Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
Vir Bonus
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above was captured on an entirely different day than the two following it, but it makes for a nice ‘establishing shot’ of where this particular walk started out for me. On the evening that this photo was actually captured, I was attending a work event at the Carnegie Science Center that was produced by the Adobe software outfit.
There was a mixer with food and drink, and a presentation about the company’s latest offerings. The mixer part of the night was fun, and I got to meet a few local artists and photographers. We were allowed out onto an elevated terrace at the Carnegie Science Center, one which overlooks the center of things here in Pittsburgh.
Later in the week, when the other shots were gathered – it was a short walk sort of day. After a ride into town on the T light rail, your humble narrator could be observed scuttling down the very road pictured above.
There wasn’t really a game plan for this walk, other than to just keep moving and kick my feet around.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whenever I’m in this area, a visit to the Mr. Rogers memorial occurs.
It’s always a good thing to be reminded that trying to be a good person doesn’t mean that you always are one, but that the most important thing is to try. Everyone is special, in their own way, Mr. Rogers opined. Also, he liked people just the way they are. Try some of that today, I’d suggest. Be kind.
Gosh, the world was a better place with Mr. Rogers in it. It’s no mistake that I wanted to live in his neighborhood (which was actually Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill section where I could not afford to live, I’d mention, but there you are) in this part of my life.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This walk was but a part of my plans for the rest of the day. After the effort, Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself would be meeting up with friends back home and attending what turned out to be an incredibly lame ‘Ghost Tour’ of the Dormont suburb that HQ is located in. What the narrative turned out to be was essentially the top five Google hits for ‘unsolved capital crimes in Dormont.’ Disappointing.
Reflecting on Mr. Rogers’ message of positivity, however, the host did her best and brought a group of thirty or so strangers together on a Friday night for fun. Bless.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
All Allegheny
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, a long walk was recently underway. This time around I had ridden the T light rail to its terminal stop on Pittsburgh’s North Side and eventually found myself in front of a statue of Roberto Clemente. The bridge in the background is named for the athlete, and it spans the Allegheny River as part of a trio of mostly identical bridges.
This statuary is installed on the grounds of PNC Park, where the Pirates Baseball outfit resides.
As you might discern from the images, it was a lovely afternoon and the air temperature never rose above 70 degrees. Low humidity as well, a perfect late summer/early fall day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the distance, there was a historic boat visiting Pittsburgh, one which was supposed to have been used to launch tanks during WW2, but I missed out on checking it out. Probably should have, but a humble narrator can’t always make it when something cool is happening. Hey, I attended that historic plane dealie back in July, remember?
Ultimately, this was a ‘long walk’ day, and that’s what was on my dance card. Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle – that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My toes were pointed squarely in the direction of downtown Pittsburgh, and the Allegheny was crossed. Ultimately, my goal for the day was to ride back to HQ on the T Light Rail, with a penultimate stop which would reward me with a pint of beer, at that brewery I’ve been haunting that sits alongside the CSX subdivision tracks but that was still another river crossing and a few more miles of walking away from where I was in the shot above.
As a note – Pittsburgh is becoming more and more familiar to me at this stage of the game. I’m able to just wander around these days, rather than needing to map out a route prior to leaving HQ.
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.
Inlaetabilis vita
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After attending a Sportsball tournee at PNC Park, wherein the Pittsburgh Pirates contended with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the path back to where the car was parked luckily involved a quick ride on the Gateway Clipper, which was operating as a game day ferry (this is a regular line of business for this tourist boat outfit). It’s been a while since I did any low light/night time shooting, so a humble narrator was stoked.
I affixed the best ‘night lens’ I own to the camera, a stabilized f1.8 35mm, and got busy on the ride. Between the stabilization and the wide aperture, as well as my camera’s fairly spectacular high ISO capabilities, shutter speeds in the hundredths of a second were achieved.
