over running
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My most recent trip to Pittsburgh ended with a boat tour at sunset, one offered by the Gateway Clipper outfit which operates out of a dock on the south side of the Monongahela River. Truth be told, one was rather excited to exercise his hand held night shooting skills.
Haven’t had too much of a chance to do this lately, what with all the tumult associated with preparing to move out of NYC and to this amazing City called Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself descended behind… Ohio… a few lens swaps were required. The trusty 25-105 zoom lens went into the bag, and the 85mm and 35mm primes came out.
The photographic situation and circumstance is difficult – you’re on a moving boat, and everything around you is either clad in deep shadow or brightly illuminated by artificial light. Sometimes, it’s both.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, unlike NYC, Pittsburgh still uses old school sodium lamps for their street lighting. NYC uses modern LED luminaires. The LED’s cast a cold blue glow whereas the sodium ones emanate w warm yellow/orange light.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Gateway Clipper ride is about an hour in length, and is narrated by a tour guide. The boat itself has a bar onboard, but I wasn’t at all interested in libation. Truth be told, I was actually perspiring a bit as I was hard at work. Typically, I move about when onboard a boat, jotting from bow to stern, and port to starboard frequently.
Got to make the most of your investments, when you’ve actually paid for a ticket.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above is one I dearly wish that I had the zoom lens on for, but it was a “worst case scenario” kind of subject. A fast moving freight train, backlit by very bright and strongly colored lights, seen from onboard a moving boat.
I keep on telling myself that there will be all the time in the world, starting next year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s downtown Pittsburgh, as seen from the confluence point of the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny Rivers.
For a mega massive panorama showing this scene with both the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers – click here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We headed back to dock and my pal Max and I summoned a ride back to the AirBNB we were staying at. While waiting for the car, we noticed several people milling about who looked like super heros. Turns out that the local Marriot Hotel was hosting a bodybuilders convention over the weekend and a group of very fit people were flexing about.
It was time to pack up though, the next day would see us returning to NYC, and a long drive awaited us.
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politely holding
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 1st of September, a Thursday, I got to spend a few hours solo “just doing my thing.” My pal Max had driven off somewhere, and a humble narrator set off to accomplish a certain task. I’ve become fascinated by the Lenticular Truss span which the Pittsburgh people describe as being the “Smithfield Street Bridge.” In prior posts about travel in the Pittsburgh area, I expressed a desire to examine it thoroughly from a photographic point of view, which is now accomplished from an “up, down, all around” POV. In fact, I took so many shots of the thing that I decided to just embed them into a video slideshow, which is above. No sound on this, just images.
As a note, there’s a few shots in there from the water at night, which were gathered on the evening of the 2nd of September. I’ll show you a few more shots from that excursion tomorrow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One stuck to the southern shoreline of Pittsburgh, and in particular the Mount Washington side of the Monongahela River. Prior exploration had revealed that this is the side of the City where you’re likely to encounter and photograph freight rail rolling along, which I was desirous to do.
That choice paid off.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This kind of shot is difficult to capture. You focus in on the fast moving subject, and then pivot the lens along with its travel path, turning your body at the waist. High failure rate with this sort of shot. Things went right for me in the one above, with the horizontal motion blur and the sharp focal on the CSX locomotive engine and all that.
“I meant for that to happen” is a sentence sometimes offered by happy photographers when their gambles pay off.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Duquesne Incline was ridden next. It carried me to the top of Mt. Washington, where the always excellent set of views from the prominence awaited.
This time around, I would mention, I had prepared my phone with the local transit apps. My life was made immeasurably easier by this preparation, since I could just seamlessly buy a ticket and ride the thing without having to wait on a line to purchase a ticket.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Up on Mt. Washington, I installed a “long” telephoto zoom lens onto the camera and started picking out detailed areas to point the thing at.
Another CSX train set was transiting through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Truth be told, and as mentioned yesterday, something that continually caught my eye was the web of high speed roads, on and off ramps, and their interactions with the surrounding City. That’s the Fort Duquesne Bridge, if you’re curious, which crosses the Allegheny River.
More tomorrow, from the Paris of Appalachia.
“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.
embodying that
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was desirous of “getting busy” with the camera after several days of catch as catch can shooting out a car window. Luckily, my pal Max and I found ourselves on Mount Washington’s Grandview Avenue just as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself was descending behind… I guess it’s Ohio out here? That’s the “iconic” view of the dead bang center of the Pittsburgh Metro above.
My whole world is about to get rocked. Imagine… the world beyond New Jersey. I’m going into the west, like the colonial Dutch, or one of Tolkien’s elves.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I set up the tripod for these, and got fancy with how I was shooting them. This one looks up the Allegheny River from the prominence of Mount Washington. Can’t wait to start exploring this area in earnest and finding less common points of view, but for now – this’ll do.
The “shmear” of light in the midst of the Allegheny River is a tour boat operated by the Gateway Clipper outfit. This was a longish exposure.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The one above looks up along the Ohio River. Pittsburgh is where the convergence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers form into the headwaters of the Ohio. So much to learn…
That entire “zone” in the field of view of the shot above is – so far – “terra incognito” for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The highways in this area are wild. High speed roads with cloverleaf overpasses and ramps as far as the eye can see.
Such an interesting place this is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I felt the need to zoom in on those highways, and study the massing shapes that they form. My perception of the “structure of things” in this area seem to be like that of a pearl necklace – with the high speed roads being the string, and the residential and commercial/industrial developments the pearls. That’s my first impression, of course, and I’m likely just trying to categorize and put something “in a box” based on limited observation, which is something I tend to do.
