Archive for the ‘Long Island City’ Category
moon cast
The center of the earth is the end of the world, if you think about it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Night shooting has been something which I have been working on for the last six months or so. The problem presented by lowered illumination is the need for equipment such as tripods and lighting devices such as flashes. Spontaneous moments of joy such as a train entering the elevated station are denied by such techniques. I’m a handheld kind of guy, I’m afraid, but I hate the distracting presence of color noise and the weird oranges it produces. High ISO night shots are necessarily noisy, but produce weird colors straight out of the camera- especially under the influence of NY Cty street lamps which are kind of yellow anyway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent acquisition of a brighter lens (capable of large apertures) than the one I normally use as my general contractor has aided immensely in the pursuit of working around both my limitations and those of the capture device. The remarkable Sigma 18-35 allows for apertures as bright as 1.8, and is sharper than heck, and it is currently jutting out of the camera obscenely- it’s a very nice piece of glass. The problem which I’ve been trying to solve is a purely digital one presented by the camera software itself, and the incongruities encountered between capturing the image and processing it. I’ve long worked as an advertising photo retoucher, what can I tell you, this is the sort of stuff one ponders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The image, as captured by the camera, is assigned settings whose parameters are determined by an onboard suite of software which assesses and assigns color temperatures when it is written to card. The camera also sets the shot to certain levels of bright and shadow, contrast and saturation. The camera, except in bright sunlight, almost always gets it wrong. Fixing these matters in a compressed format like jpeg is not so easy, so I shoot in raw format which allows me to noodle things around a little bit and get the image a little it closer to what I actually experienced in situ.
What I’ve been working on, feverishly, is using the information typically captured in the raw file (a 16 bit file richer in image data than an 8 bit jpeg) to create a predictive shooting protocol. In English- trying to figure out what the camera sees, and why, and creating a series of moves on the raw image to better represent the real life colors and range of tone which exist within the range of human vision. Nowhere even close yet, but I’m starting to think that the path lays before me.
Here’s a tip- canon’s higher iso settings produce a huge amount of noise on the red and green plates, shifting an image to colder temperatures will reduce the color noise significantly.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday- September 21, 2013
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale now.
Saturday- September 28, 2013
Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.
Saturday – October 19, 2013
The Insalubrious Valley of the Newtown Creek with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale soon.
Sunday- October 20th, 2013
The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek with Brooklyn Brainery- tickets on sale now
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
naturally prompted
Everybody has somewhere they need to go, except me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Traveling back and forth, forth and back, to Greenpoint for meetings regarding my beloved Creek occupies a lot of my time. Along the pathway which leads from blessed Astoria to the “garden spot of the universe” one encounters a whole lot of taxi cabs along the way. Their presence causes shame to blossom within my breast, as the urgency which would justify the usage of such conveyance is not something which currently drives my days. I’ll get there when I arrive, as no matter where you go, there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Complaining about my near daily pilgrimage to Brooklyn is usually greeted with “you should buy a bicycle” by the drinkers of expensive coffee who dwell there. Simply put, I have nothing against cycling. In fact, I used to be a avid bicycle enthusiast, when I lived in my native south east Brooklyn. Problem is that you are moving too fast to actually notice anything, as you are effectively a vehicle. Want to see something cool? You need to walk, not ride. Also, cameras and bicycling do not exactly get along.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve noticed increasing numbers of these new lime green “Boro Cabs” turning up of late around the neighborhoods in Western Queens, by the way. Another change in the landscape, and alteration of the firmament, here in the Newtown Pentacle. Hopefully, this metered fare will alleviate the whole scale rape which local car services perpetrate upon the populace currently. Recently, a private car service driver quoted me a $30 fare to go from Astoria to Meeker Avenue in Greenpoint- a roughly 15 minute trip.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday- September 21, 2013
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale now.
