Posts Tagged ‘Mount Washington’
Sycamore Street too
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well, happy summertime, I guess. The Newtown Pentacle Time Warp (patent pending) is still in effect, as your humble narrator has somehow managed to maintain his ‘good month or so’ of ‘lead time’ on these posts. The photos in today’s post were captured at the very end of April, and the words you’re reading were encoded at the end of May.
In yesterday’s post, the latest scuttle had begun, which saw my horrific countenance appear on Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington. The path for this day started on a particularly steep, and serpentine, street called Sycamore – which I’d only driven upon in the past.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Y’know, if this was NYC, I’d be able to say ‘east,’ ‘west’… all that… and then refer to something about the sun disappearing behind New Jersey. I’m of the opinion that the point of view in the shot above is ‘more or less’ north, but I’m often wrong about things. Ask anyone.
People just love to point out when I’m wrong about something or other. Not in the way I’d hope, where you point out something evidentiary that I missed and I’d offer Mea Culpas while presenting your evidence here in a seperate post. Instead: No. It’s not real, that’s AI. Used to be ‘that’s not real it’s photoshop.’
‘You said ‘such and such’ happened on July 1st, but it was 12:01 am on July 2nd, so thereby you’re wrong about every single assertion you’ve ever offered.’ I’m also a big fan of when somebody decides what my politics must be because I took a picture of a train or something.
Funnily enough, I don’t have any problem with being corrected, as that’s how you learn things that are outside of your experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We seem to be living in a ‘no second chances’ stage of the American culture. The rules of morality shift and change every day, and what was ‘kosher’ last year may be heresy now. There is no room whatsoever for people to evolve, get educated, or earn redemption for past sins. You must be emotionally and politically perfect, from infanthood, and naturally.
If not – deeply problematic – as the Millenials would say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sycamore Street’s course consists of a series of switchbacks which carry it from the apex of Mount Washington’s ridge line down to the flood plain of the Monongahela River, coming to ground in the ‘South Side Flats’ zone.
There aren’t any sidewalks on this section, as it’s kind of a narrowed roadway path. What kind of a moron would actually want to walk this way, anyway? Why not just take the incline?
I should mention – It’s bad, between the ears right now.
A humble narrator finds himself existing in a constancy of annoyance. Cortisol levels are high, and internal rage is epic. A constant struggle is under way to ‘just pretend.’ Luckily, when out scuttling, I’m all by myself and don’t have to engage in the fantasy that World War 3 isn’t right around the next corner. Speaking of…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along the route, elevated trestles carry other roadways.
The one flying through the shot above is called the PJ McArdle roadway, which I’ve walked down several times in the past. There’s a car lot nearby, for a park’s hiking trail I haven’t experienced yet. It’s something which I’ve been holding off doing, due to the lingering annoyances emanating from the orthopedic incident and the fact that it’s ‘natural’ ground.
The broken ankle was a profound injury, actually, which seems to have changed me in weird ways. Beyond the helplessness and crazy amounts of pain experienced during the injury’s immediate aftermath, and the severity of the PTSD symptoms which I’ve been bitching about related to stairs, it’s been a year since I’ve started really moving around again and yet – the recovering joint still offers periodic surprises.
On this day, for instance, a wicked cramp popped up in a calf muscle. Big whup, I know, but this was the kind of cramp you can plainly see playing out under the skin. Looked like a snake was moving around inside my calf! Yikes!
I needed a quick break.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, some truck based business located mid slope, on a carved out flat lot, seems to have exited the space and their parking pad was available to me for a quick respite. I found a quick ‘sit down’ spot, and rubbed my non camera holding hand upon the limb, until the blood started flowing in a predictable manner again.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Sycamore Street
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Grandview Avenue is a street which rides along the ridge line of Mount Washington here in Pittsburgh, offering visitors paramount points of view over the City. At either end of the landform, tertiary local streets drip down and away from Grandview, providing access to the surrounding hills, flood plains, bridges, tunnels, and the rivers.
This time around, my walk got started about a block back from Grandview Avenue, at one of the local roads ‘up there,’ which is called Shiloh Street. Shiloh, where a BID promotes several tourism focused businesses, leads down to Sycamore Street – which is a very interesting sort of pathway to one such as myself. Gotta stop saying that, as there really isn’t anyone else who is like myself. It’s a curse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sycamore Street is pretty steep in this section, and as soon as you leave Shiloh Street it transmogrifies from commercial to residential zoning.
