Archive for the ‘Pennsylvania’ Category
From West End Overlook
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has mentioned, and offered views from, Pittsburgh’s West End Overlook Park in the past. This spot is about a 15 minute long and quite easily executed drive from HQ in the nearby Borough of Dormont, and the overlook provides commanding views of the city center. You’re actually executing about a half mile of change in altitude while driving through three and change miles horizontally – it’s a thousand feet down to the level of the river from Dormont, and then around a thousand feet up through the neighborhoods of West End and Elliot. Proximity means I find myself heading up there periodically to wave the camera about.
This time around, it was that interval of the day during which the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself disappears behind Ohio.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the juncture, right in front of the fountain at Point State Park, of the three rivers – where the Monongahela and Allegheny combine to form the Ohio River. I’m told Lewis and Clark left for their famous adventure on the Jeffersonian mission to examine the western territories gained via the Louisiana Purchase from somewhere nearby. I’m also led to believe that the stand of tall buildings on the right hand side of the ‘point’ used to be a rather busy rail yard.
Moe the Dog was along for this excursion, and so was Our Lady of the Pentacle, whom he was hauling about at her end of his leash. This spot is absolutely infested with Spotted Lantern Flies, I would mention, and as Moe considers the pests to be flying popcorn… let’s just say Moe did his part to combat the infestation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’ve probably discerned, I was playing about with various methods of capturing the scenery. I shot a few panoramas as well, such as this one. A humble narrator really likes this spot for several reasons.
There’s ample parking, and a Port A Potty is found in the parking lot at the entrance to the place. There’s lot of strollers, pot smokers, and dog walkers who frequent the spot and on more than one occasion, I’ve seen and chatted with other members of the tripod and lens crowd as well as Drone pilots, and even a broadcast television videographer up here. It reminds me of the scene long enjoyed along the East River along Long Island City’s piers during Manhattanhenge.
If I’m coming here though, it’s always at the bookends of the day – very early or nearly late. I haven’t done the ‘dead of night’ here. Yet.
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“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.
Whiskey Boys Trail
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I find myself having to head over to Home Depot about once a month for some needed gizmo or material or tool or ‘something random.’ The drive to the nearest outpost of the retail giant takes me from the Pittsburgh suburb of Dormont through another town, dubbed Scott Township, on my way to a third community called Bridgeville (which counterintuitively doesn’t have all that much going on in the way of bridges). About midway through the 20 minute drive from Dormont, where HQ is located, I’ve been noticing signage indicating the presence of the “Whiskey Boys Trail” and “Kane Woods.”
Normally this sort of thing ain’t exactly my bag, but Moe the Dog prospers in natural areas. I still can’t let him off the leash, as he’s a puppy and thereby a total idiot, but part of his training and development requires trees and dirt. I don’t like taking him places that I haven’t checked out first, so… Hence.
A good dog is a tired dog, that’s the mantra.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are basically three or four paths set into a fairly steep hill here. Every now and then, you’ll find a visual break in the ‘sylvania’ thing and see a road, or as in the case of the shot above, a bunch of utility poles. An hour’s drive from Pittsburgh will land you in actual, real woods, the kind people go hunting in and which are known for Sasquatch sightings. This ain’t that, but after shlepping around this trail for about an hour or so I realized that the little bastard would love this spot.
I’ve since returned with Moe, who proceeded to pull me up a hill at running puppy speeds. He ate about 25 pounds of spotted lantern flies, composted a few cubits worth of sticks and branches with his snapping puppy jaws, and was generally exhausted after we returned back home. He slept for an hour, puked lantern fly parts, and was a bit calmer than normal for about 24 hours. Then he bit me in the crotch again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Moe has the advantage on this sort of substrate, I would mention, with his quadruped stance and pointy toes. I was wearing a pair of Merrel hiking boots with nearly bald soles, and he more or less was able to drag my fat butt anywhere he wanted to. If I had a sled with me, we could have delivered presents to orphans.
Back next week.
“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.
Chillin like a villain
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a medium length walk, one needed to wait out the oncoming sunset, so I visited that bar I’ve been hanging out in that offers somewhat unparalleled railroad views. I ordered a pint, and sat down about 7 pm, with sunset meant to occur just before 8 pm. It didn’t take long.
That’s CSX #3356, a General Electric ET44AC model locomotive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In case you’re curious, this is the scene from a more personal perspective and occupation. This bar is called “Sly Fox Brewery,” and it seems to be connected to a real estate project called ‘The Highline.’ Said development sits across the tracks from the HQ of the local bicycle people, and a public park called ‘The Color Park.’ Visiting the latter is how I stumbled upon the former.
Pretty decent cup of beer, I’d mention. That’s a Pilsner. I like a cold yellow beer during warm weather, but switch over to stouts like Guinness when it’s cooler. Despite the abundance of postings from this establishment in recent weeks, I don’t actually drink all that much, rather I’m a ‘nurser’ and that pint glass lasted me around 40 minutes. At any rate, I like sitting outside and I especially like the fact that a nearby series of grade crossings for the rail tracks means that alarm bells go off in advance of the trains.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Trains are damnably difficult to photograph. First off – they’re huge. Secondly, they are moving much faster than the human eye would suggest they are. Even with the signal alarm bells going off, it’s a panic to get your settings right and compose a shot as the train comes rocketing through.
