Archive for the ‘DUKBO’ Category
nimbus over
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mentioned yesterday, the building pictured above sits on the site of the first large scale petroleum refinery in the United States. It later became known as the Standard Oil Queens County Oil Works, but the original 1854 facility and its founder are described in this post from 2014.
Truth be told, on this particular evening, I wasn’t in “history” mode, instead I was focused in on taking pretty pictures of ugly things.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot looks north, across Newtown Creek and at Queens, along the line which the Brooklyn Queens Expressway travels along between LIC’s Blissville section on the left, and Maspeth’s “West Maspeth” section on the right.
The BQE is sited along what was formerly (1870-1898) the legal line between the municipality of Long Island City and Newtown’s Village of Maspeth. Maybe it was already the “Town of Maspeth” back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries… something I’m not sure of, speaking in a purely calendrical manner.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back on the walkway of the Kosciuszcko Bridge, and once again setup with the tripod and all the other gear, I got busy.
You have never ending vibration problems up there, due to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway traffic running behind you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You can really feel it when a heavy truck rolls by at speed up there, and mid span there’s a discernible flex when one shouts by. It’s not at all disconcerting, but it’s a factor if you’re doing a longish exposure up there as the vibration can transmit up the tripod and shake the camera.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For some reason… ahem… the bridge’s fences offer apertures just big enough for me to slide my favorite lens through… ahem…
There’s a trick to shooting up here which revolves around making sure that neither the tripod legs nor the lens are making the slightest physical contact with the fence, as it transmits the traffic vibration.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Satisfied that I had actually made it worth getting up that morning by doing something useful and fun, I packed up the bag and headed back to HQ.
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.
glistening with
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On March 30th, a Wednesday which also happened to be the anniversary of the Queensboro Bridge opening in 1909, a humble narrator scuttled over to the Koscisuzcko Bridge from Astoria hoping to encounter a nice sunset over the fabulous Newtown Creek.
High clouds equal a fifty/fifty chance of a light show at sunset, so I decided to throw the dice.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had planned in a bit of buffer time for this effort, and I had a couple of hours to wander around and see what I could see.
Looking down from on high at the ragged coastline of the Borough of Queens, in the shot above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More of that ragged coastline, pictured is the Queens landing of the former Penny Bridge. There also used to be a Long Island Railroad stop down there.
Heading south on the K-bridge, one crossed the line into Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a couple of large waste transfer stations down there, and the managers of the one pictured above never fail to hassle me when I’m taking pictures of them on the street. Ever since the walkway on the bridge has been open, I now make it a point of cracking put a few exposures.
Humps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down under the Kosciuszko Bridge Onramp in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section, this burned out semi truck was noticed.
I thrive on other people’s misfortunes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the newish “Under the K bridge park” in Greenpoint, and looking towards Queens at the site of the first large scale petroleum refinery in the entire country over in Queens’ Blissville section, and across the fabulous Newtown Creek.
When the sky started getting colorful, I got ready to head back to a point of elevation on the walkway above.
“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.
langorously under
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My long walk on March 14th continued along Newtown Creek, and I visited all of favorite places west of 48th street. Vainglorious thoughts cause me to refer to my circumlocutions of the Newtown Creek as a “patrol.” Irregular in schedule, it seems that about every six weeks or so, I walk the entire shoreline of the waterway, and have done so for nearly fifteen years now.
I really should have gotten into building model airplanes or something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dark and lonely is the way I like it. Sure, there are passing cars and trucks, but I’m the only pedestrian usually. It’s actually a bit surreal, truth be told. Moving about in the veritable geographic center of NYC, and more often than not – complete and utter solitude.
It’s been a panacea during the pandemic, I tell’s ya.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I grew up without siblings, so being alone is normal for me. Unfortunately, what’s going through my mind during these long walks is a non stop review of all of my failings. I really work myself over psychologically during these long walks. Why? Well, even if your Jewish mother is dead, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do to yourself what she used to do and rake yourself over the coals for every mistake you’ve ever made dating back to potty training.
A particular quirk of mine involves the way my memory works. I don’t remember anything good that I’ve done or said, instead the milestones in my psychological roadmap revolve around failure.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sleights or arguments – those stick around. Complimentary relationships or personal victories are soon forgotten. I’ve gotten better about this stuff as I’ve gotten older, but in my late 20’s and early 30’s it was crippling to exist behind these eyes and between the ears. On this particular walk, I was processing painful memories retained from when I was in Junior High School. Pedantic, huh?