Space is tight up here on Mount Washington, and the multi story buildings are practically built on top of each other, with only narrow alleys or driveways between them.
Behind me is a long residential section of Sycamore Street, but the section I was walking on this particular day is the fun part. To me, at least.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At Sycamore’s intersection with Wyoming Street, there’s a large undeveloped lot. I’ve driven by this lot several times and have always wondered what was going on there. As it turns out, not too much.
I’m unclear as to what’s going on here. I’ve seen online speculation that some big real estate development deal fell through, or something like that. It doesn’t seem abandoned, this property. Somebody mows the grass here, I’d point out. There aren’t middens of garbage, or illegal dumping.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s the remains of a public street there, pictured above, dubbed Vinecliffe Street. Notice the strip of sidewalk pavement, and the metal bannisters, on the right. One kicked his feet about, looking to see if there might be an interesting point of view, but when there was one it was largely obscured by the bush and I couldn’t justify getting closer due to my whole ‘I don’t want to fall off a cliff’ thing. That would be embarrassing.
Something used to be here, as there were large blocks of concrete and the remains of a few retaining walls spotted here and there. Additionally, there are the demapped streets like Vinecliffe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That was the best view I could find, above. The bridge at the bottom of the shot is the Smithfield Street Bridge, spanning the Monongahela River between the ‘South Side Flats’ and ‘Downtown Pittsburgh.’
Not that anyone would really care other than me, but I was likely trespassing, so a heel spin was executed and I headed back over to the particular pathway which was my day’s early focus.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Steep, it’s steep I tell you… steep.
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.
Grand Viewing
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A snapshot of a certain side of ‘Life in Pittsburgh,’ that’s how I’d categorize this post.
Our Lady and myself go out to dinner seldomly here, as we generally cook ‘three meals a day’ at home. We have a big suburban kitchen now, and it’s fairly easy to build up an involved meal – roasted meats, vegetables, etc. I like to really ‘put on a show’ when cooking dinner, and if I do it right we’ve got days of leftovers perfect for lunch.
Saying that, gotta get out every now and then, so we tried out a saloon with a pretty great food program just across the street from one of the inclines up on Mount Washington. If you find yourself at Steeltown Saloon, I can recommend the jerk chicken tacos.
After we finished up, a walk was on order, along Grandview Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was popping. This was the first truly warm night, after the brutally cold winter season, which Pittsburgh had just experienced. To wit: I was wearing the summer version of my ‘Mitch Suit,’ with shorts and a Guayaberra style short sleeve shirt. Our Lady was encased in a shimmer of golden mist, with luminous flowers floating around her which were not at all affected by gravity. She was like a character from a Studio Ghibli cartoon. Two tiny songbirds were carrying her purse and singing.
We had decided to walk for a bit, and then we’d call for a ride home.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks up the Ohio River, towards the section of Pittsburgh called ‘The North Side,’ which I’ve been coincidentally spending a bit of time in recent weeks.
As mentioned in prior posts, I’m currently way ahead of schedule here, and thereby a bit of a time warp is still occurring. These photos were gathered on the 4th of April, the words are being typed out on the 21st of the same month, and if I’ve gotten the scheduling correct you’re seeing this on the 22nd of May. Whew. Confusing.
How’d your month go? I’m curious as to all the mad things which have likely happened, but as you’re reading this I can imagine that I’ve already ‘effed around and found out’ several times, so I know too. Time warps…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s been a minute since I did any low light photos, although I wasn’t ‘shooting’ so much as ‘snapshotting.’
Don’t ask me to define the difference, but there is one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was pretty crowded. Lots of college age kids were out, wearing tight clothes and showing off for each other. The car enthusiasts were starting to gather and rev their engines.
Our Lady activated one of her apps and summoned a ride.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While we waited, I couldn’t help but point the camera in the direction of the PNC Park baseball stadium where the Pittsburgh Pirates live. A game was starting up and you could hear the cheering, miles away.
Back next week with something different.
“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.
Descending again
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Descending from the prominence of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington, via the PJ McArdle roadway, is where we left off yesterday and that’s what the shot above illustrates.
