Archive for the ‘Pennsylvania’ Category
Around and around
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When a humble narrator finds himself driving around Pittsburgh, the camera is always sitting on the passenger seat, and is preset for a certain kind of capture. If i find myself sitting at a light, or have pulled over somewhere and am saying ‘wow, lookit that,’ said camera is often rudely thrust through either the Mobile Oppression Platform’s moon roof or the drivers side window so that a quick image gets captured.
Recent endeavor found me heading over to the City’s ‘Oakland’ section, which is when the shot above was captured, depicting the Cathedral of Learning looming over the scene.
I was on my way to attend and observe a meeting of a local transit group, who are headquartered in this section. The irony of driving to a transit group’s meeting is not lost upon me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the event, I was struck by the manse across the street from the meeting’s address. The housing stock in this section of Pittsburgh is astoundingly well wrought. Oakland and neighboring Squirrel Hill, in my experience, are the most ‘urban’ sections of Pittsburgh in terms of overall population density. There are other sections which are also quite ‘urban,’ but these exist within the negative connotation of the term – crimey, grimey, etc. There’s a potpourri here.
Where HQ is located in the South Hills, alternatively, is quite suburban. Saying that, analogizing things back to my frame of reference back in NYC, when I say ‘suburban’ I mean the Queens/Nassau County border or the Yonkers/Westchester border and not ‘deep suburban’ like Suffolk or Putnam counties.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Liberty Tunnel – or ‘tubes’ – pictured above, a mile long and hundred year old vehicle tunnel that’s punched through the base of Mount Washington on the southern bank of the Monongahela River. One was sitting at a light waiting for my chance to turn into the facility and head back home, when the fancy of getting a night shot of the place struck me. It’s a long light, after all.
The settings on the camera were previously configured, as mentioned above. Daylight wise, that means f4 and ISO 800 with the exposure settings dialed into whatever they need to be. Night wise it’s f2.8 and ISO 6400. The model of camera I use has a swivel out screen, which allows one to point it at something which would otherwise require a gymnast to use the diopter eye piece in order to compose and adjust exposure on otherwise.
Back tomorrow with something very 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.
Moist
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been informed by several members of those age cohorts which follow my own, that the word which forms the title of this post makes them vaguely uncomfortable. My response to this usually involves mentioning the packaging og supermarket cake mixes like Betty Crocker’s with their promises for the finished product, and then questioning them what about why this word is so disturbing to them. It’s vague, their discomfort is, I’m told.
Pittsburgh and its environs received a near record amount of rainfall in April, which caused the rivers to swell and burst their banks. It was quite a hullabaloo. Thereby, the entire Pittsburgh region was overly moist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Point State Park, with its iconic fountain, positively buried beneath an admixture of the Monongahela and Allegheny River’s respective waters. As is my practice, I wanted to get no where close to such conditions, and a visit to the community of West End and its Overlook Park – which are several hundred feet higher in altitude than the water – was enacted.
My time here was somewhat limited, I’d mention, as Our Lady of the Pentacle would be requiring a ride home from some social ‘do’ she was attending. One got busy with the camera in the allotted interval.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A low laying bank of mist, and a precipitant one at that, blew in from the direction of the Ohio River. The precipitation caught and diffused the emanations of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, as it was dipping behind Mount Washington. There were a few other photographers at work up here, I’d mention – a couple of drone guys, and about three or four other stills shooters.
A kid standing next to me was obviously new to the ‘scene’ and had brought zero preparation with him for inclement atmospheric conditions. I had my umbrella with me, and a ubiquitously present and quite absorbent kitchen towel which I always carry, in case I have to wipe the camera down after a blast of rain comes through. You never know.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A rainbow set up behind Mount Washington and I made sure to get a shot of that. The flooding in Pittsburgh has since reversed, and the waterfront trails and the flooded park in the first and second shots have reopened for public inspection and use. Such is the nature of things, I guess.
For those of you who have accused a humble narrator of ‘drinking the kool aid’ on the subject of climate change, over the years, I’d ask – is the weather and your expectations of its seasonal variants different these days from when you were a kid? Does the winter seem warmer, the spring wetter?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking westwards, over the Ohio River, towards the bands of rain which the storm was blowing in, is what’s depicted in this shot. The ridge lining the start of the Ohio River Valley had already plunged the area into shadow, but the shot was a bit underexposed – purposely – to allow the rain some visibility.
