Archive for the ‘East River’ Category
treasure house
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well… this is it. The shots from my last ride on the NYC Ferry, and the literal sunset for my interval shooting NY Harbor. It’s hard not to feel all choked up, as the harbor has been at the literal center of my life for decades. The tugboats, the bridges, Fireboats, the… Creek.
Usually, when I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed or emotional, I’ll put on some appropriate music to lighten my mood.
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eric Burdon often finds himself in heavy rotation on my various playlists, at least the playlists that don’t involve Cthulhu. Burdon’s talents are many, and I would urge you to particularly seek out his collaborations with LA’s Funk outfit “War.” The tune below could be used as the theme music playing over a montage sequence of me packing boxes and driving back and forth to Pittsburgh.
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
Astoria gave birth to one of my favorite hardcore punk bands, Murphy’s Law (actually, the Dutch Kills hood did, but close enough.)
“Pit Bulls, Beer, and herb – aww right!” This does kind of sum up the experience of living in Astoria. Really, Astoria smells like a combination of college and burning brake pads.
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
LA punk band Fear are intentionally offensive, and in the modern era their albums would likely be considered a hate crime by either the overly sensitive “Ute’s” or the deeply offended “Normals.”
Great live band, Fear was. Saw them at cb’s a bunch. The only thing that offends me, really, are people who are easily offended.
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of my little open secrets was that before each and every tour, I would listen to two particular songs on my headphones at top volume, in order to get “amped.” The Dropkick Murphys “Bastards on Parade” – below – is one of them.
In many ways, my entire philosophy is elucidated in this song.
The other song, as in the other one that I listened to right before every boat or walking tour, is this one.
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
And so, at last, my season on NY Harbor came to an end. I still had another destination to go to on this particular evening, but this was it for NY Harbor.
As far as what it’s felt like to be in the skin I’m in, quitting and abandoning everything I’ve worked to become or be, while throwing away half of my worldly possessions, all in pursuance of starting over in a new City while in my middle 50’s – how does that feel?
well…
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bodily dislodgement
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
October 21st, and I was continuing my exploration of a few spots in College Point and Whitestone which seemed promising. These were located during a session I spent with Google Maps’ street view feature. The 1961 Throgs Neck Bridge is what it depicts. The Google map said I was in a dog park, but it was actually just a parking lot alongside a parkway.
The hour was growing a bit late, and plans to meet Our Lady of the Pentacle back in Astoria were in the offing, so I packed up my troubles in the old kit bag. Yes, I did, indeed, “smile, smile, smile.”
For those of you under the age of 1,000, that’s a jokey reference to this song.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
October 22nd saw me in Flushing, at the Queens Botanical Garden.
There were pumpkins.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
October 25th and I was scheduled to spend a day with one of my closest friends driving around Southern Brooklyn, but it was very foggy when I left the house about 8:30 a.m. My ultimate meetup destination was in Park Slope, and there’s an obvious way to get there by car from Astoria, one which unfortunately involves sitting in a lot of Manhattan bound traffic on a certain expressway that connects Brooklyn and Queens.
I decided to go there via the less obvious but more interesting route, by driving to Ridgewood and then hanging a right and then a left or two in Bushwick and then proceeding through that central part of Brooklyn which nobody ever talks about these days. Along my way to the first right in Ridgewood, I crossed Newtown Creek and couldn’t resist a shot or two of the Grand Street Bridge all cloaked up in mist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The new car has a moon roof. I don’t know what the actual difference between a sun roof and a moon roof is, but there you are. As I was driving along, whenever I got stuck at a light, I’d shove the camera up through the moon roof and turn the camera’s LED screen to a convenient angle so I could compose and record a quick shot.
That’s Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza, all fogged up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I did the same thing with the camera and moon roof on my way home. The fog had cleared by the afternoon, and the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself had burst into view. I was driving down Flatbush Avenue, this time headed in the direction of the aforementioned expressway betwixt Brooklyn and Queens.
I’ve been doing this sort of shot a bunch the last couple of weeks, as I’ve been driving a lot since receiving the car. It’s an interesting perspective for me, since the position of the lens to the car’s roof as it stands relative to the ground – if it were “eye level” – would indicate that I’m about six inches taller than I actually am.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An errand got me off the expressway and into the Woodside and Jackson Heights zone, where I had to weave an automotive path through the various “improvements” to traffic flow offered by the City in recent years. While driving down Roosevelt Avenue, a splotch of pigeon scat landed on the hood of my car, and I decided that it would be good idea to close the moon roof.
Hey, they say that’s lucky, having a pigeon poop on you.
“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.
never swerved
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few more shots from the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn in today’s post. As described, this is one of the areas I’ve been avoiding throughout the pandemic months due to population density. During this interval, an enormous real estate feeding frenzy has taken place and the north western section of the ancient neighborhood has been rendered utterly unrecognizable as compared to its former state.
For context, this shot looks across Newtown Creek at the Hunters Point section of Long Island City where a similar frenzy has occurred.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While shooting these, the tug Sea Fox thrust rudely into my point of view, and I just cannot help myself from cracking put a few shots in such circumstance.
I was mainly using two zoom lenses for capturing these images, both of which were outfitted with ND or Neutral Density filters. This sort of filter acts as a sunglass for the lens and offers a great deal of creative control over the final appearance of the photo. This sort of device is critical for challenging environments like the foggy and misty afternoon of August 1st.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The filters also allow me to “slow down” the exposure settings, which is how you get the smoothed out water with a somewhat misty character along its tide line. Surreal, I say, surreal.