Pictured above is the Fort Duquesne Bridge over the Allegheny River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the fountain at Point State Park, which is the theoretical center of Pittsburgh, where the Allegheny and Monongahela River’s combine to form the headwaters of the Ohio River. Gateway to the west… all that.
It was a lovely evening, and Our Lady of the Pentacle seemed quite pleased with her circumstance, at least. We needed to get home to Moe the Dog, as thunderstorms were roiling about, and he’s not a huge fan of thunder and we like keeping our furniture intact.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The boat passed under the Fort Pitt Bridge, and just a few minutes later we were debarking from the boat and walking back to the Mobile Oppression Platform, which I piloted on the fifteen minute or so drive back to HQ.
Back tomorrow 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.
Just scuttling, me
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A long walk was underway, and a humble narrator was enjoying the day. The weather was on my side, and so was the light. As you’ll see next week, things were about to get super interesting for one such as myself to marvel at – trains, tugs, all sorts of interesting things crossed my path.
One walked from the Penn Station ‘T’ light rail stop over to the Allegheny River and crossed the waterway on one of the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges, specifically the Roberto Clemente bridge.
I think that’s the Rachel Carson bridge pictured above, which is named for the Pittsburgh author who wrote the seminal environmentalist text ‘Silent Spring.’ I might be wrong, though, as the three bridges are fairly identical.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My walking path continued along behind the sportsball stadiums on Pittsburgh’s north side, where I indulged myself by shooting some of the many on and off ramps which carry highway traffic through this section of the city.
I’ve often mentioned how attracted to the parabolic arcs and clean linear nature of such infrastructure I am, despite its somewhat conflicting purpose. It’s likely that I-279 is up there, but who knows? There’s an absolute web of these highways and byways that converge around the stadiums.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first lucky ‘gotcha’ that I encountered on what ended up being an extremely lucky afternoon was a T light rail unit rising up out of its ‘subway’ tunnel, and onto the elevated tracks that carry the service towards its terminal stop. My plan was to pass all that by and walk over to the West End Bridge over the Ohio River, head east, and then follow the shoreline path back to where I’d encounter the T again at a different station.
Back next week with some of the cool stuff I encountered along the way 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.
Up, over, & pffffft
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the 31st street bridge pictured above, which I walked across the Allegheny River upon. As mentioned several times this week, this walk was a bit of a challenge for me, due to a long period of inactivity. As to why I was inactive for so long, that’s not a terribly interesting story to tell but let’s just say that I had things which needed tending to at home. The situation I was thereby dealing with involved a stiffened set of muscles and tendons in both the roadway interface and my lower back. It was also the first really warm day that I’d been out and about, and it was quite humid so I was sweating profusely. Put all that together and ‘no bueno.’
Saying all that, I’m quite used to having to double down on a walk and ease myself back into a groove after ‘hitting a wall,’ but my physical reserves to continue on were drying up with each step forward. Didn’t help that I was absolutely cooking in direct sunlight. Yeah, it was cloudy, but those were clouds of literal humidity hanging in the air.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the right side of the shot above, looking southwesterly along the Allegheny River, right at the horizon level – that’s Acrisure Stadium, which the Steelers operate out of, and that’s where I started this walk. Just under six miles is how far I got, basically.
Right after capturing this shot, I crashed out. ‘Ran out of gas’ as it were. Saying that, I was at the middle of a bridge, so I had to stagger on to the other side. My original plan involved walking all the way back downtown and crossing another bridge over the Monongahela River to get back to the light rail, but that all had to be scrapped.
A significant part of ‘adulthood,’ as I define it, is to know when you’re licked. The only thing on my mind at this particular moment was to find a shady spot where I could sit down and rehydrate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bridge was finally crossed and upon regaining the street grid, I summoned a Lyft rideshare to carry me to a destination which my intentions of a ten to twelve mile walk were meant to incorporate as a reward for the effort. ‘Man, oh man, I’m getting old’ is what I was thinking.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 