Posts Tagged ‘Ohio River’
Scuttling along the Ohio
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, we’re currently experiencing weather conditions which the Pittsburgh’s native ‘Yinzers’ call “The Gray.” Unoccluded skies are a rarity this time of year and it’s often quite wet and cold. Regardless, it was time for a short walk. This time around that took the form a roughly five mile scuttle along a trail that follows the Ohio River nearby the ‘north side’ and ‘chateau’ neighborhoods.
This section of the trail is buttressed by an industrial zone, a sewage treatment plant, a defunct prison, and a power station so… it felt like home to this humble narrator.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was heading towards the 1890 vintage Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge at the outset of my scuttle. The trains which use it are generally Norfolk Southern’s. The trail I was walking on was part of the Three Rivers Heritage trail, but signage encountered suggested to me that it was likely added to the larger entity, and was originally called the ‘North Shore of the Ohio River Trail.’ I’m still enjoying my ignorance here, but a sign is a sign.
There are a few small private boat marinas in this section, but the waterline is generally inaccessible unless you like climbing on things. In most places, there’s a 15-20 foot wooded and fenced off drop down from the street/trail level. No doubt this terraced shoreline is part of a flood control strategy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few boat ramps were encountered, but they were littered with cast off vehicles, trailers, even a couple of single wide residential mobile homes were observed. The trail was fairly well populated, with bike riders and joggers, and the occasional dog walker.
An interesting conversation was struck up with some bloke who was riding a sort of electric bike, specifically a model that was new to me. He assured me that his conveyance was more than capable of handling Pittsburgh’s steep hills.
I want one of those, to use as a shuttle craft to and from the Enterprise Car.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Combined Sewer Outfall? Heck yeah! The Ohio River is, as it turns out, the most polluted waterway in the United States. That’s an awful fact, as this river is also the primary source of drinking water for multiple communities in several states.
As mentioned above, on the landward side of this trail, there was an industrial zone. Most of it seemed to be populated either by municipal service installations, building supply warehouses, last mile shipping depots, and there were a few examples of odds and ends sort of businesses like HVAC and truck mechanics. I didn’t explore this upland area – at all – on foot, but did drive around a bit after finishing my walk as I’m a connoisseur of industrial zones.
More or less, this Google maps link shows the location where this scuttle took place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge connects the north side of Pittsburgh with Brunot’s Island (and then the south shore of the Ohio River), and it is inaccessible by foot or vehicle for the average Joe.
I was hoping for a train, but an unoccluded view from the trail was not available. Damned vegetation!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the Richard A. Nomanson Towboat slid into view while it was towing a fuel barge. I wasn’t able to find out much about this boat, which is extremely odd, in my experience.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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.
Hi-oh, Ohio
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttling along on the West End Bridge in Pittsburgh with a wide angle 16mm lens on the camera, over the mouth of the Ohio River (which is formed by the confluent mating of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers below), and a humble narrator had finally at the preordained spot where a lens swap would occur and the other new lens – the RF 50mm f1.8 – was attached to the camera.
I was really running the new glass through its paces on this scuttle, using the camera’s different autofocus mechanisms (zone, spot, tracking etc.) and photographic formulae. The aperture was also being dialed up and down between shots, as I was searching for what would end up being the ‘sweet spot’ settings for the two new lenses. As a note, I seldom do this sort of ‘round the world’ kind of shooting. Normally, I use a tried and true formula based on atmospheric and lighting conditions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 50mm’s sweet spot seems to be either f2.8 & f4. The optical formula underlying the so called ‘Nifty Fifty’ has always been somewhat persnickety in my experience. Sometimes it hits perfectly, other times it’s inexplicably ‘off.’ That’s why you take multiple exposures, though.
A storm was brewing, and later on in the evening a drizzling rain started up. At this particular moment, however, it was merely overcast.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern was moving a train set along one of their elevated tracks, with the thing heading eastwards. I had seen it coming down the river when I was still a hundred yards from this spot, and decided to use the opportunity to activate the camera’s ‘follow focus’ autofocus settings, which were also set for ‘vehicle’ tracking. The lens performed well, locking in on the desired subject amongst a polyglot of other distractions.
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.
Scuttling wide
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Testing out a couple of newly acquired lenses, a humble narrator debarked Pittsburgh’s ‘T’ light rail service at its terminal stop, which is dubbed as ‘Allegheny.’ Allegheny is across the street from the sports ball stadium on Pittsburgh’s North Side, where the Pittsburgh Steelers do their thing. I had walked and described this path in detail last week – here, and here. A pretty decent scuttle this is, I would mention, one which is about 5 miles long and involves negotiating several flights of stairs, while offering interesting scenery that’s quite ’photogenic.’
At the start of the endeavor, I had outfitted the camera with an extremely wide angle prime lens of 16mm which offers something like 140 degrees of view. There’s a decent amount of distortion inherent to this kind of ‘fish eye’ dealie, although a true fisheye would be more like 8mm. I was trying to ‘get to know’ the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the things I learned on this walk is that the focal point for the lens needs to be in the dead bang center of the frame, or you’re going to get a significant amount of optical fisheye distortion. Look at the way that the truck in lower right leans into the shot above, for instance. This is after the photoshop lens profile is applied, which somewhat ameliorates these distortions, I would add. There’s a way around this sort of thing, with a different kind of wide angle lens that’s called a ‘tilt shift,’ but there you are.
