Archive for the ‘Pittsburgh’ Category
Rock slide area(!)
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While walking along the Great Allegheny Passage or ‘GAP’ trail between the Pittsburgh area communities of Duquesne and Homestead, one encountered this rather worrying series of signs. The trail is set along a fairly level former rail road right of way, and is generally paved with asphalt or crushed limestone, but looming above it is a several hundred foot high slope which – in certain spots – can be described as a cliff.
Yikes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It didn’t take long to discover that those signboards weren’t a prank, and that the local stones had indeed been rolling down the steep hill in certain spots. This is – apparently – not an uncommon thing hereabouts. A few months back, nearby Pittsburgh’s Clairton section, a multiple ton boulder unexpectedly came rolling down a hill and came to rest right in the middle of one of the major highways which caused a regional traffic hullabaloo for about 24 hours.
I’ve witnessed the municipal curative and methodology as applied to this sort of slope destabilization before, here in Pittsburgh, which involves the installation of steel girders in a fence post formation and the subsequent stringing up of steel cabled netting between them which creates a catch all along the roadside. This is installed after the work crews set off a few small black powder detonations to shake loose anything which is ‘fixin to fall.’ It’s the Appalachian way, I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking up the sloping wall of the GAP trail, you can discern several large boulders, and the many smaller stones that are wedged into the soil around them. The geology in this part of the country predates the emergence of animals with lungs, I would mention, and is a fascinating story all in its own right.
Back tomorrow, with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Scuttling in Duquesne
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator found himself scuttling about in one of Pittsburgh’s satellite communities, dubbed Duquesne. Like its neighbor, Homestead, which is where I was heading towards, Duquesne was hit hard by the evacuation of the steel industry from its territory in the last quarter of the 20th century and there’s a staggering level of poverty and urban decay which its residents and governmental organizations are forced to deal with. I wasn’t here for a sociological deep dive, of course, and the path I was walking along was one of the ‘rail to trail’ sections of the Great Allegheny Passage which has been mentioned several times.
The trail follows the shoreline of the Monongahela River, and across the waterbody on the northern shoreline is found a surviving US Steel plant called the Edgar Thomson or Mon Valley Works in the community of Braddock. Pictured above are a couple of the locomotives used by USS to operate its privately owned and operated Union Railroad.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Before leaving the street ‘grid’ of Duquesne, one had made it a point of scuttling past the switching yard of the Union RR. I have only seen this facility from behind the wheel of the Mobile Oppression Platform, when driving past the place at near highway speeds. This time around, however, one was taking a long walk – as in well more than five miles (actually closer to nine, all said and done). I left the car at home and used a cab to get to Duquesne from HQ. The plan was to execute the long walk, and then meet up with a friend at a brewery in Homestead for a Friday night beer and a ‘bitch and moan’ session about whatever happened to go ‘ass over tits’ for us that week.
This is a pretty cool walk to take, I would mention, although the pedestrian street crossings are kind of terrifying. Once you’re off the street and on the trail, you’re ‘safe as houses’ as the British would say. Thing is, once you’re on the GAP trail, you’re committed and it’s miles and miles until you come to the next entrance/exit to the thing. Most of the GAP users seem to be bike riders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was hoping for some interesting locomotive shots on this day, but trains are kind of a hit or miss thing here. There were a couple of spots along the trail where I stood there and waited, but quite frustratingly, if a train did pass by on the nearby tracks it was generally occluded by vegetation. I had to be satisfied with a long lens shot or two of the USS Mon Valley Works steel mill, pictured above, instead.
More tomorrow.
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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.
We all float down here
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is led to believe, by a bit of ‘scratch the surface’ research, that the Marshall Lake spillway dates back to December of 1933. A partnership between Allegheny County and the New Deal era’s Federal Civil Works Administration built this particularity satisfying bit of infrastructure along an ancestral waterway called Old Pine Creek, which used to terminate in a morass of swampy marsh. Raising the water level caused that marshy wasteland to drown, which in turn and over time formed the 75 acre Marshall Lake found in Pittsburgh’s North Park.
A humble narrator is always fascinated by the sort of technology which doesn’t need to be plugged in or fueled or even actively looked after. I advocated for this sort of thing on and around Newtown Creek back in NYC, but everybody in Government favored technological and electricity hungry solutions to the Creek’s ‘flow’ problem. I like using gravity, as it’s free, and all of the technology and effort you need for the thing to operate is front loaded into the construction.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I circled the spillway, getting photos of it from different angles. The first shot looks directly down into it, whereas this one depicts the levels of the surrounding lake. Neat.