Just as this shot was being executed, my phone chimed with a message from Our Lady that she was ready for me to come and fetch her. Five minutes, I replied.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at Downtown Pittsburgh with its flooded shorelines, just as the various office buildings began to light up for the night. The gear was then packed up, salutations offered to the young fellow standing next to me who owned an overly moist camera, and soon I was behind the wheel of the Mobile Oppression Platform and heading towards Our Lady.
Back tomorrow with something 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.
Back to HQ
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a long walk down a steep hill and a thousand feet of steps, my dogs were barking. Thereby, I was quite pleased when a T light rail train set arrived to ferry me back to HQ, some five miles distant.
This option is pretty much going to not exist for the entire summer, which sucks, but the transit agency people are going to be reconditioning the concrete and rails which the T rides on. Necessary repairs, they say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s going to be brutal for a lot of people, having this particular rug yanked out from under them. There’s going to be shuttle buses working the route, but a bus ain’t a train, and it’s going to take a longer time to get where you’re going. What are you going to do, fight City Hall?
If this was NYC, and MTA was running the project, the three month ‘T’ outage would probably balloon into five years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Limping at this point, as all of those steps had triggered my ‘trick left foot,’ I managed to make it back to Dormont where HQ is located. That’s the block where all things Pentacle revolves around these days.
Back next week with something 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.
A heck of a hill
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After having descended along the German Square stairs as described in prior posts, a humble narrator found himself in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood. This ‘zone’ is pretty urban in character, and ‘old timey’ in terms of its building stock. I’m of the belief that there’s a ‘historic district’ rule which applies to certain sections of the Flats, but as I’m trying to avoid deep dives into historical records these days…
This shot looks towards the Monongahela River and the South Tenth Street Bridge, and that’s one of Duquesne University’s buildings rising out of the bluff on the other side of the river.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Closer to the shoreline, and looking back towards the prominence which I had just descended from – that’s one heck of a hill, ain’t it?
My goal for the remainder of this scuttle involved getting close to the water, and grabbing a pint of beer at that brewery alongside the CSX trackage which has been mentioned several times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While quaffing my Pilsner, I noticed a towboat navigating the Monongahela and passing under the Liberty Bridge. As you can tell, the sun was in the early stages of setting. Nice light.
I would be taking the T light rail back to HQ, which ain’t really that much of an adventure but hey – I love the novelty of surface based rail transit through an urban space.
Back 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.
Up, down, and around
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yup… that’s the shot I was hoping for after walking down a thousand feet of steps. Norfolk Southern #1024. It’s an EMD SD70ACe model locomotive if that means anything to you. What warmed the cockles of my heart, however, was what it was hauling. Check it out. I recognize those containers, and so will longtime readers of this publication. You really never can escape NYC, or its trash.
As mentioned yesterday, I’ve sort of been systematically exploring legally available POV’s for this Norfolk Southern Right of Way. Call me timid, but my way has always been to not knowingly trespass. Admittedly, I break this rule a little bit here and there, but otherwise it’s followed as such activity is generally outside of my comfort zone.
I never want to be the guy who needs the Fire Department to come rescue me after falling through a rotting floor or something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back up at the last sections of the German Square steps which I had walked about a thousand feet down on from Arlington Avenue.
My friend Tim Fabian has actually photographed all the steps of Pittsburgh, and his photos are available in this book. Personally, I will not be photographing all of the seven hundred and twelve sets of steps Pittsburgh offers. Tim is insane, just ask him.
Suffice to say that going downwards on these steps is a bit less of an athletic undertaking than going up would be, but also as mentioned the path down provided access to less commonly used musculature in the roadway interface and I really felt it in my knees, thighs, and hips.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Norfolk Southern train set, hauling NYC’s garbage, moved westerly through Pittsburgh in the direction of the P.J. McArdle roadway. My day was half over at this point, but there were still a couple of spots in the South Sides Flats area where my desire to point the camera at things could be satisfied.
Back 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.
