopped off over the years? Gallons of piss, pounds of poop, dollops of snot? I have. These are the sort of subjects I’ll often explore when walking the camera around in the dead of night.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Biologic metrics are fascinating. Of late, I’ve been obsessed with the step counter app on my phone, which has supplied me with a series of benchmarks for how far and fast I’m moving about. On the particular night which these shots were gathered, for instance, in a roughly three hour interval, some 10,000 individual steps were recorded. That equates to about 4.7 miles, meaning I was scuttling along at roughly 1.5 miles per hour. That’s half of what’s considered to be average human walking speed, but don’t forget that I had to keep on stopping to obsessively capture pictures of the visual splendors presented by Western Queens.
This was one of my “short walks” incidentally, which I commit to at least twice a week. Long walks are 10-15 miles and take all damn night, also twice a week. I’ve got a very tidy “every other day kind of thing” going on these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Biometrics actually underlie a lot of the world, if you notice the details. There’s a universe of calculation that goes into the rise and run of staircases, for instance. Average servings in a restaurant, the size and shape of drinking glasses, even the amount of space allotted to an individual rider on the subway is calculated (MTA has told me that it’s one square horizontal meter, which is projected upwards as a two cubic meter box). All of these calculations are regionally specific, incidentally. European and American designers of public space have historically had to compensate for higher average body weights and size than their counterparts in South and East Asia. If you wear jeans with a waist size over 34 inches, I’m told you’re going to have a hard time buying clothes in Japan or Viet Nam.
I wish I had been saving all of those nail clippings over the years, just to be prepared for any possibility of a Ragnarok situation involving flooding, as I’d have a personal Naglfar to float away from trouble.
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, November 9th. 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.
atomic weight
Thursday’s, right?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That photo up there was surprisingly difficult to capture, but not because of any technical or camera related issue. Instead, it was the wind. The tripod I use was chosen for its “carry-ability” and beat out several other contenders for my hard earned cash in terms of its weight. That’s actually where it’s fatal flaw manifests – it’s quite light. Normally, this isn’t much of an issue, but at Hells Gate the other night, steady winds were introducing vibration into the setup and blurring the shot. A “proper” tripod would weigh four or five times what mine does (I have two of those, which get left at home) but then you have a ten and change pound pile of metal you’re carrying. Saying that – a heavier tripod would have locked down to the ground, gravity wise, and cancelled out the wind effect somewhat.
When you walk miles and miles, as I do, getting even a half pound out of your camera bag is a victory. Remember, I’ve been using two tiny prime lenses for the last year almost exclusively. The heavy “glass” zoom lenses have been siting in a camera bag for most of the pandemic, a habit I got into a year ago when I broke my big toe.
F11, ISO 200, 30 seconds – that’s the exposure triangle formula for this one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just because the prime lenses are low in weight doesn’t mean they’re not capable devices. I continue to be staggered at just how good Canon’s 24mm pancake lens is. It can be a bit wonky on autofocus in low light, but there’s ways around that. The downed tree in the shot above was barely visible with the naked eye due to it being in shadow, but a quick bit of flashlight work allowed the 24mm enough light to lock onto it and then it was just a matter of figuring out the right exposure.
For you photographers out there – f4 at ISO 200, 25 seconds. The only blur in the shot was introduced by the wind wobbling the branches about. The 24mm is razor sharp at f4, which I can’t say about my far more expensive and heavy zoom lenses.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Citibike racks placed on the sidewalk, as I’ve found out, are tantamount to opening a Nazi death camp for the bicycle people. They want the racks placed on the street pavement, which has absolutely nothing to do with their political campaign to reduce the number of free parking spots for cars in NYC. The rack pictured above, for instance, translates to around five parking spots. Ideological concerns trump everything else for that crowd, including the ultra mundane set of rules and laws which both the Citibike and NYC DOT people must oblige.
I’m told by the powers that be that the racks are placed where they are (sidewalk versus street) in response to the needs of emergency vehicles, underground and overhead utilities, and the turning radiuses of mass transit vehicles like buses.
Since I’m doing this today – f4, ISO 100, 2.5 seconds.
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, November 2nd. 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.
stolen fearfully
An Astoria Wednesday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m told that the construction chaos encountered at the corners surrounding the intersection of Astoria Boulevard and 31st street will be over soon, so one decided to pop over there the other night to get a few shots. This construction revolves around the renovations of the elevated subway station above, and the installation of elevators which connect to the subway station platform.
This is – perhaps – one of the most pedestrian unfriendly spots in all of Queens, and that’s saying something. I’ve always pointed a finger at the confluence of Northern and Astoria Blvd.’s over in Flushing as being one of the spots where you’d suddenly find yourself walking on the shoulder of a highway off ramp, but wow – do I hate crossing the street here. Especially so while wearing a pandemic mask that causes my glasses to fog up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Local traffic off ramps from the Triborough Bridge feed a never ending flow of automobiles and trucks onto Hoyt Avenue, which proceeds to feed east bound traffic onto Astoria Blvd. Support columns for the elevated tracks above provide a series of obstacles for driver and pedestrian alike. There’s a lot of light bouncing around under the elevated – vehicular headlights, traffic signals, street lighting – all competing for your attention as try to negotiate the less than obvious pathways you’re meant to walk through. Luckily, most of the traffic coming off of Triborough seems to be flowing onto the ramps leading down to the Grand Central Parkway trench which divides Astoria into two neighborhoods.
I wasn’t planning on doing some epic analysis on this particular evening, rather I was heading towards the Hell Gate section of the East River and mighty Triborough.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned above, I’ve been told that the MTA construction project is about to start winding down, but I’m ignorant as to that timeline. One positive thing about all of these lovely barriers and scaffolding is that it provides a vouchsafe pedestrian space down here where you are securely isolated from traffic. There’s also a lot of primary colors from the hot side of the color wheel, so it makes for nice photos.
Tomorrow, what I saw in the wind and cold at Hells Gate.
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, November 2nd. 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 