Posts Tagged ‘photowalk’
Ten mile scuttle, three
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, one of my goals for the long walk I was undertaking was scouting for POV locations to exploit once the weather turns kinder in the spring. The setup above is going to make for a lovely shot when a few things align – sunrise, the lights still on in those buildings in the horizon, a train on those tracks, and me standing there with the camera mounted up on a tripod.
An interesting bit of Pittsburgh Trivia which literally everybody I talk to tells me about revolves around this spot. Nearby is found a particularly steep road called Rialto Street, leading up to a section called Troy Hill. Behind me is a landform called Herr’s Island, which used to host the city’s stockyards and abattoirs. It seems that ‘back in the day’ they used to just roll pigs down Rialto Street, on their way to the slaughterhouse on the island.
Seriously, how cruel is that story? Reminds me of the pig wheel at Armour in Chicago. I mean, kill the damn thing and eat it, but don’t terrify it first.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One proceeded to cross the Allegheny River, from the North Side to the peninsular center section of Pittsburgh, via the 31st street bridge.
Technically speaking there is a way to walk over that hill you see in the background of the shot above, using municipal or ‘City Steps,’ but I prefer to just walk around the landform. There’s getting some exercise, and then there’s a forced march.
I opted for circumnavigating the hill, sticking to the relatively level ground instead. That’s where all the interesting stuff which I like to point a camera at is found, anyway. Up top, it’s mainly houses.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This particular bridge, called ‘31st street Bridge,’ is fairly high in elevation. It has to conquer a severe change in altitude from one bank of the river to the other. The peninsula side is flat and relatively close to the waterline, whereas the other side connects to that steep hill which they used to terrify the doomed pigs upon.
The left side of the shot visually signals my next steps into the ‘Strip District,’ and the navigational point of destination was the U.S. Steel building, which is the tallest building protruding from the downtown skyline on the left side.
More tomorrow.
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Ten mile scuttle, too
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Using the Three Rivers heritage trail as my path, a humble narrator was taking a very long walk in Pittsburgh recently. It’s been extremely difficult to maintain the walking schedule, given the ferocious winter weather we’ve been experiencing here in the Paris of Appalachia, throughout January. Extreme cold, lots of precipitation, winds… brrr.
When the odd day comes along that you can be outside, you take maximum advantage of that condition. At least I do. As described in the preceding post, I had a plan to wander all over the joint.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 8th of January is the day these shots were captured. It was balmy but not freezing out, although the sky vault and sun were obscured by a solid layer of clouds. I was packing a full kit with me, and I found myself using three lenses over the course of the walk – primarily it was my 28-105 zoom, but I found spots where the 16mm f2.8 and 35mm f1.8 were required, before I made it back to HQ in nearby Dormont. I had a tripod with me but didn’t use it, just like the folding umbrella that I was also carrying.
This was a filthy black raincoat day, coupled with a fleece sweatshirt and thermal longjohns under my pants. As is my new habit, I was wearing a flash orange ball cap, an adaptation I’ve made to the usual black sackcloth that I clothe myself in normally.
It’s Hunting season, here in Western PA, and a little extra visibility is a sensible prophylactic given how much time I’m spending walking around on wooded trails. This walk was in the center of the city, where you’re not encountering gun toting woodsmen, but a little extra visibility does not hurt when you consider ‘traffic.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My principal goal for the day was to really blast out the legs with a long walk, which would see me upping my normal walking speed a bit. Given the weather, and the frequency with which my normal exercise schedule gets thwarted once the winter set in, I was determined to take advantage of the day and really lean into the walk.
Of course, I was also scouting locations for shooting sessions when things warm up a bit. Especially locations where I could pull the car over into a parking spot, and set up the camera for cool night shots.
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.
A Ten mile scuttle, part one
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The weather has been absolutely awful in Pittsburgh since the new year began. Rain, snow, cold, repeat. When the weather forecast indicated that we had a day with zero precipitation on hand, a humble narrator leapt forth from HQ with the intention of taking a very long walk. I rode the T light rail to its terminal stop nearby Heinz Acrisure Stadium, and started kicking my heels about.
That’s the approach ramp to the Fort Duquesne Bridge pictured above, a steely parabola connecting one of the local interstates to a primary crossing of the Allegheny River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Andy Warhol Bridge – about a mile or so from the T – and one of the ‘Three Sisters’ group of bridges spanning the Allegheny River. I left the street grid there and entered a Three Rivers Heritage Trail corridor along the waterfront.
My plan was fairly simple, I would walk from the North Side terminus of the T to the 31st street Bridge where I’d cross the river, whereupon I would scuttle along the peninsular section of the City to another T stop. My original idea was to cross the Monongahela River by walking over a bridge as well, but… weather…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next week, I’ll show you what I saw along the way on this ‘long walk.’ At least some of it at least. I got in some good scouting time for future photowalk action along the way, and burned out about ten miles worth of shoe rubber.
Back next week 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.
