Posts Tagged ‘Dormont’
Scuttle’s end
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a fun hike along the Ohio Water Trail, one last shot of a passing train was gathered. CSX was heading westwards along the Ohio River, whereas I was rolling north-easterly and towards the terminal stop of the T light rail which is nearby Acrisure Stadium.
As mentioned previously, the busted ankle performed well on this one. The only real discomfort I had was an aching back, but that’s exercise for ya. Saying that, I experienced a bit of swelling in the ankle that evening.
Six months to two years, the Doctor said.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the T light rail, up on its elevated tracks. Luckily, there’s escalators within the station so I didn’t have to get ‘all PTSD’ again regarding stairs.
That phobia is still traveling with me, but has lessened in severity. Exposure to many, many sets of steps and successfully negotiating the rises and runs has alleviated the worst of the condition. My energy levels are finally returning to normal, as well.
Lots of six image posts these days, huh?
When I’m scared of something, I try to conquer that feeling rather than incorporating weakness into my psyche and then forcing other people to deal with my bullshit. In my youth, it was common for adults to remind me that you needed to be tough in life, and that if you fell off a horse you needed to get right back in the saddle as soon as possible. Doing so was considered admirable, in my youth.
Today, you’d start an online group to virtually attend, and wallow in a pity party with similarly aggrieved people, and then you’d try to outlaw horse riding so that nobody has to suffer the way you did. You’d wrap yourself in padding to soften life’s blows, rather than armor.
Seriously, if somebody punches you in the nose, do you cry and run away, or do you bite them on the face (with the intention of leaving a scar) for revenge? Sheesh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For the curious, I was listening to a couple of HP Lovecraft audiobooks during this scuttle – specifically ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’ and ‘The Call of Cthulhu.’ The former was narrated by Wayne June, and the latter is a British radio drama adaptation that’s read by actor Garret Hagen.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Get’s and go’s
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a T light rail entering Potomac Station in Pittsburgh’s Dormont, where Newtown Pentacle HQ currently is found. I really have to get back to doing night shots, I’ve decided. Miss it.
Problem is that Pittsburgh is a very, very daytime focused place – or at least my style of life here has been. I get up early these days, about six in the morning, and am usually back in bed by about eleven at night. A huge change for me, this is, given how thoroughly nocturnal I used to be back in NYC. It’s darker here, I should mention, as there’s far less scattered light pollution bouncing off of concrete and buildings.
It’s funny, I feel like I’ve been slacking lately, although in reality I’ve been pushing the physical envelope as much as I can, post broken ankle wise. Every one of the longish walks I’ve been showing y’all has resulted in a day or two of painful soreness, but echoing in my head is ‘everything’s ok now, push harder.’ In reality, everything is definitively ‘not ok,’ but I’m trying. Everything will be better if I just work harder.
Really do miss the night stuff, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next door to Dormont is Mount Oliver, and amongst other things, that’s where Moe the Dog goes for his dog training. He’s good at being a dog – to be clear – what with all the barking and the pooping so he doesn’t need any help on that front, but Moe has a lot of rough edges and bad habits we’re trying to coax him out of.
After dog training, it was time for me to figure out a route for my next walk. As mentioned, ad nauseum, one the goals at the moment is to pick routes which will provide certain otherwise hard to impact muscle groups in my legs which atrophied during my hermitage a decent workout. I also want to ‘see some stuff’ along the way.
On this walk, I had the whole kit with me – tripod, prime lenses, zoom lens. For this sort of carry, I prefer a knapsack, and the one currently on my back is from the Patagonia brand. Water resistant, lots of internal pockets, multiple compartments. The bag itself weighs practically nothing. This particular bag can – and has – held more than I had packed into it on this outing, but this was a day trip and not an overnighter. Additionally, I have to be concerned with how much the bag weighs which I’m slinging it onto my back because… you guessed it… the ankle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Patrick’s street, in the South Side Slopes/Allentown zone of Pittsburgh, that’s where I had a Lyft driver drop me off. I’ve been up here a few times in the past, but have never walked this particular route before. It’s almost like I’m systematically working my way through the street grid of an intriguing neighborhood, isn’t it?
I’ll show y’all what I saw along the way, on what ended up being a four and change miles scuttle, much of which was walked downhill at quite a steep grade. Interesting neighborhood, this.