Several people asked me what I was doing, to which I replied “infrastructure nerd,” and they gave me a sympathetic smile. To be fair, I was the only person there with a tripod and fancy camera.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After dropping down from the lake, the water forms up into a waterway called Pine Creek, which flows all the way down to the Allegheny River, in the Etna section of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area. Pictured above is the head of Pine Creek, which is directly connected to the spillway.
One continued his circling and scuttling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, I had set myself up to do landscape style shots on this particular morning. The camera was set to record the scene in a manner which allowed for visualization of the flowing water with a slight motion blur. The one above was captured at ISO 100/f8 for 25 seconds, with a ten stop ND filter affixed to the lens.
The neat thing about this spillway is the highly aerated and biologically rich water which it releases into Pine Creek. Clever, clever.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one was f4 for 8 seconds at ISO 100, but I recorded multiple images, with the focal point moving around the frame. One combined them using the ‘focus stacking’ technique.
I had been actively shooting for several hours by this point, and was sorely in need of both coffee and breakfast.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, I had thought ahead and had a thermos of coffee from HQ back in the Mobile Oppression Platform, which was parked nearby. I dropped off my heavy bag at the car, grabbed the coffee, and then sat down on a rock nearby a boat launch on Marshall Lake’s eastern shore. Even though I was taking a break, there was no reason for the camera to be lollygagging, so I kept on hitting the shutter button.
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.
Mirror mirror, on the floor
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When Pittsburgh’s North Park was created, a waterway called Old Pine Creek fed into a marsh hereabouts. The Great Depression era engineers got busy, and created the largest manmade lake in the State of Pennsylvania with the help of hundreds of Work Projects Administration laborers. 75 acres in size, with trails around it, Marshall Lake (aka North Park Lake) is annually stocked with game fish, and there’s at least a couple of Bald Eagles which form the top of the littoral food chain here. The licensed citizenry can fish here, as it’s considered public land.
These shots are from about 6:30 in the morning, and there were already hundreds of people jogging on the trails, and I also spotted two fishermen casting their lines.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a warm morning, with little to no wind, so the lake itself was pretty much a perfect mirror. I set up the tripod and got a few shots of the rather bucolic scene. There’s a lot of interesting stuff to see here at North Park, which is some 3,300 acres in size. There was a giant Pterodactyl sized Heron flying around, but I didn’t get a shot worth mentioning of it.
The camera was set up for landscape style shots. Lately, I’ve been considering bringing along a second camera body geared up for ‘catch as catch can’ shots, for use when the main camera body is purposed towards and busy with these sort of photos.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The lake is shaped somewhat like a boomerang. The water flows out to a spillway on the eastern shore, which maintains its level. That’s where I was heading next, because ‘infrastructure.’
The spillway feeds into a waterway called Pine Creek, which is ultimately a tributary of the Allegheny River, joining its parent at the Borough of Etna section of the Pittsburgh Metro several miles distant.
Back tomorrow with a very cool chunk of infrastructure!
“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.
Trees and… y’know… Da Effin Woods
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These photos aren’t actually from ‘the effin woods.’ To me, this is woods, as I’m from Brooklyn and spent a not insignificant portion of my adult life wandering around the concrete devastations of Newtown Creek. This location is instead within the borders of North Park here in Pittsburgh, so by definition – thereby – not ‘woods.’
Actual wilderness, with critters and hunters and an opportunity for your body to never be found, that’s about 50 miles from here. Sasquatch sightings are apparently a big thing thereabouts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, one found himself drawn to this side of the Pittsburgh Metro by news of there being a ‘Fountain of Youth’ on the property. As is my habit, I did a bit of ‘research’ on Google maps to find a few other interesting things to point the camera at while in the neighborhood. I try to maximize my efforts.
Currently, I’m planning a day trip for the end of this week to the Panhandle of Western Maryland which sits along the border to West Virginia. That’s an 86 mile/2 hour drive, as opposed to the 30 minute journey to North Park, so the researching I’m doing for that one is a bit more in depth regarding my itinerary.
One has also bookmarked a few sites along the southeastern route from Pittsburgh I’ll be traveling along, including stopping off at a place called Dunbar’s Knob, where a 60 foot tall crucifix is on public display. Said monument is dubbed ‘The Great Cross of Christ.’ Should make for an interesting set of photos, I reckon, if the skies are right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just like the trip to North Park, I plan on being in the car no later than about 5:30 a.m., in order to take advantage of the utility of angled daylight, and won’t be returning to HQ until well after dark. The town I’m heading for is in Maryland, and is a historically important one, with several points of interest. You’ll be seeing that series of posts in a few weeks. Additionally, I’ve got a series of wooded spots which I plan on visiting as soon as the leaves start turning color. I’ve heard the term ‘the burning hills of Pennsylvania’ is used during the autumn hereabouts, due to all the yellow and orange.
More from North Park 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 