A humble narrator was heading towards the West End Bridge pictured at the center of the shot, which is described in one of the posts linked to above. It was overcast and cool out, but I was sweating a bit as I was really leaning into the walk and moving somewhat rapidly. According to my phone’s health app, this part of the walk was 12,162 steps long, which translates down to about six miles. The trick to it being ‘good cardio,’ according to my team of Doctors, revolves around getting the pulse rate up to a certain level, and then steadily maintaining that pace over an extended interval of time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had two new lenses which I was trying out on this walk, the 16mm and a 50mm. I kept on beating down the urge to swap the 50mm onto the camera until I reached the southern shore of the Ohio River which is spanned by the West End Bridge. Along the way, I narrowed and then opened the aperture, shot from the waist and from above my head. I overexposed and under exposed, pointing the thing ‘up, down, all around.’ As mentioned – getting to know it, trying to find what the thing couldn’t do, and how and why it would fail.
More tomorrow, 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.
West End Bridge, over the Ohio River
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a steel tied arch bridge near the center of Pittsburgh, one which spans the very mouth of the Ohio River (formed up by the convergence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers), and it’s called the West End Bridge. West End Bridge’s construction was declared as accomplished in 1932, and the thing was built by Pittsburgh’s own American Bridge Company (steel and span) and the Foundation Company (foundation and masonry piers). West End Bridge was originally just under 2,000 feet long.
After a sprucing up and redesign in the 1990’s, which saw the addition of pedestrian and bike lanes, as well as the removal of several vehicle approach ramps on its northern side, the West End Bridge was and is 1,310 feet long.
There’s 66 feet of clearance over the water, it’s 58 feet wide in totality, and the bridge carries 4 lanes of traffic through a 40 foot space. West End Bridge is a challenging and unforgiving span to drive over, I would mention, given how narrow the travel lanes are. There’s scrapes and automotive paint residue all over the lane facing concrete superstructure of the thing, as it’s really easy to screw up and misjudge where your car is in relation to the structure when driving over it.
Additionally, like many of Pittsburgh’s bridges, you need to be in the correct lane when entering the crossing in order to access the local streets or highway interchanges on the exit side, something which you’re just supposed to know intuitively. Pittsburgh is all about ‘vernacular.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
West End Bridge connects the ‘South Hills’ communities to Pittsburgh’s quite urban North Side areas in the annexed ‘Allegheny City’ area, bypassing the congested triangular downtown area.
When exiting the bridge on the south side, you can continue southeast onto an arterial road called Saw Mill Run Blvd., which leads out into the suburban sprawl of the South Hills, or make turns either east or west to access the local streets along the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
On the northern side of West End Bridge, one lane leads into Pittsburgh’s North Side areas, specifically the ‘Chateau’ neighborhood, and the Mexican War Streets zone. There’s also an interchange on the north side which offers access to local and state highways which ultimately connect to the interstate roads that snake along the Ohio River, or head easterly towards a different set of suburbs after moving through the City. It’s all quite complicated.
Pictured is the pedestrian path, which was actually offered quite an interesting walk. I was the sole occupant on this pathway, which sort of describes my entire existence when you get down to it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My interest in the thing had become piqued during the many back and forth trips to the Allegheny General Hospital, on the North Side, for Our Lady of the Pentacle’s medical procedures. It provides an interesting point of view for several ‘hard to reach’ – on foot – parts of Pittsburgh. There are other ‘primary’ crossings which receive far more traffic that accomplish the same function – the Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne bridges – but there you are.
For an ‘eye in the sky’ overview of what West End Bridge looks like, and its relationship to the larger city it serves, check out any of the posts offered here from the West End Overlook Park.
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.
From West End Overlook
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has mentioned, and offered views from, Pittsburgh’s West End Overlook Park in the past. This spot is about a 15 minute long and quite easily executed drive from HQ in the nearby Borough of Dormont, and the overlook provides commanding views of the city center. You’re actually executing about a half mile of change in altitude while driving through three and change miles horizontally – it’s a thousand feet down to the level of the river from Dormont, and then around a thousand feet up through the neighborhoods of West End and Elliot. Proximity means I find myself heading up there periodically to wave the camera about.
This time around, it was that interval of the day during which the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself disappears behind Ohio.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the juncture, right in front of the fountain at Point State Park, of the three rivers – where the Monongahela and Allegheny combine to form the Ohio River. I’m told Lewis and Clark left for their famous adventure on the Jeffersonian mission to examine the western territories gained via the Louisiana Purchase from somewhere nearby. I’m also led to believe that the stand of tall buildings on the right hand side of the ‘point’ used to be a rather busy rail yard.
Moe the Dog was along for this excursion, and so was Our Lady of the Pentacle, whom he was hauling about at her end of his leash. This spot is absolutely infested with Spotted Lantern Flies, I would mention, and as Moe considers the pests to be flying popcorn… let’s just say Moe did his part to combat the infestation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’ve probably discerned, I was playing about with various methods of capturing the scenery. I shot a few panoramas as well, such as this one. A humble narrator really likes this spot for several reasons.
There’s ample parking, and a Port A Potty is found in the parking lot at the entrance to the place. There’s lot of strollers, pot smokers, and dog walkers who frequent the spot and on more than one occasion, I’ve seen and chatted with other members of the tripod and lens crowd as well as Drone pilots, and even a broadcast television videographer up here. It reminds me of the scene long enjoyed along the East River along Long Island City’s piers during Manhattanhenge.
If I’m coming here though, it’s always at the bookends of the day – very early or nearly late. I haven’t done the ‘dead of night’ here. Yet.
“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.
