Speeding Locomotive
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m a bit behind schedule today, so a single archive image captured back in August is on offer for this second day of March. That’s a CSX train rocketing through Pittsburgh. Back tomorrow.
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Double Dormont Rainbow
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m a bit behind schedule today, so a single image captured at the end of January is on offer for this first day of March. Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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West End Overlook, again
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After spending a bit of time on Mount Washington’s Grandview Avenue shooting elevation based master shots for future usage, as described in yesterday’s post, one headed over to another elevated location known for its views. West End Overlook Park, which I’ve visited a couple of times since relocating to Pittsburgh, was my destination.
The light was kind of ‘meh’ on this visit, so instead of trying to make things look better than they did, I decided to do a few things which I don’t normally commit my time into.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Panoramas, for instance, are seldom worth the effort. Oddly sized, I’ll shoot them and then never show them to anyone. Today’s the exception. This one was accomplished simply by loosening one of the clamp screws on my tripod and rotating the camera by about ten degrees for around eight shots which would later be merged into a single image in photoshop.
If you click the image, it’ll take you to Flickr, where you can zoom in on the thing. Like I said – an odd size which is hard to fit onto a screen. It’s even worse if you print the thing. Where are you going to find a frame that’s going to fit a print which is 39 inches wide by 10 inches tall?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I switched out the lenses, and used the 70-300mm zoom to look up the Allegheny River. Both lenses I was using had ND filters attached, allowing me an amazing amount of control over the exposure. The light wasn’t great, but this particular set of photos was more about exercising my skills behind the camera than anything else.
One has finally replaced the desktop computer which blew up on me during the very first week of COVID, and the new unit is being put through its paces with everything that I can throw at it which the laptop I’ve been working off of for the last three years would choke up on. The laptop has been fine for photo developing and the occasional presentation, but I needed something that could do some heavy lifting to accomplish what comes ‘next.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I arrived at the West End Overlook park about an hour prior to sunset, and got generally busy. I popped out a bunch of these filter shots – long exposures of 15-30 seconds depending on conditions. A line of clouds was moving through the sky, creating shafts of strong sunlight and deep cloud shadows. Two or three stops of light was filtering down, and toggling on and off.
Challenging.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was kind of getting tired by this point, having spent my afternoon running around on Mount Washington and lugging the camera around. Already thinking about dinner back at home a few miles away in Dormont.
I was also kind of distracted by another technical challenge which I had set out for myself.
– timelapse by Mitch Waxman
The YouTube embed above has no sound, and it’s part of a “work in progress” project which the new computer is a part of. Timelapse video like the one above is a series of photos taken in intervals. In the case of the one above, I think it was a 15 second exposure followed by a four second interval followed by… rinse and repeat for about 30 minutes or so. It’s actually pretty nerve wracking and boring at the same time capturing this sort of thing. You’ve got to pay attention to the camera, but you also have to ignore it and just let it do the work.
Saying that, it’s flawed. Working on getting this technique into my toolkit, and being able to reliably produce it, that’s one of the things a humble narrator is up to while using the new computer.
Back tomorrow with something different, at your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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High over Pittsburgh
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, an unusually warm February day found a humble narrator marching around Grandview Avenue on Mount Washington here in Pittsburgh. This street sits on a ridge overlooking Downtown Pittsburgh and the Monongahela River, and it’s bookended by the two inclines – Allegheny and Duquesne. The views from up top are fairly killer, and it should be mentioned that I’ve been here up before. There are overlook platforms, and a sort of linear park which is well used by the public, along Grandview Avenue.
The bridges in the photo above are the Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne Bridges, both of which were recently walked over and described.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is – as always – fascinated by the massing shapes and parabola of the access ramps leading to and from the bridges. The water is the Monongahela River, and this is nearby the titular end of the 130 mile long waterway where it combines with the Allegheny River and the combination transmogrifies into the Ohio River.
Wanderings over the last couple of months have seen me stitching around, exploring. One was feeling the need to come back to square and reconnoiter from above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking up the Monongahela River, in the foreground is the Smithfield Street Bridge and the P&LERR building. Next up is the Panhandle Bridge which carries the T light rail into Downtown. Behind that is the Liberty Bridge, and the yellow one is the South Tenth Street Bridge. In the distance, you can see the Birmingham Bridge.
