Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
Scuttling on the North Side of Pittsburgh
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the northern bank of the Allegheny River, here in Pittsburgh, there’s an area called the ‘North Side.’ There’s lots of individual neighborhoods found within the region, but this section of the greater metro area used to be an independent municipality called “Allegheny City” which Pittsburgh annexed at the start of the 20th century. Further up the river is where the Heinz Factory was, and the ‘zone’ I was in for this post was the one that touches the ‘Mexican War Streets.’ The spot which I was specifically in has the National Aviary as its landmark, with said institution sitting in the middle of the very nice Allegheny Commons Park.
I’ve mentioned the many, many diagnostic medical tests which a humble narrator has endured in recent months. Our Lady of the Pentacle has also been getting probed and pinched and irradiated, and on a recent morning while she was enjoying just such a procedure, I needed somewhere to take Moe the Dog. We ended up in this park, which is somewhat nearby the hospital, while waiting for Our Lady to be done. I made a mental note to come back on foot without Moe, and that’s why I was there on this particular day. Scouting!
You’re all caught up now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been looking for a spot to observe these rail tracks, cut into a trench through the park, for a while. While Moe was chasing down a squirrel, the little dog led me right here. There’s a swell ‘autumn’ shot to be gathered here, with the black Norfolk Southern locomotives moving through the trench. The trees planted along the fence are Gingkos, I’m told, whose leaves turn a bright golden yellow during fall. You’ve got your black train and your gold leaves – which are not just Steelers colors but in fact are the heraldic colors of Pittsburgh.
On this particular afternoon, a humble narrator wasn’t trying to get all ‘artsy fartsy,’ instead I was walking quickly and observing the state of the neighborhood ‘milieu.’ North Side has an insalubrious ‘reputation’ according to the ‘born n bred’ Pittsburghers, but to my eyes… Heck. East New York and Far Rockaway are my delimiters for danger, so my perception of things is a bit different than that of the locals, I think, due to the experience of having lived in “Home Sweet Hell” my whole life.
Walk around Industrial Maspeth at night during a pandemic, I’d offer, if you want actual scary.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The purpose of this adventure was to get some exercise and fix a geospatial awareness of those rail tracks in the old noggin, and to also work out how to get to this area using the T light rail rather than driving here. This section of Pittsburgh reminds me of several spots in Brooklyn and Queens, especially their scarcity of street parking.
One leaned into it and started heading southwards.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This may look pretty desolate, but the land under these expressway ramps is a parking lot about two blocks away from the sports ball stadium which the Pirates baseball team plays in. On game days, this lot would be brimming with tail gate BBQ’s and hundreds if not thousands of people and their vehicles.
The rest of my day’s plan involved the other side of Pittsburgh, and I’d need to cross two rivers on foot to get there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m told that the modernist building in the shot above is the HQ of the ALCOA aluminum outfit. That river is the Allegheny, with downtown Pittsburgh looming up behind and to the south of it.
It was a warm but lovely day in Pittsburgh, with a decent breeze and temperatures in the middle 80’s. It was fairly humid, however.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are three fairly identical bridges found here, called the ‘Three Sisters.’ The one pictured above is the Rachel Carson Bridge, named for the author of the seminal environmentalist book “Silent Spring.”
Back next week with more 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.
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
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.
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.