For the curious – I remember being embarrassed, and hoping that nobody who has ever met me as an adult would find out about that time in 7th grade when I decided to wear a pair of “Tale Lord” jeans to school and was roundly mocked for months about it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, I was reminded by a cousin of the great esteem one used to espouse for the band “U2,” in my senior year of high school. Given that I barely listen to that outfit anymore, but still stand behind the statement that the albums “Boy” and “War” were pretty great, I grew embarrassed about that too. Working myself over about all of the stupid things I’ve said and thought over the years…
Part of this thought process revolves around the aging process. We are all different people at different times in our lives, and the trick is to accept that as the years stack up that you’ve evolved – hopefully. That trick eludes me as – since mentioned – my focus and lattice of memories are built on a foundation of professional and personal mistakes, and saying exactly the wrong thing at exactly the right time. My internal Jewish Mother will never let me forget about failures.
You’re supposed to succeed, what do you want, a medal? Mr. Big Shot, remember the time you shit your pants when you were at cousin Nancy’s first wedding in Washington when you were 4? Your father was so embarrassed he had indigestion for the entire Carter administration. What about the time you…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying all that, I positively feed upon all of this ennui. Wouldn’t do it to myself if it didn’t have some positive effect, right? Maybe it’s why I work so hard and so often. Why I strive to try and not be a Dick.
Tomorrow – something completely different, 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.
beetling precipice
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
God, I love the loneliness of it all. I’ve got a speech I make occasionally – one usually offered when somebody asks about how I got involved with the whole Newtown Creek thing. The best part of the speech is when I say “and just like every other piece of wind blown trash in New York City, I found myself on the shorelines of Newtown Creek.” It sounds good, and makes for a good quote that a journalist can use. If you don’t give them a quote to take back to the office, they’ll use something you don’t want them to.
Industrial Maspeth is famously my happy place, where I go when I want to be by myself. Unfortunately that’s changed during the pandemic months, as Industrial Maspeth has become quite a busy place again. Different sort of busy than the old days, but there are concurrences between now and then.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last mile shipping industry – UPS, FedEx, and the Amazon people – have quietly expanded their operations – massively – during the blitzkrieg of bad news we’ve all experienced over the last couple of years. There’s a huge industrial population of package sorters, package loaders and unloaders, road truck drivers and local delivery truck drivers who congeal around the various shipping facilities in Maspeth. Amazon is building a Taj Mahal sized shipping facility on Grand Avenue on what used to be the campus of Star Corrugated Box.
This population of people working “in the zone” have brought all sorts of things along with them to my beloved Creek. Five years ago, this happy place of mine was a post industrial wasteland which people drove through and seldom stopped in. In the last couple of years, as this new group of workers have filled in; I’ve seen a prostitution racket using the LIRR tracks for their assignations, lots and lots of druggery, and of late a while new racket.
Kids, as in late teen and early twenties, are riding into the shipping warehouses on delivery bikes and raiding the baskets of packages awaiting their temporary destination on the local delivery van. Two man teams, arranged like Scythian Archers with one facing backwards, swipe stuff in boxes and then tear ass away from the scene as fast as the bike will go. The various teams communicate with other using cell phones.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, where are the photos of that, Mr. Wind Blown Trash Newtown Creek? Well, there are certain things which you don’t want to be noticed noticing when you’re alone and on foot at night in Industrial Maspeth, I tell’s you.
Street level trouble is one thing – a weird encounter with a homeless guy, or a group of menacing teenagers nearing – but there’s a higher level of sinister which you just don’t want to be anywhere adjacent to around these parts. Notably, you don’t want to be a witness when somebody is in the early stages of organizing their crime. Careful out there, peeps.
“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.
devoured avidly
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A long walk to my happy place – Industrial Maspeth – resulted in a humble narrator returning to HQ with several interesting shots on the camera’s memory card. The Kosciuszcko Bridge is all lit up like a Greek coffee shop these days, with outré LED lights that cast a weird luminescence on the surrounding landscape and upon the lugubrious Newtown Creek that it spans.
I’ve mentioned a landscape photography technique called “focus stacking” in the past. You shoot multiple exposures of the same scene, while moving the focus point of the lens about. This gives you a series of “tack sharp” foreground, middle ground, and infinity point images which are then combined into one shot during the developing process. The shot above isn’t one of these, as a note, it’s just a “normal” exposure.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What I’ve noticed, however, when gathering images for these “focus stacking” images, is that if the Kosciuszcko Bridge is going through its lighting sequence while you’re shooting the photo sequence, the changes to hue and color offered by the bridge end up becoming part of the final image. Like many of these sorts of discoveries, it became apparent to me when a sunset focus stacking shot of the Kosciuszcko Bridge formed a rainbow. The image was weird, as it wasn’t intentionally shot that way, but one said “hmmm.”
Hence, the focus stacking photos above and below, wherein I timed the shutter to coincide with the bridge’s lighting package cycling through reds and purples. I was also trying to be conscious of maintaining some texture in the water, rather than letting it turn into a glassy mirror as in the shot below.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These were shot from the bulkheads of what was once called Phelps Dodge, in Maspeth. I’ve shown you the Hindu god statue that’s secreted away in the piles of this section of Newtown Creek in the past.
What I’m up to in these shots, experimentally speaking, is turning focus stacking into time stacking.
“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 