Archive for the ‘Pennsylvania’ Category
Trafficking
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another Doctor’s appointment. This time around, it was a checkup with my heart guy, which unfortunately was scheduled during what it would turn out to be a snow storm. Pittsburgh has been getting hit, day after day, with lake effect bands of snow that drop an inch or two of the white stuff and air temperatures which have seldom risen out of the 20’s and are hitting single digits at night. Ice, ice, baby.
They do a fairly decent job of plowing and salting hereabouts, but Pittsburgh’s odd terrain – with its steep hills and valleys – has to factor into how you route your journey. Or – it doesn’t, and you slide off of a cliff or a roadway that’s angled at twenty to thirty degrees against the next intersection – some 500 feet in differential altitude from where you started.
Luckily, the Mobile Oppression Platform – a Toyota – offers a transmission setting called ‘Trail’ which activates full ‘all wheel drive’ and reduces the amount of torque going into the wheels, which in turn increases traction. It’s meant for driving on gravel or dirt roads, this mode, but it works fantastically well in ice and snow. I lose a few miles worth of gas mileage in ‘trail’ mode, moving from just above 43 mpg down to about 39 mpg.
It’s worth the spend, if you’d ask me. Nobody does.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This particular appointment necessitated about a 25 minute drive from HQ. I was heading for the neighborhood of Bloomfield, which was founded on a prominence that’s part of a plateau over the Allegheny River. The shot above makes it look like there was a lot of traffic, but we were stacked up at a stop light. Snow was falling pretty steadily.
As mentioned yesterday, due to the weather and factoring in my recovery for the broken ankle, one is being super careful while moving around. I’m literally not myself at the moment. Walking slowly and with a limp, when I encounter a patch of compacted snow or ice it becomes a major obstacle to my continued happiness. Yup, the car and I are married right now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After arriving in Bloomfield, characteristically far too early for my appointment, one secured a metered parking spot and had a very short walk of about three blocks ‘there and back.’ Given my current ‘state,’ this was exhausting. When I left HQ, one of my goals for the day was to ‘come back with some photos of “something.” I knew I wasn’t going to be ‘making art’ shooting through the windshield of a car, but…
After my long hibernation, any and all ‘lead time’ on photos has been erased and I’m practically doing Pentacle live right now. Normally, I’m at least a couple of weeks ahead of myself, but…
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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.
CSX 5470, too
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had no intention of running two posts in a row with nearly identical photos in them today, but… recovering from the broken ankle and having multiple bands of snow and ice blowing through Pittsburgh on a seemingly never ending daily cycle… so… that’s CSX #5470 advancing towards the lens in the shot above.
Captured these the same evening that I got yesterday’s post, as you’d imagine. It was all very exciting, really. What was I saying about ‘working the shot’ in yesterday’s post?
Things are progressing according to schedule hereabouts, with continuance of my twice a week ‘PT’ – or Physical Therapy – appointments. I’m walking better, although balance seems to be a bit of a challenge at the moment. Still displaying a limp, however. If you saw a time lapse of me attempting to walk over the last six weeks, I bet it would look a lot like the tracking shot of ‘Verbal’ at the end of the ‘Usual Suspects.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying all that, keeping ‘close to home’ has been my watchword, but the desire for adventure is positively ringing in my ears. A humble narrator was trained to never say ‘I’m Bored’ as a child. If I uttered that forbidden phrase, one of my parents would announce ‘I can fix that’ and I’d soon be working on some unsavory household job or doing the laundry.
When a humble narrator entered his adolescent existentialist phase, I tried having a conversation about Camus with my Dad. He looked at me, and then said ‘that’s interesting, why don’t you tell me about it while you’re cleaning the toilet?’ An attempt at a conversation about Nietzsche once resulted in me detailing his car. Saying all that, it’s been a minute since I had any fun at all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Train photos are kind of fun, but I’ve been to this spot a bunch of times. I’m desirous of the novel, the new, the unexpected. About three months of my life were lost to this injury, including all of autumn and that’s normally my favorite time of year. I missed Halloween, for goodness sake.
CSX #5470 is a GE ES44DC model locomotive which – I’m told – rolled out of the factory in 2007, as an aside.
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.
CSX 5401, coming through
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself headed out on a fairly nice evening – with temperatures in the high 40’s and just a bit of wind, no precipitation – with the intention of drinking a couple of beers at the Sly Fox Brewery location found in the South Side Flats section of Pittsburgh and waving the camera about if and when a train came by.