Give me a couple of years to figure things out, and learn the history of why things are where they are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself disappeared, it got “proper dark.” Cracked out one last shot of the iconic view, and my pal Max and I headed off to dinner and then the AirBNB we were staying at. These shots were collected on the 31st of August, a Wednesday.
The 1st of September plan involved my pal Max heading off on his own, and for me to do a proper photowalk with the camera on my own.
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.
in pigment
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Normally, when I show you a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s the full sized one and it’s overflying the East River. Instead, having driven some 400 miles from NYC to the Pittsburgh area, and then to one of its smaller neighbors – Saxonburg – I encountered this version of the “Great Bridge” at the John A Roebling House and park. There’s an 1832 vintage wooden cabin preserved there which the great engineer used as a workshop, and Roebling was one of the founders of the town.
No matter how far away you go, there’s a chunk of NYC waiting there for you. Inescapable. Saxonburg was a lovely, lovely town, overall. It looked just like a Norman Rockwell painting, or the setting of a Frank Capra movie. We found a coffee shop on their Main Street, and after getting fueled up with caffeine, headed back in the direction of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily for me, the return trip to the City of Pittsburgh was My Pal Max’s turn to drive, and I got to shoot out of the car windows as he did so. We stopped off on the way to check out a few other spots on the route. Pittsburgh hosts 73 distinct neighborhoods, and many them are wildly different from the one “next door.” There’s a few picture perfect suburbs, several lightly populated exurbs, dense urbanity – you name it, and they’ve got an example to show you.
Everything here is connected via a network of expressways, highways, and secondary arterial roads. There’s a light rail system in the center of the city, and a network of bus routes which all converge on the downtown area. The buses are venous, as in they all go the heart of the City from the outlying areas. Unfortunately, if you want to transfer from one line to the next, you’d need to go all the way into town to do so, or so I’m told. Observationally, there’s a lot of neighborhood level bike riding, but getting from place to place is largely accomplished by driving a motor vehicle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Crossing the Allegheny River, where the skyline of Pittsburgh suddenly rears up. That curvy roofed structure is the Pittsburgh Convention Center, and the black rail bridge in front of it was actively conveying a freight train over the water.
These shots were gathered right around “rush hour” in Pittsburgh. Traffic was moving slowly, at maybe 25 mph, during the rush.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The highway we were on was going to carry us through the downtown area to another bridge crossing, one over the Monongahela River.
Along the way, I kept on clicking the shutter.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve always been fascinated by the parabolas and massing shapes of highway ramps, even as a kid. There’s something sublime about them, and it’s always impressive to me that something this utilitarian can be visually interesting. Might as well make it look good too, right?
They used to care a lot more about this sort of esthetic impact in the early 20th century than they do now, the Civil Engineering types.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the Monongahela River, I spotted this tug towing several barges of minerals – presumptively coke or coal. These river tugs are configured quite a bit differently than the harbor or ocean going units I typically see. They also tow the cargo differently in this region, with multiple barges stacked up in front of the vessel.
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.
lattice windows
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Driving in Western Pennsylvania feels like a blood sport in comparison to the stop and go traffic of NYC. They don’t fool around out here, as far as aggressively pushing their vehicles forward, and high speed roads abound. My pal Max and I were on a “seeing tour” of the greater metropolitan area surrounding Pittsburgh during the last week of August, visiting the various population centers.
“Spokes and wheels” is how a long time resident described the setup of one community to another out here to me. The wheels being the population centers, with the spokes highways and expressways.
Even in the center of the city of Pittsburgh itself, traffic was moving along at a decent clip – to my eyes – but I currently live in a place where it’s not uncommon to spend 90 minutes crossing a 25-30 mile distance. Locals talk about horrific delays at rush hour, and the frustration of getting caught up in choke points leading to a certain tunnel or bridge, but compared to what I’m used to… I suppose it’s a matter of perspective and that it doesn’t matter where you are or how fast it’s moving – it’s still traffic congestion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We were heading north on this particular day. Eponymous in name, the county of Butler is where you find its governmental center – and our destination – the City of Butler. Butler is 35 miles north of Pittsburgh proper, but it feels like it’s part of a different world. Distance is very, very different in this part of the country. 35 miles from my house is where Staten Island is – a two hour drive with a bunch of tolls.
My pal Max and I were heading north for the day in his late model Mercedes, and he took the morning drive on. At least until we stopped off for the sort of heavy breakfast that I favor on “away games.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the 1885 vintage Butler County Courthouse pictured above, which is the tallest building in the municipality. It’s also the local seat of Government, and there were all sorts of Lawyerly, Uniformed, and Politician type people milling about its immediate vicinity.
Max and I decided to split up, and I marched the camera over to an overpass’s pedestrian sidewalk to try and get a few good views of the place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An amazing residential structure caught my eye, once which immediately said “rooming house or former hotel” to me. The building seemed to be of wooden construction. I flashed the lens around here and there, but in no ordered manner. I’m planning on getting to know these exurb areas well, after relocating to the region at the end of the year. Butler, as it turns out, was Diamond Jim Brady’s factory town.
As I’ve said several times in this series of posts – there is so much to learn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was quite amused at the setup on the fire escape on the building which caught my eye. I used to have a gas grill on my porch in Astoria, until I was told by a friend who works for the FDNY that such a setup is considered “murder level” illegal by the fire inspectors. Fines, AND jail time, he said.
After spending about a half hour waving the camera around at various points of interest in Butler, I had to head back towards my pal Max, and his late model Mercedes. We had other places to visit, on our “seeing tour” of the Greater Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We were heading off towards a fairly rural area that has a huge historical footprint next. One reconfigured the camera to the now familiar settings I was using for the last few days, which allowed for the capture of landscape snapshots that we were driving past at 70 mph.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 