This roadway is cantilevered out from the face of the landform, and leads down to the flood plane level of the Monongahela River’s southern shore. The area which it makes its landing in is called either the South Side Flats or simply ‘south side.’
There’s a shot along this route that I’d really like to capture a decent iteration of for the archives, which is the Monongahela Incline riding on its funicular trackway over the road.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like a lot of ‘shots I want,’ the practice is to haunt the location and get versions of the composition during different times of the day and weather conditions over time. There’ll be dozens of iterations, usually, until I get whatever the heck it is within the brain box that I’m going for.
All of the scouting I’ve been up to for the last couple of years is now moving into actual photography time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the sort of thing I’m going for, although I should have used a different lens to try and get some more blurry drop off and ‘depth of field.’ I shot this one with a zoom lens at f8, and the focal was dialed all the way out, which ‘flattens’ things too much.
A lens swap occurred prior to the next group of shots, as an 85mm f2 prime lens was affixed to the camera.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 85mm was set to f2.8, but I still didn’t get the blur and drop off in background focus – bokeh, as it’s called – that I was hoping for. As mentioned, this is a shot I’m going to work until I get it right. I dig it.
The 24-240mm zoom lens is an omnivore and ‘walk around’ lens, allowing me quick focus across a large range, but it operates best with a narrow aperture like f8. The narrow aperture also restricts it to daytime usage, sans tripod.
The prime lenses are restricted to a fixed objective size, but offer larger apertures (f1.8 and up) that allow me to get a bit artsy fartsy and capture images in dark or shadowed locations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I swapped the zoom lens back onto the camera, performed a quick inventory of the camera bag to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, and thereupon one continued with his scuttling.
Your humble narrator was literally the only pedestrian along this route, except for the fellow at the bottom of the hill (mentioned yesterday) whom I’m pretty sure was well into the process of becoming a zombie.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along the way, this scene caught my eye. Goes to show that no matter how much effort mankind puts into something, nature always ends up winning out. Comforting, no?
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.
…rise and look around you…
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last ‘portrait shot’ of Pittsburgh’s Downtown was gathered, and your humble narrator packed the tripod back up into its assigned spot on my camera bag and got moving. A couple of overly ambitious trail routes leading away from this location had been considered for my walk, but I’m not 100% on the ankle front yet and discretion is the better part of valor.
Best to stick to paved surfaces for now, and take advantage of the sloping nature of one of these roads to exercise and stretch the tendons and discrete musculature surrounding the ankle and heel of my left foot.
Forward, ever forward…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I ended up chatting with the guy in the shot above, who was smoking a cigarette while drinking a coffee. His name was Gus and he’s lived up here for more than twenty years, according to our conversation. Nice guy.
I’m told by friends that my habit of talking to strangers is weird.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Closer to the incline, you start seeing signs of life (other than Gus). Right about here is where another random conversation with strangers occurred, as a young mom with a Canon Rebel spotted my camera and started asking questions about lenses, technique, and such.
After a quick and salubrious exchange, I was back on my way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, it was ‘leg day,’ and the shot above offer some suggestion as to why I chose this particular route up and down Grandview Avenue. The buildings on the left enjoy uninterrupted views of the Three Rivers/Downtown area. There’s a few restaurants and cocktail bars ‘with a view’ sprinkled in along this route, but it’s mostly residential in this stretch.
The bum ankle was performing as expected, I’d mention. A bit of discomfort, but I’m not getting the weird sensation of tightness in my heel anymore.
Stretch and strengthen, don’t ‘protect’ the ankle, push on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I desperately wanted to walk the entire length of Grandview Avenue and access a different and quite well wooded pathway along natural surfaces, one which snakes down the face of Mount Washington, but again – have to reign in my ambitions until I’m ready to surmount real physical challenges again.
Can’t wait for that actually. That’s a problem I’m trying to keep in check.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pathway I’d use to get back down to the flood plane level along the Monongahela River would be the PJ McArdle roadway, which has been mentioned here and trod upon many times. Along the way, I encountered an apparently unhoused fellow whom I think might have taken a step over towards Zombie. The bad smell, a blackened discoloration at the ends of his limbs, milky white eyes… it all said zombie.
There’s a history of this sort of thing happening in Pittsburgh, just look at the Pittsburgh incident of 1968, and also the one that was centered around nearby Monroeville in 1978.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 