The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I was hanging out with a friend while on a recent walk, and we were trying out one of my ‘clever plans.’ As mentioned in the past, one of the things that’s been driving me batty is the fact that there’s large sections of the Pittsburgh Metro which you basically have to drive to. This negates the point of, and puts a delimiter on, how far a walk can range as you eventually have to get back to the car. Solution?

We tried out an ‘I park my car at the end of the walk, whereupon you pick me up and we drive to the beginning point of the walk whereupon we park your car, then walk all the way back to my car whereupon I then drive you back to your car’ scheme. It worked out pretty well, this, but it was absolutely pouring during the interval we were walking. Whatcha gonna do? Best laid plans, amirite?

When it’s raining like this, part of the photowalk deal is finding interesting places that you can step into and wave the camera around, which is how we ended up inside the Heinz Chapel, in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section, which found on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh (or ‘PITT’ as it’s colloquially referred to hereabouts).

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Heinz Chapel itself is pretty lovely, but we had less than a half hour inside available to us, as the staff were about to start a private tour of the place for some group. We were allowed us to briefly photograph the joint, but were in a bit of hurry due to the tour’s starting time looming.

Officially, it’s the Heinz Memorial Chapel, which opened for business in 1938, and its founding and construction were funded by Pittsburgh’s own Heinz family – as in the 57 varieties, ketchup, and baked beans Heinz’s.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’d love to get in here sometime with a proper tripod and do some photographic studies of the interior space, but since we had a deadline I used my ‘platypod,’ and a 16mm wide angle lens was affixed to the camera. The platypod gizmo is an easy to carry camera accessory, and one which is almost always found in whatever camera kit bag that I’m carrying on any given day.

I’ve got two bag setups, if you’re curious. One’s a ‘sling bag’ and the other is a knapsack. Both get an insert packing cube sort of thing which is customizable. I’ve got two of those which are set up in slightly different fashions. The Knapsack is great and voluminous, but the form/function of the bag gets in my way when I anticipate changing lenses frequently, as I was planing on doing this particular afternoon.

The sling bag is a lot better for that sort of thing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The problem with the platypod is that it’s essentially a table top camera support, meaning that you’ve got to find a surface for it to rest on – as opposed to a traditional tripod which is freestanding. Saying that, the platypod is brilliant when you’re in a natural setting.

The four ‘feet’ of the thing are connected to its central plate by quarter inch 20 turn screw holes (which is pretty standard for camera ‘stuff’). There’s a set of spikes which come with the thing which you can press into soil or whatever to anchor the camera plate down to the planet, but I made a set of ‘feet’ for it which use silicone furniture casters so as to not scratch or damage finished surfaces, nor mar the paint on the hood of my car when I set it up for that sort of circumstance.

It’s also pretty compact, which permits the capture of odd angles like ‘worm’s eye’ views, with the camera sitting just above ground level.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was dark within the Heinz Chapel, which called for the sort of camera support described above, but I could have gotten away with handheld/high ISO shots if I wanted to – as in the shot above (f4, ISO 3200, 1/60th of a second). My preference, however, for shots like these is a narrow aperture of f8, ISO at 100, and set whatever the exposure time to whatever it’s required to be. Higher ISO equates to noisier images, and I like the smoothness of lower sensitivity.

I’d really like to spend a bit of time in here at some point, and get all ‘tricksy’ with the shots, using exposure and focus blending. One exposure for the stained glass, another for the walls, etc., combine them all in my digital darkroom. That sort of thing, all artsy fartsy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Heinz people told us it was time to split, as their private tour was about to begin.

One last handheld shot, and then we stepped back outside into the rainy day. Being the kind of nerd I am, I had to inform my companion of the fact that it wasn’t actually raining, rather we were experiencing a precipitous mist. Didn’t change the fact that it was pouring rain, but it was an opportunity for me to start a sentence with ‘Actually…’ and seem intelligent by offering trivia, and that is something I cannot resist.

Look at me – I’m smart, not dumb, like people say.

As you’ll see tomorrow, we were lucky enough after stepping out into the precipitous mist to have another fairly epic public space to visit, and seek cover from the rain. Back tomorrow.

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“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.