Posts Tagged ‘Astoria’
swam curiously
From Hells Gate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst wiggling about and adjusting the camera settings to capture the image above, a humble narrator was photographed by the occupants of a passing minivan (which slowed down to do so) on Shore Bouelvard alongside Astoria Park last Sunday. The largish iPhone brandished at me skillfully ignored all the folks engaged in romantic congress in the front seats of their cars, or the small army of marijuana enthusiasts who were similarly situated in the parking lane. Clearly, the iPhone person had uncovered some nefarious activity being committed by a strange old man in a filthy black raincoat, and would be reporting so to the proper authorities. I was waiting for the goon squad to arrive and kick in my front door back at HQ later that night.
Mighty Triborough, and the Hell Gate Bridge, in today’s dark light post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is just something about camera equipment that sets off the accent crowd here in Astoria which I’ll never understand. It’s kosher to wave your phone around wherever you go, but if they see a DSLR, it’s regarded with the same sort of caution and concern that you’d expect for brandishing an assault rifle. Given that the times I’m not carrying a camera are so rare that they are statistically irrelevant, it means that I get stared at a lot.
I’d get stared at a lot even if I wasn’t carrying the camera, as a note.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Children gasp or cry, dogs growl, old ladies clutch at their purses… all things that happen when one such as myself scuttles past. Men puff themselves up and assume aggressive posture, police slow down and observe, security cameras pivot on their swivels. The only living creatures which do not react negatively to me are birds, and one can walk through a flock of them pecking away at the ground with nary a ruffled feather.
A few years ago, whilst wandering about, I snapped a quick photo of the facade of a local Greek church – St. Irene’s. A small mob of old Greek ladies suddenly appeared and literally chased me for about 3/4 of a mile.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I favor atmospherics like fog for these kind of shots, normally, but for structures as massive and far reaching as Triborough and Hell Gate – fog and mist get in the way and obscure too much detail. It’s particularly dark on this section of the East River as well, which causes any sort of artificial lighting to flare due to the contrast.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In my never ending quest to break habits, a rare vertical or portrait format shot from the “House of Moses.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I walked into Astoria Park to get this final shot of Hell Gate. I do wish Amtrak would light this bridge up at night.
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faery goldenness
Astoria style Currier and Ives, by request, for George The Atheist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, frequent commenter George the Atheist opined that he’d like to see some wintertime landscape shots offered at this – your Newtown Pentacle – so when the snow began to fall last Saturday, a humble narrator got busy here in Astoria. The bodega/grocery store pictured above is across the street from HQ, owned by a lovely Lebanese family, and is open nineteen hours every day. They’ve recently began a lunch counter in the back of the shop, and I can recommend the Kofta Hero with everything. That is indeed a tripod shot above, but with increased ISO sensitivity and shutter speed designed to capture the individual snowflakes falling. I did a few smoother shots at lower ISO and longer shutter speeds, but the airborne snow tended to smear and disappear in a long exposure – and just illustrated the conical path which the street lamp’s light was following down to the road.
The Indian place next door to the bodega is pretty good, if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Try the Salmon Tikka.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Above is an example of what happens when you slow things down during weather and accrue some time on the camera sensor, while looking northwards up my block in the direction of one of those new LED lamps which the City has been installing. It’s a whiter and colder light than yesterday’s model of NYC street lamps, which were yellow orange. If you click through on either this or the first shot to my Flickr account, you’ll see that one was experimenting with time and sensitivity in the shots immediately before and after the ones in today’s post. Always messing about, me.
The hard part about shooting in any sort of precipitatating atmosphere doesn’t really involve the camera body (plastic shopping bag cover) but the business end of the lens itself, which quickly becomes spotted with moisture requiring maintenance polishes between shots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sunday last, one suddenly found himself in Astoria Park after dark and so a quick “set up” for this shot of the arches of the New York Connecting Railroad, where it feeds rail traffic onto the Hell Gate Bridge, was accomplished. The snow from Saturday was still present, and all lit up by the yellow orange sodium based lighting which is still used by the Parks Dept. I always refer to the half melted stuff as “rotting snow” for some reason.
One seems to be obsessed with decay. It would also seem that I take requests. What do you want to see? If it’s reasonable, I’ll try and shoot it.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
private collector
These pants are too tight.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts this week, a walk over to the Bushwick side of the fabulous Newtown Creek was recently endeavored upon. As I often mention, this time of the year is never a good interval for a humble narrator, who often finds himself staring out the window wishing that it wasn’t quite as rainy or snowy or cold as the winter season typically is in New Yrok City. Atmospheric hurdles notwithstanding, one nevertheless found himself standing on the Scott Avenue footbridge over the Bushwick Branch tracks contemplating his problems while capturing a lovely winter sunset on a chilly night.