Saturday- September 28, 2013
Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
fiercely and menacingly
Darkness reaches out for darkness.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Negativity and the desolation of loneliness can turn an otherwise wholesome individual into a warped and twisted crone, I believe, one whose daily round is described by ignoring their own condition and place while casting a yellowed eye of jealousy about. Those who seek, those who find, those who discover- these are the ones whom these corrupted individuals find loathsome. They close ranks, proclaim themselves to be an elite, and forget the lessons of history.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Corruption is a term bandied about often in public circles, often referring to a “quid pro quo” between a government representative of some ilk and an illicit activity performed by another which is “swept under the rug” in connection with some sort of monetary or social reward. Religious leaders opine that if one is offered a glass of dirty versus clean water, all will choose the latter, but these people believe in a fairy tale wherein an omnipotent entity waits in the sky to adjudicate over and welcome the dead. What one observes in the daily round however, especially over in the Shining City, has nothing to do with that ideal. There, baser desires and other supernatural imperatives are adhered to.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The self appointed elites of that Shining City reel, for their chosen champion has received a sound thrashing in a recent plebiscite, something that was plain to see coming for anyone who exists in this megalopolis beyond the rivers. Corruption as described above was never the cause of this defeat, instead it was a different form of corruption which damned their eidelon, that of hubris. They have feasted long and well, these elites. Meal time is over, and its time for the rest of us to serve them all a rich and well deserved desert.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday- September 21, 2013
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale now.
Saturday- September 28, 2013
Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
always susceptible
In today’s post, a familiar path.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The triple lobed eye of that thing which cannot possibly exist at the cupola of the sapphire tower, a structure in Long Island City’s Court Square area often referred to as “The Megalith” at this – your Newtown Pentacle – must enjoy one heck of a view. Norse God Odin is meant to have sat upon a “hildskalf” or high seat from which he could see the entire world, he also had two ravens which were sort of like unmanned drones that he sent off on espionage missions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I may have read too much popular literature of the Science Fiction genre, probably, but the notion of armed robots flying, swimming, and tunneling around the world makes me a bit more nervous than two magical ravens serving a one eyed god. Saying that, I for one welcome our new robot (or raven) overlords, and look forward to the glorious efficiencies they will bring. Also- just in case- Hail Ming. Pictured above, the gates of Calvary in late afternoon sun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One feels as if he is in a bit of a rut at the moment, overly familiar with certain corridors connecting familiar destinations. Wanderlust is at the forefront of my ambitions, and I wonder what new frontier there might be out there which I’m not learning about. If you’re not actively learning something new, you’re actively dying inside. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been dead inside for a long time… can’t you smell it?
Upcoming Tours
Saturday- September 21, 2013
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale now.
Saturday- September 28, 2013
Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
broad slab
In today’s post, the night terrors.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Perambulating through the fuligin night, across the cracked ambitions of Western Queens, recently did your humble narrator find his lonely self. A meeting in Brooklyn with the cognoscenti of Greenpoint had run late, and no offers of automotive conveyance were offered, so off I went. The tenebrous shadows ran slickly together as one crossed a bridge spanning a creek and shambled through Blissville and its tenement haunts. Entering the Sunnyside, whose name is but a cruel promise when the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself has slipped below the horizon, one experienced a deep unease and nervous apprehension of a dire near future set in.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Feeling one of my states coming on, with its attendant fugue of panic and self critique, vast mental effort was expended in the name of maintaining my pace lest some creature of the night take notice of my passage. Lurking in fear and scuttling toward Newtown Pentacle HQ, the vulnerability of my position with its attendant possibilities carried me toward that panicked chasm of madness and other worldly horror which, once crossed, destroys all succor and peace. Prescription tablets, ordered by my team of physicians, were hastily consumed. Their influence calmed me, but how can one remain calm in a realm of halogen and sodium shadow as he plunges his feet towards the earth in an uneven and arrhythmic syncopation which might simply be described as “out of step”?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What malign and queerly unicellular thing might lurk and scheme in some nearby warehouse, a sort of life which must at all costs avoid contact with sunlight? Where, in the shadowed obscurity of the buildings all around me, might some criminal organization, cabal of hidden cultists, or conclave of conspiratorial partners gather- or are gathering? Why, asked I, could no one offer me a ride back from Greenpoint, knowing that night time is scary and full of half guessed at horrors which only the sickest minds can perceive? Who, passerby must ask, is that shabby shambling fellow- the mendicant with a camera- taking pictures as he scuttles along in the dark? How, exactly, does a humble narrator always find himself stumbling along in the darkest corridors of a hostile universe?
Upcoming Tours
Saturday- September 21, 2013
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale now.
Saturday- September 28, 2013
Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 