Posts Tagged ‘Color Park’
Smokey Pittsburgh, part 2
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator woke out of his nest around 4:30 am, hastily cooked up a pot of coffee, and was out on the road by 5:15 after inhaling three cups of the stuff. The weather forecast called for a bank of heavy fog to set up overnight, which would be coupled with a pall of wildfire smoke so thick that it triggered a bunch of governmental warnings about air quality being transmitted to Pittsburgh’s citizenry.
One returned to West End Overlook Park, to see what this sort of thing might look like, as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself rose in the eastern sky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I got there, you could hear the city but couldn’t see it. Heck, I could barely see the cameraman from local CBS affiliate KDKA and he was about thirty feet away from me. It was actually a fairly difficult drive, with visibility of under a hundred feet. Luckily this POV is only about twenty minutes from HQ by car.
I hung around for about thirty minutes, hoping that the occlusion would thin out a bit, but if anything it got thicker. A change of plan was instituted and I packed myself back into the car and headed for a different spot to do my thing from.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, while stuck at a traffic light, the camera was thrust up through the car’s moon roof. At this interval, I had traveled down about 800-900 feet in altitude, and was more or less on flat land and quite near the Monongahela River. The fog – as it turns out – was acting like a low flying cloud, and the West End Overlook Park was right in the middle of the mass. Down here, it was mainly smoke, with heavy fog.
Pittsburgh smelled kind of like everybody in it was BBQing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After getting down to a river frontage of the Monongahela, and having parked the Mobile Oppression Platform in an appropriate fashion, a bit of scuttling ensued.
Pittsburgh’s downtown, where the large buildings are, was fairly invisible. As mentioned above, you could hear the city but couldn’t see it. That was eerie and weird, and worth waking up early for.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The camera was waved about, that’s the T light rail heading out of Pittsburgh on the Panhandle Bridge. The Smithfield Street Bridge is just visible behind it.
One had drank his coffee before leaving the house, but no Breakfast had been endured, and right about here is when I started wishing that Pittsburgh had NYC style bodegas on every corner. An ‘egg sandwich’ doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does in ‘the old neighborhood.’ In fact, when I’ve asked for an egg sandwich in the NY manner here: two scrambles, ham and swiss, on a roll – I get puzzled looks back from the Yinzers with a “you want what now?”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finishing up the morning, with a last couple of shots pointed in the direction of Downtown and the Liberty Bridge. The fog, at least, had begun to disperse. One scuttled back to the vehicle and then back to HQ.
Back next week.
“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.
Not shy
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One hasn’t really explored the ‘close/near’ vicinity around HQ all that much, which is specifically Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont. Take a look at that terrain and you can probably guess why. That this is one heck of a hill to walk up is something I can tell you from experience, and I also gotta tell’s ya – walking down it ain’t all that simple either. That’s Downtown Pittsburgh on the horizon, peeking out over the trees, which is found roughly 5 miles away.
Also, I don’t really like taking pictures of residential neighborhoods, which Dormont mostly is. People get all bent out of shape when they see some bloke with a camera wandering around as it is. Fair enough, I guess. They’re all paranoid about ‘pedos’ out here. There’s billboards. Another big worry is ‘human trafficking,’ apparently.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been playing around in the dark, however. HQ has a deck facing out into our yard which adjoins another ‘thing’ I never encountered before moving here, which is a ‘paper alley.’ It’s used as community drive, is a semi paved street that goes all tree and vegetation halfway up the hill before it then joins with two other alleys at the top of the hill, forming a T shaped intersection that parallels a nearby street. All of this is found in between all the houses/yards and whatnot. Interestingly, it’s meant to be owned by the Post Office, but is administered by the local municipality. Commonwealths, amirite?
The deck situation allows me to experiment with different camera setups in dark situations. I had a porch back in Astoria, but that was pretty much a light and air pollution hot spot because of the traffic, bridges, highways, restaurant exhausts, and LaGuardia.
Here’s something I can tell you – a 35mm f1.8 lens can allow a shot – no more than 8 seconds – of the night sky before motion is recorded into the image due to the rotation of the earth, relative to the starry dome. 4 seconds is actually preferable. ISO is basically whatever it has to be for the exposure, and for the other settings to be valid.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lastly… if you’re going to be playing Bagpipes while riding a unicycle around Pittsburgh on a sunny afternoon, somebody is going to take a picture of you. Possibly video as well. Don’t get all prissy at the photographer, as he’s not the one who decided to ride around a park on a unicycle while playing bagpipes. You’re not shy, as you’re the one riding a unicycle while playing bagpipes.
Sheesh.
Back next week.
“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 