As a note, that’s the garbage train you see on the tracks below. By garbage, I mean the “black bag” or “putrescent” waste stream, which is containerized up by the Waste Management company at a couple of spots along Newtown Creek, and which will be “disappeared” out of the City by a rail outfit called the New York and Atlantic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The other day, in a post congratulating the Grand Street Bridge on its 115th birthday, I mentioned the Grand Avenue Bus Depot in Maspeth but didn’t show it. The shot above rectifies that, and it’s one of the few times that I’ve grabbed a shot of the place without being hassled by MTA’s “rent a cop” security. I don’t argue with the septuagenarian security guards there anymore, instead I write complaint letters to MTA HQ in Brooklyn, asking about exactly when the MTA decided it was kosher to abrogate my rights.
I’m becoming quite crotchety in my old age.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Buses have been increasingly focused on in recent months for one reason or another. Like a lot of the other municipal stuff which we are surrounded by, these vehicles pass by unnoticed and uncommented. They sort of blend into the background of the City and roll on by. I’ve become fascinated by them, in the context that buses are basically giant boxes of light moving along the darkened streets of the hive, and can be somewhat difficult to photograph. I like a challenge.
That’s the Q104, heading east along Astoria’s Broadway. As is the case with many of the bus routes of Queens, a part of the Q104’s replicates that of an old and forgotten trolley route. For the modern day residents of Astoria, myself included, it’s provides a vehicular connection to the Costco retail operation next door to Socrates Sculpture Garden.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Q102 on 31st street in Astoria, another line which I’ll periodically use when I’m returning from Newtown Creek and lazy sets in while I’m marching up Northern Blvd. About 800 million rides occur on MTA’s roughly 5,700 buses annually. Depending on the model of bus, which have an average life span of about 12 years on the streets of New York City, MTA pays out anywhere between $450,000 and $750,000 for EACH one of its diesel buses, and the hybrid models pictured above can add about $300,000 to the price tag for a new unit. You read that right, btw.
A lot to spend on a big box of light, no?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
lingered tenaciously
Atmospheric temperature inversions are cool.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may recall, last Friday was unusually warm for a day in January, and a patch of heavy fog fairly permeated the ether. Later in the evening, when the temperature began to drop towards seasonal norms, many would have described weather conditions as rainy but in actuality it was a precipitating mist. A variety of social functions saw one flitting to and fro in the cloud of vapor which occluded human vision and lent a mutiplicity of illuminates full discourse to dissipate and diffuse into its heaving forms.
Paragraphs like the one above are part of the reason that I don’t get invited to many parties, so when I am on a guest list – I go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A soirée in Sunnyside to celebrate a friend’s birthday was attended, and after escorting a third party back to her home, one found himself close enough to home to walk. The City of Greater New York is always at its most photogenic when it’s moist, and given that the temperature was pleasant… why not?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The next time a temperature inversion occurs and misty banks of vapor are observably rolling across the concrete devastations, my intention is to cancel or back out of any and all interpersonal plans. One shall pack up the tripod and camera kit and head over to the Newtown Creek.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
almost snatched
Project Queens is a work in progress, and always has been.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It often seems as if everyplace I find my heels clicking upon the sidewalks of Western Queens is a construction zone. This one got my attention the other day when I noticed a shaft of sunlight while riding a train, somewhere between the 46th Street and Steinway Street stops on the venerable R line tracks. After returning to the ancient village from points west and south, a brief investigatory wander revealed it to be a crew from the MTA construction division hard at work on Astoria’s Broadway. I walked up on the end of this process, but it seemed that they had cut a hole in the street in order to deliver bundles of lumber and other heavy materials to the sweating concrete bunkers below the street.
I know, that sounds ridiculous, cutting a hole in the street. Why go to such lengths and expense, inconveniencing an entire neighborhood, when you could just use a work train to transport materials to the job site… but… I did say “MTA” didn’t I?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Can you imagine the sort of existential horror that would ensue if the current Mayor of NYC’s mad plan to deck over the Sunnyside Yards happened? Often have I contemplated the nightmare scenario of materials laden heavy trucks criss crossing through Woodside, Astoria, Dutch Kills, Hunters Point, and Sunnyside while carrying tonnages of construction equipment and materials. The noise alone…
It would be less instructive, IMHO, if they were to just extend the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek a couple of blocks to the north and bring it all in via a maritime shipping channel. That is, in a scenario in which this Queens killing abomination actually happens, of course.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst marching about on Skillman Avenue nearby Queens Plaza, a work train crew was spotted on the overhead tracks. Presumptively, these folks were working on the long overdue CBTC signals project on the 7 line. This project, which seems like its been going on for decades (it has been) and must be millions over budget (it is) will allow the estimable scions of the MTA the opportunity to run one extra train per hour on the 7 line. Will the perfidy displayed by Jay Street ever end?
One of the military industrial complex concepts, which I wish the MTA would adopt in planning and spending, is the “resource to kill ratio.” In layman’s terms, that call that “bang for the buck.” You don’t use a million dollar missile to kill a guy on a camel, essentially. You use a sniper instead.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 