Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
Will there be cake?
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, a humble narrator had purchased a ticket for a narrated tour of the Allegheny River from the Doors Open Pittsburgh outfit. The narration was grand, offered lots of ‘in the know’ trivia, and was conducted by two fellows who were passing the microphone back and forth. One of them was expert on the subject of Pittsburgh’s bridges, whereas the other was versed in city planning and the scholastic field of urbanism. Nicely done, I would venture to say.
Also as mentioned yesterday, my internal dialogue was ranting and raving about personal insecurities and generally chewing up the mental carpet. While all this was going on, I was clicking and whirring the camera as we moved through Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sky was building up a storm, which was coagulating into the misty wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada. This was the same atmospheric interval which saw the East Coast turn orange and red, but at least on this day Pittsburgh only had a bit of haze. That would change a few days later, which you’ll see in a post later this week.
I was using one of my older lenses on this outing, an 18-300 Sigma. While shooting with it, I realized how much I missed its qualities and made a decision to bring a couple of other old favorites out of the locker and see how they react to the mirrorless camera. They all need an adapter to go from one lens mount to another, but there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The mirrorless lenses I have are actually pretty top notch, but you don’t want to wear the same pants every day. Actually… I do wear the exact same thing everyday. One of my odd behaviors is that when I find a garment that fits well physically and is constructed robustly, and has lots of secure pockets, I go back to wherever I got it and buy 5 more of the thing, same color and size. Superman has multiple iterations of only two suits in his closet – Clark Kent’s dark blue business suit, and the Kryptonian leotards with the cape. It’s one less thing to worry about. There’s a winter version and a summer variant of the Mitchsuit.
‘What would Superman do?’ I ask myself that all the time.
After we docked, I positively jumped into the drivers seat of the Mobile Oppression Platform and paid my parking lot fee, then headed back to HQ about 5 miles away. I’m always checking the weather for interesting conditions that might make for good shots, and discovered that the next couple of days were going to be very interesting in terms of atmospherics. More on that, 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.
Anxious on the Allegheny
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, one attended a narrated boat tour offered by the Doors Open Pittsburgh operation. I’m still learning about my new home base, after all. I took the opportunity to worry, while shooting pictures of the wonders rolling by.
Worry about what?
Everything, silly. Just like I’ve trained the brain to let anger flare and dissipate quickly, and to never allow myself to feel either happiness or joy, so too have I created a mental socket for the absolutely useless process of worrying about existential matters which I have zero control over. I tend to enjoy that form of anxiety when I can’t possibly walk into traffic or drive the car into a tree while distracted by having gone all meditative.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey, that’s the former Heinz factory!
That reminded me to worry about running out of ketchup back at HQ, which made me worry about whether or not I locked the back door on my way out. That then made me wonder if anybody was trying HQ’s back door back in Dormont, which led to a mild panic attack about whether or not I had locked the car doors back in the boat company’s parking lot. What would, could, or should? I was raised by neurotic people, and grew up in a subculture known for its histrionic responses to ordinary or predictable stimuli.
I got bit by a mosquito on the boat, so then I worried about malaria too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mental process like this is entirely self defeating, of course, but you need to clean the bathroom periodically and so too with the poop that accumulates twixt the ears. Saying that, I’ve been in a LOT of doctor’s offices lately, which has freaked me out a bit. This sort of thing tends to muddy my psychological waters. Inspections. Brrr.
Allowing these thoughts to express themselves in an internal manner while I’m safely shooting from the deck of a boat allows me to put the shields back up before getting back onto dry land.
Just ask – How’re ya Mitch?
Everything’s great, all the time. That’s my answer, followed by ‘it’s just another day in Paradise.’ Then I’ll tell you a joke to distract you away from further inquiry. Hey, look at that, it was cloudy in Pittsburgh that day and…
“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.