Back tomorrow with more, 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.
Rolling with the Dormont Camera Club
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator normally eschews company whilst behind the camera, as I’m not a terribly big fan of humanity – particularly these days. I enjoy the quiet and meditative nature of solo photography, and always have. Saying that, there’s a quite active Facebook group serving the Boro of Dormont, and somebody posted an invitation on said message board that they were initiating the creation of a ‘camera club’ for the town.
I laughed about going, but then decided ‘what the hell, why not.’ It was about a 20 minute walk from HQ to the meetup spot at Dormont Park, a scuttle which would involve walking up and then down about three steep hills. Stretch and strengthen, that’s the mantra.
Our Lady of the Pentacle and Moe the Dog were probably just happy to see me leaving the house and walking about the neighborhood again. I’m a lot surlier than I was before the ankle deal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I would have chosen a different location, as parks are generally a bit too ‘safe’ to capture the sort of things I normally find myself pointing a camera at, but it wasn’t my show.
The leader of the group laid out a challenge for the day, which was ‘early spring.’ He mentioned that he was going to be shooting for macro shots of new leaves and such. There were about ten people, all friendly and nice. I made an effort to keep my mouth shut for most of the thing, as it wasn’t my ‘show.’ I’ve done plenty of ‘talking’ at shows, after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘spring’ thing, for me, took the form of noticing all of the park equipment that was still locked up in its winter hermitage.
A few kids were throwing balls around on the baseball field, a couple of people were walking cute and fat dogs. We followed a path around the park, and your humble narrator was being quite mindful of his ankle.
The walk here was surprisingly difficult, due to all of the heavily angled pavement paths. I’m getting better, a lot better, on level ground. Angled foot steps on slopes are a different story. Time spent on exercise will fix this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a weekend day, and I also had a social engagement to attend a bit later in the afternoon. When the group headed downhill to the lowest elevation of the park, I broke off and started making my way to meeting up with Our Lady and couple of friends.
Last thing I needed to do was add another steep hill into my portfolio of pain at this point. Actually, pain is a bit of an overstatement, rather I’m feeling a pervasive soreness in the ankle and calf. Couple that with the muscular atrophy in the upper thighs…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The long scuttle I’ll be talking about next week saw me breaking a few limitations, and made the case that things are progressing in the right direction. This part of my story seems to be finally coming to an end.
I bid our host adieu, and requested to be on his mailing list for future endeavors. Saying that, ain’t all that much that you’ll find that’s worth shooting in a park.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way to the social engagement, I spotted a T light rail unit leaving the local station. Man, this is so much more my deal.
Back next week 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.
Scuttleburgh
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ok, I’m really starting to lean back into my ‘normal’ things, lords and ladies. I’ve fully convinced myself that nobody thinks I can fully recover from the busted ankle because they think I’m old and weak, and further packaged that up with a lot of of other personal resentments and annoyances, so I thereby have to prove the world wrong. Again.
What? How do you motivate yourself out of the house to enact a forced march when the only thing you want to do is stay at home and whine about how much your ankle is bugging you? Pfah.
The hill I live at the bottom of was vaingloriously surmounted, and your humble narrator then heroically scuttled off in the direction of the light rail station. The goal for the day was a short walk, of about three miles, but the effort would also include walking some of Pittsburgh’s steeply problematic hills.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I made it to the apex of those hills, here in Pittsburgh’s Boro of Dormont. That’s where you’ll find the T light rail station, and it’s where I boarded the carriage to carry me to a more visually interesting section of the metro area. I boarded the thing and it lurched roughly towards Pittsburgh, about 5-6 miles away. For you New Yorkers, think boarding the subway in Downtown Brooklyn or the Northern Blvd. sections of LIC and Astoria for an analogue. Just a few stops and you’re ‘there.’
Observably, I seem to be the only person in Pittsburgh who shoots photos out of the T’s windows, but that’s a habit I started back in NYC while riding the subways. Helped pass the time during a commute, and you never really knew what you were getting until going through the photos back at HQ. Most of my ‘shooting out of a train window’ ends up getting trashed, but every now and then you get something unique or interesting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That concrete blockhouse looking structure is the entrance to Pittsburgh’s Liberty Tunnel. The terrain surrounding it is byzantine, with multiple arterial roadways leading here. There’s also the T tracks, which are elevated on a causeway here, and there’s also busways, and a couple of heavy freight rail trestles also get threaded through this area. It’s complicated!