So… I’ve been asked why I keep going back to take from this same well, and present a fairly similar series of shots of trains here time and again. You’ve seen one CSX train, you’ve seen them all, right? Not so much, for me at least. I’m working on camera technique, and hoping ‘the planets align’ on a few fronts eventually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A habit born back in NYC, when I’m ’working a shot,’ I’ll return to it a hundred times until I get ‘the one.’ There’s variants of photos captured in this spot which are pretty close to what I’m hoping to get. Is the T Light Rail is visible on the Panhandle Bridge in the background, is the sun hitting the freight train, and is the locomotive itself is kicking up dust that’s also catching the sun? If so, hoorah!
For instance, this version of the scene from September was fairly banging, as far as what I’m looking for in this composition. Saying that, this spot has become a bit of a hang out for me, and when you find ‘fish in a barrel’ you return to that spot.
Suffice to say that this brewery location offers a lot more comfort than you’d normally get while out shooting – easy access to a toilet, beer and food, etc. The trains roll through, in the evening hours, about once every 30-40 minutes here and you really can’t fault a location for the frequency of interesting subject matter which comes hurtling past the lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I used to have sludge boats, you see, and several well worn locations on Staten Island where you could be assured of a maritime presence. I also used to have a certain Creek, which had fairly infrequent rail and tugboat action, but it had them. Honestly, if there had been a bar up on the Pulaski Bridge…
These days, it’s freight trains, one reckons. I swear, if I don’t take a picture of a large machine at least once a week…
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.
Rock Bottom
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were a few spots on a Google map which I had prepared in advance of this drive through the Borough of McKees Rocks here in Pittsburgh, ones which the search giant’s satellite imagery suggested as being photogenically interesting – possibly. You never know till you go, though.
This was the view from the parking lot of a seemingly empty warehouse which I had turned the car into, during my return from McKees Rocks to Dormont where HQ is located.
I was hoping to see some train action happening along CSX’s tracks, but no luck. It was New Years weekend, after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Truth be told, I was actually feeling pretty good while shooting these. The ankle wasn’t giving me any trouble, even when I got out of the car and walked around a little bit. There were swampy lowlands alongside the rail yard, pictured above. Must be buggy during the summer around here…
‘Mustn’t over do it’ is one of my catch phrases at the moment, so one reentered the Mobile Oppression Platform and started its motor. Soon, I was positively hurtling through space – at tens of miles per hour – and heading back towards home. It was about a 15-20 minute drive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of the ‘through the roof’ shots which one has been oddly drawn to capture of late. A sort of liminal space, intersections like these are unoccupied, but over the course of the day tens of thousands pass through. I used to describe Queens Plaza the same way.
This is a pretty interesting intersection, designed under the tutelage of Robert Moses himself. You’ve got the Liberty Tunnel to the left, which is a primary arterial leading away from downtown Pittsburgh and towards the South Hills with the ‘tube’ having been cut right through Mount Washington. This intersection feeds onto a secondary arterial road called West Liberty Avenue (to the right), after crossing a primary arterial called Saw Mill Run (PA Route 51) first. Additionally, there are light rail tracks weaving about, and there’s also freight tracks which are carried on a highflying rail bridge over the vehicular traffic. Neat, huh?
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.
The Rocks rock
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks, and the Borough’s circumstance, was discussed at some length in yesterday’s post so rather than repeat all of it I’d ask you to just scroll back to that one as an introduction to the place these photos were gathered. Suffice to say that this particular section of McKees Rocks, called the Bottoms, is largely an industrial zone with a smattering of centuried homes and a collection of rather interesting looking churches. I was just driving around the industrial zone slowly, seeing what’s what and where that might be found. Scouting, basically.
The big player down here, other than a CSX intermodal yard, is a company which manufactures rail cars and rail ‘stuff’ called ‘Standard Forge Products.’ Venture Capital money is flowing through this economic sector right now, seeking to consolidate all the remaining national players in the space into a single conglomerate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered on New Year’s weekend, if you’re curious as to why the place was so thoroughly deserted. I’m planning on a few return trips here when the place is buzzing during the work week. I’d also like to get a good look inside some of the intriguing Slavic churches that I spotted on the way in here.
Of course, given all of those terrifying statistics about McKees Rocks, maybe I’ll convince somebody to come along with me to watch my back. Saying all that, there is an interesting discussion thread at Reddit which gathers observations from locals about the place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, a Google map of points of potential interest was created prior to the drive over here. I had several things way-pointed, and mostly stayed sitting behind the driver’s wheel while shooting. I got out of the car a few times, of course, but this was mainly a ride rather than a walk.
Walking a distance is still a somewhat elusive goal for me in this post broken ankle recovery period. The other night I managed to scuttle about 1,500 feet, and then I needed to sit down. It hurt for two days. It wasn’t pain from the ankle that was biting, although there was some (it’s omnipresent), rather it was soreness from the atrophy of muscles in the upper thighs, no doubt caused by me sitting in a wheelchair for two months.
Back next week with more, 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 