Sliding along on the water
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Doors Open Pittsburgh outfit offered a narrated boat tour of the Allegheny River recently, and I bought myself a ticket. There were originally two boat tours on order for the day, but the other one got cancelled due to mechanical issues with the vessel. The cancelled one was meant to leave the dock at 8 am, with the boat that I actually got to ride on which these photos were captured from leaving dock in the afternoon. There’s three rivers in Pittsburgh, famously – the Monongahela and Allegheny flow into each other and form the Ohio.
If you like to split hairs, and let’s face it – I do – there’s five rivers. The three mentioned above, plus the Youghiogheny over in McKeesport (different government/community than Pittsburgh – sort of a NYC/Newark thing – but water doesn’t respect political boundaries) and there’s a subterranean river which acts as an aquifer that the local governmental water people mention a lot. I don’t know what to call that one, so let’s just go with ‘Styx.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For this outing, I adapted one of my older lenses onto the mirrorless canon camera I’m using these days. A Sigma 18-300 ‘all in one’ zoom, which is a ‘crop sensor’ lens designed specifically for the sort of DSLR I used to use. It’s a ‘full frame’ camera, the mirrorless one I use now, whereas my older camera was a ‘crop sensor.’ The mirrorless unit allows me to use its onboard settings to allow it to act like a crop sensor and I have a hardware adapter which handles mounting one model’s lenses on the other. Whew.
This isn’t an ideal workflow situation for me, but I’ve got piles of great lenses which I haven’t used in a while that I miss. Just last night, I pulled an old favorite out of the bag – my Sigma 18-35 f1.8, and was testing how it behaved on the mirrorless camera body.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Canon, in their infinite wisdom and greed, have decided not to allow third party lens into the mirrorless ‘RF Mount’ ecosystem at this point. This is really annoying, and whereas the lenses they’ve released for the RF mount are truly amazing, most of them cost what you’d pay for an OK used car. The lens I was using on this outing is one of my old ‘go-to’s’ from NYC when I’d have to be prepared for a variety of circumstance.
Saying that, it’s a ‘daylight’ lens, and fairly crappy for handheld use once the sun starts going down. I’m feeling the hankering for doing some night time work again, after all of this sunlit world stuff – as a note. It’s been a while.
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.
Egress in Etna
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, I had a friend in town, who wanted to see the sights here in Pittsburgh. Our travels around the region were by car, and the Mobile Oppression Platform allowed for the visitation of several extant locations.
We got lucky at the Etna Riverwalk when a Norfolk Southern train set came barreling through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Senator Robert D. Fleming Bridge over the Allegheny River. You’re not crazy, btw, I’ve been here before – back in early February. There’s a bunch of places which I’m planning on revisiting now that the trees and hills are dressed up in green.
I’m starting to get a feel for Pittsburgh, I think. I’m not traveling around with the entire photo kit that I would carry to an ‘away game’ anymore, and am instead saying ‘this lens’ is what I’ll need for today. Not prepared for ‘everything,’ just ‘most things.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks up the Allegheny towards the USACE’s Lock and Dam 2. I’m fairly sure that’s the Highland Park Bridge, and a rail bridge behind it, but I can’t really be ‘sure’ of anything yet as I’m still learning about the place. Back in NYC, I was like a walking encyclopedia. It’s refreshing to not be that person anymore, and learning new things every day.
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.
Bridge to Nowhere
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Fort Duquesne Bridge was completed in 1963, but didn’t open for traffic till 1969. The reason for the delay seems to revolve around PennDOT not having secured the real estate that would be required for its off ramps on the north side of the Allegheny River prior to the start of construction. There’s a famous story about a college student who intentionally jumped a station wagon off the open end of the bridge in 1964. Pittsburghers of the time, and some you’ll encounter today, refer to this as the “Bridge to Nowhere.”