One of these days I’m going to debark the T at a nearby stop and try to get some decent shots of the complex. At least until the cops chase me away, or I get bored while waiting for a freight train to cross one of those trestles.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, a good amount of construction work is currently affecting the T light rail, and the lines will all be detouring through the Allentown neighborhood until the autumn. Unfortunately, the ‘PRT’ transit agency which runs the show only added a single stop way at the top of the hill for the inconvenience, but there you are.
If you’re curious, the camera formula for this sort of ‘out the window shooting’ involves setting the ISO sensitivity up to nighttime levels (6400 for my camera) and setting the device to its ‘AV’ or aperture priority mode. The camera will then find the correct exposure automatically while maintaining the ISO and aperture settings (which is f8 for the particular zoom lens I was using this day). Normally, I shoot in full manual mode, which allows me control over all aspects of the exposure, but shooting out of the window of a moving vehicle isn’t very normal and the technological assist is welcomed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the set of tracks which I often point the camera at, the ones nearby that brewery I keep mentioning. My plan for the day involved the relative flatness of this area. The beginning of my walk involved a bit of muscle, in terms of getting to the T via the hills of Dormont. This section was all about exercising the more discrete tissues in the foot and ankle, and getting them moving and all lubricated.
Six months, and two weeks. That’s exactly how long I’ve been dealing with this broken ankle business. As mentioned last week, the Doctors have more or less given me the ‘all clear’ and thusly I now need to seriously work the joint in order to get back to what I consider ‘normal.’ Thing is, ‘normal’ is what it used to feel like, and it’s a pretty different ankle after the injury and surgery. How it works, feels, performs – all different.
The asymmetry is really hard to get used to, but in time I don’t think I’ll even notice it. If only I was born patient, instead of good looking…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T was debarked at the Second Avenue station, which is fed traffic by the Panhandle Bridge pictured above. The plan was to walk a bit on one of the trails along the waterfront of the Monongahela River, cross the waterbody on the Smithfield Street Bridge, then try and get a few train shots. It wouldn’t be a ‘have a beer too’ day, although my end point for the walk would be nearby that now familiar spot nearby the brewery.
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.
Heading south, on West Liberty
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, one was engaged in a constitutional walk with a route that was planned out as being rather close to home. On this scuttle, I was walking down a secondary arterial street called ‘West Liberty Avenue,’ which transmogrifies into being called ‘Washington Road’ as it travels southeastwards. West Liberty Avenue intersects with a few other high volume roads, nearby the Liberty Tunnels leading out of Pittsburgh, as it heads out into the South Hills section. It’s set up like a local road, with lights and crosswalks, but the West Liberty/Washington Road corridor is a four lane high volume 24/7 traffic engine. In transit geek language, it would be called a ‘Stroad.’
I’m intrigued by that church pictured above, and plan on seeing what it’s like within the place sometime soon. They built churches like battleships out here, back in the day. There are, in fact, four churches along this route which I’m very interested in photographing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More of Pittsburgh’s peculiar (to me) alleys were encountered along my way. As is always the case when I’m on this sort of scuttle, one was trying to notice ‘all the little things.’ By this section of the walk my ankle was starting to get angry at me, but in accordance with a now long standing habit I just leaned into it. Won’t get better on its own, and I’ve had enough rest to last me a lifetime.
It’s actually an odd thing to be ‘consciously’ walking. As in focusing in on each step while avoiding the trap of ‘protecting’ my ankle. The protection thing inevitably ends up with me limping, dragging my foot, or walking like the Batman villain Penguin. All of those things are counterproductive to the recovery effort, so I need to maintain a certain awareness of my walking postures whilst scuttling about. My surgeon endorses this view of mine.
I’ve literally had to relearn bipedalism in the last six months. This was something I thought that I had accomplished more than fifty years ago, so it’s frustrating to have to do it all over again. Bah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
About five years ago, I missed out on a serious payday from the stock photo company Getty when they were looking for shots of urban gas stations, specifically BP ones. I decided at that point to make such institutions part of my shot list. I also discovered how difficult it is to get shots of gas stations at night when they’re all lit up, and that’s something whoch draws me to a subject like nothing else.
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 