All along the waterfront are ‘rail to trail’ public spaces. Between Birmingham Bridge and South Tenth Street on the north side of the river is the Eliza Furnace Trail, for instance, with the Hot Metal trail found in the south side of the water.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T is seen crossing the Panhandle Bridge in the one above. I’m planning on putting some time and spending some shoe leather on this section of the world this week, so stay tuned for that one.
I’m also planning on heading further out, specifically returning to Clairton and the trailhead of the Montour Trail found directly across the street from the sense shattering US Steel mill found in that community. I’m also planning on walking another section of the Great Allegheny Passage trail which should provide great views of USS’s Mon Valley Works in Braddock from across the river.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back along the steep slope of Mount Washington, where the trees are still very much in their winter time hibernation mode.
Since the start of the year, there’s been a couple of very high profile crimes which resulted in the shooting death of two Police Officers in separate incidents, here in the greater Pittsburgh area, and thereby the flags have been flying at half mast throughout the City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One spent a couple of hours marching back and forth on Grandview Avenue, during the late afternoon. The day was coming to an end, and I wanted to do a few tripod shots, but desired to capture a less common point of view. One headed back to the Mobile Oppression Platform (my pet name for the Toyota) which had been parked at a metered spot midway twixt the two inclines, and headed towards my next destination.
The good news is that I’m finally getting comfortable with having a car be a part of the equation. Compared to having to drag ass back to HQ after walking around NYC and getting on the Subway to discover MTA is having yet another meltdown and “you can’t get there from here” it’s a real pleasure to have some personal agency in terms of getting from A to B.
Back tomorrow with what I saw and recorded.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Montour Trail, part 2
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, one recently spent an afternoon at the head of the Montour Trail, with mile zero of the rail trail being found in the Pittsburgh suburb of Coraopolis. I scuttled from the parking lot at mile zero to about two and a half miles down the line, then turned around and headed back. Along the way, there were several interesting POV’s, so I deployed the tripod and attached a filter to my lens, and then got busy.
The “undistinguished” waterway seen flowing throughout today’s post is called Montour Run.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were lots of fallen trees in the stream. I decided to affix an ND filter to the lens to slow down the light and allow the water to photograph as a mirror. There were several ‘desire paths’ which had been created by people’s feet that led off the Montour Trail and down to the banks of the waterway.
For the most part, it was seldom more than a couple/three feet deep, but the water was flowing pretty quickly. This created a lot of visual distraction, hence the desire to “mirrorize” the surface.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was one area in particular which caught my attention, a basin of sorts where the water spread out nearby the overpasses of a nearby highway. For these shots, two of the legs of my tripod were actually standing in the water. I had to shimmy down a somewhat natural and quite muddy slope for these.
Worth it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been watching YouTube videos offered by bicycle riders, usually GoPro helmet cam type presentations, of Montour Trail trips. This is part of my remote scouting regime. It lets me know if there’s something specific on any one section of the trail that I might want to seek out (there are rail tunnels and bridges down the line!) and others that I’d want to avoid (the airport connector section of the Montour seems pretty horrific if you’re on foot).
Ultimately, I’m intrigued by all of this. This is EXACTLY the sort of proposal which we Newtown Creek aficionados have been proposing to the powers that be in NYC regarding the Montauk Cutoff for nearly a decade. Deaf ears, back in NYC, unless you start your sentence with “affordable housing.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thing I’ve discovered here in “ridge and valley” country is that the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself may be setting at the same time or later than it does back where I’m from, but because of the terrain the sunset occurs in a quicker interval than it does in a comparatively flat and oceanic terrain. Here, the orb drops behind a hill and you’re done right quick.
Saying that, there’s some serious theatrical level lighting going on during these moments.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One looks forward to more explorations of these amazing examples of lateral thinking, regarding the post industrial utilization and conversion of private property into a public recreational space, which can be found here in Western Pennsylvania.
Back next week with something else.
“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 