There’s a new public space along this waterfront, dubbed the Greenpoint Landing Esplanade, which offers commanding views of the Manhattan skyline and Long Island City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of all the new construction, the one project I find architectural interest in is this pair of cantilevered buildings. The development is called 227 West Street, and those are 30 and 40 story towers. My usual critique of the banal luxury towers in this “zone” sounds like this: glass rhombuses thrust rudely at the sky. This cantilever deal is visually interesting.
Given all of the recent construction in the area, and the huge investments involved from both private and governmental entities, it’s a shame that there’s only one project hereabouts where you say “hey, look at that.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just before the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself descended behind New Jersey, the fog and mist suddenly began to break up and rise into the clouds.
I cracked out a few more exposures with the camera set up for the prior foggy atmospherics and then prepared to move on with the gear set up for handheld “photo walk” mode.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You could actually see the humidity rising up out of Manhattan’s canyons and forming into low clouds.
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.
silly reasons
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A low lying deck of clouds and fog had accompanied the arrival of a cold front in the superheated atmosphere of August 1st. NYC had been in the grip of a heat wave for the week prior, and a second interval of high temperature and humidity was forecast to begin within 24 hours.
I cannot resist a foggy or misty day, as it makes for interesting photography weather.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My strategy for the last few years has been to avoid crowded places where the human infestation is impossible to avoid. Accordingly, while I’ve been avoiding crowds, Greenpoint’s Western shoreline has been transformed by the real estate people.
Honestly, it’s shocking how much has changed here. That’s Commercial Street pictured above, looking west towards Franklin Avenue and the East River. There’s even a new series of waterfront paths and esplanades that have accompanied this new construction. The development scheme is called “Greenpoint Landing.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking across Newtown Creek at Long Island City from one of these new paths, that construction site will be a new hospital. Just kidding, it’s going to be more luxury apartment buildings.
That construction area used to be a thriving Asian supermarket warehousing business, the home of “God’s Love We Deliver” which collected unused restaurant food and redistributed it to the needy, and the garages for NBC Television News’ broadcast vehicle fleet. We need more luxury housing, they say, which will cause the wealthy to move out of tenement buildings and thereby free up those spaces for the less wealthy.
Trickle down real estate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Did you know that the United States destroys millions of gallons of dairy milk annually in order to keep the dairy industry and milk prices from collapsing under their own industriousness and over supply? In light of that, has the price of milk ever gone down in your lifetime, despite the abundance of supply? Just saying.
That’s a new luxury tower rising on the former site of the Jack Frost sugar factory in Queens, right at the intersection of current superfund site Newtown Creek and future superfund site East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s all so depressing.
I should mention that it’s a real pickle capturing this sort of misty and foggy atmosphere, photography wise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every few minutes, a bank of fog would crack open and piss down a few rain drips. Drips, not drops.
Saying that, as I was shooting, it was growing brighter and brighter and a mild bit of breeze began to pop up. More next week, 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.
fumbling in
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
June 3rd saw a humble narrator drawn to Astoria Park by the annual Astoria Carnival. My initial intention was to buy a ticket and ride the Ferris Wheel pictured above in pursuance of capturing an uncommon view of the “zone,” but the high price of the ride coupled with the presence of smudged plexiglass on the cars made me reconsider.
Also, the carnival was positively mobbed with teenagers. I decided discretion wasn’t the better part of valor, and headed down to the waterfront along Shore Boulevard instead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was an overcast and kind of humid day, which usually makes for decent sunsets, so my toes were pointed down at Hells Gate.
Really, that’s what this section of the East River is called.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One set up for landscape shots, with tripod and all the other gear deployed. The last time I was down here, I missed a few shots which just sort of “happened” when the camera was configured thusly, and when preparing for this evening’s activities I had a plan in place for the eventuality reemerging.
You can save a set of camera settings, assigning them to a camera dial position which Canon calls “creative settings.” There’s three of these dial positions available. I had set one up in advance for the circumstance of “I’m set up for long and slow exposure and a tugboat shows up.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thereby, when a tug actually did show up, I was ready for it. It isn’t anything obtuse, these settings, unlike the one I’m noodling for creating time lapses. The latter is something I’m still figuring out, which is why you haven’t seen any of that stuff yet.
Time lapse photography involves taking hundreds of shots at timed intervals and then lining them all up as an animated image. It’s different than video, as it’s a series of stills. This allows me to do what I do during the “developing” of the RAW format image files captured in camera. “Shoot for the edit” is the best advice I can give – other than “show up, do the work, go back home and finish the work.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The “showing up” thing is a big deal for me. Keyboard Warriors abound in the modern world. They’re generally bitchers or moaners, like to describe the way the world used to be or the way it should be, and you don’t normally see them in person until somebody is handing out trophies or the press is there.
Sweat equity is what I’m built around respecting. Show up. Do the work. Go home.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Turns out I was right about the atmospheric conditions producing a pretty spectacular sunset. Speaking of “shoot for the edit,” the shot above is actually three shots. The foreground one received a shallow depth of field and the focal point is right in the middle of Triborough’s reflection. The second shot is focused on the bridge’s Randall’s Island pierage, and the third on the Manhattan shoreline and sky. I changed up the exposure settings for all three as well, and then married them together using an extrapolation of the “focus stacking” technique.
Shoot for the edit.
“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 