I’m actually pretty happy with the sun dogs and strobing in the shot above, as a note. I was using a counterintuitive formula for these – f11 at 1/2000th of a second at ISO 6400. That combination gave me a broad hyperfocal range, froze the action, and also produced a nice pixel density in the RAW file for me to work with during the developing stage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I paid my tab as the sun was going down and proceeded to the so called Highline, which is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of about 60 feet or so over the spot pictured in the second shot. It’s the overpass you see in the third one directly above.
One unfurled the tripod and set the camera up for ‘low and slow’ shooting at ISO 100 and a narrow aperture of f18. The shutter speed for the shot above was 15 seconds, which preserved some of the texture of the waters of the Monongahela River and the clouds. That’s a concrete outfit at the left, and the busy Liberty Bridge is in silhouette.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As it got darker, the settings changed. The camera’s aperture got wider and the exposure times longer. One of the tricks to low light photography is being conscious of the color temperature of the scene. Digital capture happens on three plates – RGB, or Red, Green Blue. If you’ve got your camera set up with a capture temperature that leans red, it means very little representation on the blue plate and you get a noisy image. Yes, you can change the temperature in Adobe camera RAW, but I’ve learned that the capture temperature really matters.
Pittsburgh still uses old school sodium bulb street lamps, so you need to compensate for the saturated yellows and oranges which that sort of scenario creates and casts. Lately, I set my custom temperature to about 2750 Kelvin, whereas back in NYC with its modern LED street light luminaires I’d use 3800 K.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While heading back out towards the street, which I’d walk a few blocks of to get to the T light rail station, where I’d in turn acquire a ride back home, I waved the camera around a bit while it was still attached to the tripod.
Why not drive? I’m an absolutist when it comes to drinking and driving, and the whole point of the day was to get some exercise anyway. Not a drop passes the lips when I’m expected to be behind the wheel. Automobiling in Pittsburgh is difficult enough without being impaired. Additionally, it kind of ties my hands in terms of wandering and discovering, since I have to worry about the car.
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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.
DUFPBO
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I haven’t made this joke in nearly a year: Down Under the Fort Pitt Bridge Onramp, that’s where I was, and absolutely nobody in Pittsburgh calls it DUFPBO except me. Back in New York and along Newtown Creek, a humble narrator would often christen otherwise nondescript areas with nomens like ‘DUPBO’ for Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp, ‘DUKBO’ for the area around the Kosciuszcko Bridge, and there was also DUMABO (Metropolitan Avenue), DUGSBO (Grand Street), DULIE (Long Island Expressway), and ‘DUGABO’ (Greenpoint Avenue Bridge). After announcing the terminology on tours, I’d follow it up with “you have to,stay ahead of the Real Estate people with this sort of thing.” Yeah, I’m an idiot, but I have a good time.
As far as DUMABO goes, yeah – like Peter Stuyvesant – you could call it ‘Arnheim,’ but other than a few history nerds like me, nobody would have any idea what you were referring to. Arnheim is a deep cut in North Brooklyn history, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve had a few Pittsburgh people ask me what the fascination with trains is about, lately. Short answer is that non passenger rail was such a scarce commodity back in my old stomping grounds, the frequency and variety of rail moving through Pittsburgh just grabs at my attentions.
CSX #5417, a General Electric ES44DC locomotive, is a positive infant by CSX standards having been built in January of 2007. It was doing Coke train duty. The coke was likely coming from one of U.S. Steel’s mills further up the river, and the train was heading westwards in the direction of Ohio.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘zone’ used to be all rail yards, I’m told, belonging to the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR outfit. Me? I was heading more or less eastwards. As mentioned yesterday, I was traveling light with a fairly minimal kit in my camera bag, but I had a tripod with me and sunset in mind.
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.
I’m walking here
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent hullabaloo involving Pittsburgh’s light rail system, dubbed “The T,” found a humble narrator at the Penn Station stop on the system. This is a closed/disused station which the service normally doesn’t visit, nearby the former HQ of the Pennsylvania Railroad (which has been converted to a high end residential condominium), and the modern day Amtrak station and Greyhound Bus Terminal. I understand that seeing a T unit here is an exceedingly rare dealie, so I took a picture.
One was heading to the North Side of the Allegheny River, but due to the tunnel maintenance which caused the hullabaloo, employees of the service instructed us to debark the light rail and then board a shuttle bus to take us the rest of the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bus discharged the merry band of commuters a humble narrator was a member of nearby PNC Park, which is a sports ball stadium built around the needs of the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball corporation, and that’s where my day’s walk began. The plan was to head back to a T station on the south side of the Monongahela River, and the timing of the excursion was built around the descent of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself behind Ohio.
The first set of negotiable obstacles in my path involved the Allegheny River, so a quick set of obfuscations and interlocutors found me walking to the Fort Duquesne Bridge, which spans the waterway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After walking Fort Duquesne – aka the ‘bridge to nowhere’ – I would surmount the Fort Pitt bridge over the Monongahela. It was warm out, but the humidity was in a comfortable range. I was traveling fairly light on this particular day, with a minimum camera kit slung onto my back.
That’s Fort Pitt Bridge, spanning the Monongahela River, in the distance and at the right of the shot.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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 