Me? I had recently walked the nearby and larger Fort Pitt Bridge, and since Fort Duquesne enjoys a particular prominence due to association with its larger neighbor I thereby figured I’d make an afternoon out of it. This structure looks a great deal like Fort Pitt, and shares its engineering problem solving theory with it – it’s a double decked bowstring arch bridge just like Fort Pitt is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Fort Duquesne feeds into the north western side of the city of Pittsburgh, and allows high speed road traffic (I-279 and PA Route 65) to head north along the Ohio River coast towards wealthy and long established suburbs like Sewickley, or the rapidly growing subdivisions of Cranberry Township.
Speaking from the NYC transplant perspective for a moment; I looked at both of those places before moving out here. Sewickley was too rich for my blood, and reminded me of several wealthy coastal communities in Connecticut and Jersey which I could never afford and which would annoy me daily as a proud child of the working class. Think Westport. Cranberry was cool if you’re worried about school districts, have a young family, and are investing for the long term. Think Melville or Amityville, not Huntington – and sure as hell not Dix Hills – on Long Island. Northern part of Westchester County kind of vibe.
Given that Our Lady and myself are new to the Pittsburgh area, we decided that isolating into such an suburban existence when we’re newly arrived from the concrete devastations and dense urbanity of Home Sweet Hell (NYC) would be a mistake. We chose to land ourselves, thereby, in the South Hills of Pittsburgh and specifically the Borough of Dormont. There’s public transit for when we don’t want to drive here, and there’s still an urban vibe. Cranberry was “car culture” designed, which is fine, but it’s not what we were looking for. Saying that, if you want to buy something, anything, there’s probably somebody in Cranberry Township you’d want to do business with and their shop will have ample free parking available. There’s also likely going to be a Denny’s nearby. Thriving, it is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having driven over this bridge quite a few times now, it was surprising how short a walk this was. Fort Duquesne Bridge is only 430 feet long, not including the approaches, which is half the size of the South Tenth Street Bridge over the Monongahela River discussed last week.
I’ve spent my entire life in a place so unnatural and altered that the term “terra forming” applies, so there’s are many places in Pittsburgh that I just don’t understand. The crazy terrain constantly strikes me. I have a neighbor whose back yard slopes away from the road at something like 25 degrees. His front door is half a story lower than the road. His back door sits at something like 2 stories down.
Have these people never owned a level? Hear of soil grading? Creating a flat surface for the housing slab to be poured on? Filled in the Hudson River to build luxury condos? Proposed extending Manhattan to join with Governor’s Island using landfill in an estuary? Jeez.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path off of the Fort Duquesne Bridge comes down to earth at Point State Park, which was my turnaround point. One negotiated a brisk scuttle back to the Allegheny River coastline, this time on the south side of the river and along Pittsburgh’s ‘Golden Triangle’ downtown area. A parting shot of the bridge was required, nested in its web of on and off ramps.
Y’know, I’ve been calling it the “Pretty City of Pittsburgh” since coming here in the late 1990’s – back when I was writing and drawing comic books – to promote a series I was doing at a comics convention. In more recent years, all of my experiences in Downtown Pittsburgh have been during the Covid period. Thereby, I haven’t seen much of the hustle and bustle here, except around Court Houses and whenever the Cops or Fire Dept. are getting busy with something. It’s popping down here when there’s a Steelers game, I’ll tell’s ya.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By this point, one was preoccupied with wonderings about when the next opportunity to demonstrate my robust renal health would present itself, and I was on the lookout for a bathroom while scuttling back towards the safely ensconced Mobile Oppression Platform back at the municipal parking lot with the cool views.
Along the way, I kept on shooting. People I passed by were jogging and bike riding, and others were smoking crack or speed. There are a lot of very skinny people found downtown with sunken eyes, skeletal nasal superstructures, and hollow cheeks in this part of the country. That opioid thing ain’t no joke. It seems that the teeth go first.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m happy to report that the Greyhound Bus Station’s lavatory was cleaner than you’d imagine, and after blowing ballast I negotiated my way back to the Mobile Oppression Platform at the municipal lot with the great views and I was soon driving home. Parking cost me $5, which was an ‘all day’ price.
Tomorrow, something different, at 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 