Scouting and scuttling
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As often mentioned, a lot of what I’ve been doing on these walks around Pittsburgh in the last year has involved scouting photo locations for future exploitation. It’s my belief that the bridge pictured above is called the Glenwood B&O Railroad Bridge, which is a still active 1884 rail crossing over the Monongahela River, as observed from the Duck Hollow Trail. This is one of those spots I’ll be returning to.
Further, my understanding is that the bridge is used by the Allegheny Valley Railroad. AVRR is a bit of a white whale for me, as in – it’s seldom there when I’m looking for it, and only serendipity is on my side when I see it. Saying that, I’ve figured out the framing for this shot should I ever see a train crossing the river here.
Yay for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This POV is at the very end of the Duck Hollow Trail, which is discussed in prior posts, and nearby the smallish Glenwood Junction rail yard. This is going to be a nice shot as well, when and if I’m present as a train passes through the frame.
The part of this blog I seldom discuss here is the endless amount of time spent finding these point of view locations, figuring out a parking/walking route, and getting to and from these locations. It’s part of being prepared for ‘the moment’ and it’s a heck of a lot of work.
Good news is that you really burn out a lot of miles, so exercise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the fact that I had a bag of lenses hanging off my back, I only ended up using the 28-105 zoom for this entire excursion. It did the job and offered me all of the wide/up close range needed for this walk. By the time I got back to the car, I had walked just over 5 miles in 2 hours. I had probably popped out about 200 exposures, which filtered down to about 50 shots in the end, of which about 40 ended up getting uploaded to Flickr. This is pretty normal practice for me, I always crack out two to three exposures of any given composition, just to make sure ‘I got it.’
At any rate, back tomorrow 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.
Duck Hollow Trail, too
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, a humble narrator was enjoying an inaugural walk on the Duck Hollow Trail, here on the northern bank of the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. During this ‘short walk,’ industrial leave behinds like the intricacy pictured above were encountered. The Homestead Steel Mill used to be located on the southern shoreline of the river, so it’s pretty easy to speculate on the purpose of the relict machinery here.
I had to do a bit of climbing for this shot, as the thing was obscured by feral vegetation. To me, this looks like the sort of conveyor belt system you’d use to transport bulk materials like coal or coke from a train to a river going barge (there were two sets of tracks in this area, one was the right of way that the trail occupies, and there’s parallel system which is still active is about a hundred feet away).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is what it looked like from the trail, hence the climbing. I had maneuvered myself onto one of the steel beams at the lower right hand side of the shot above for the first view. It wasn’t exactly a graceful climbing exhibition. I’m no Squirrel, but I do aspire to Monkey.
As stated hundreds of times over the last 13 months, I’ve been scouting while out shooting and scuttling about. Still looking for the ‘POV’s.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in April of last year, I attended a boat tour up the Monongahela River, and happened to get a photo of this contraption from the water side – which is the shot embedded above. Like I said – scouting.
Based on the graffiti, this seems like a ‘thing’ for the local youths to visit, but don’t know much more about it than the speculation offered above.
Residential Pittsburgh in this section occupies a much higher in altitude position than this waterfront does, and a steep landform rises up about a hundred to a hundred fifty feet away from the water. The neighborhood of Squirrel Hill is found up there, on the landform.
I analogize Squirrel Hill as being culturally a lot like the part of NYC’s Brooklyn which starts in Midwood along Kings Highway in the 30’s streets, and then continues over to Ocean Parkway, in the alphabet avenues. Largely populated by Middle Class Jewish folk in terms of population, Squirrel Hill is, which completes and colors my analogy to ‘the old neighborhood.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Duck Hollow Trail’s offerings officially terminate at a smallish rail yard, which encountered signage described as being called Glenwood Junction. A worn footpath in the brush indicates that people don’t automatically stop at the train yard and continue on along its periphery. Maybe that’s how you connect to the rest of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.
Me? This was my predesignated ‘turn around’ point for the day, exactly 2.5 miles from where I had parked the Mobile Oppression Platform.
I will never, ever, stop being grateful for the maniacs who run the Queens branch of NYC’s Transportation Alternatives lobbying outfit for describing ‘SUV’s’ as Mobile Oppression Platforms. Such enrichment is inspirational, so when Toyota insisted I give the car a name, this became my only choice. I also enjoyed their ‘two ton death machine’ terminology, and their assertion that every driver exists in a state of ‘pre murder’ once they put the key in the ignition. Good stuff.
As a note, when somebody insists that I offer my preferred pronouns, my answer is “It” and “That.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I found myself under the Glenwood Bridge in this spot. It’s a ‘Warren Through Truss’ type bridge, made of steel, and it has carried four lanes of PA 885’s vehicular traffic over the Monongahela River since it was opened in 1966. It connects the two ‘north side of the river communities’ of Hazelwood and Glenwood with a south side section called Hays.
I found myself wandering a bit too close to the rail yard here, which seems to be something that Pittsburgh’s Yinzers do often, but I come from a place which offers the citizenry tickets for spitting gum on the sidewalk and hosts a police force that’s larger than some country’s armies, so I obeyed my original plan and reversed course.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One noticed this swing set up under the bridge, a companion to the tire swing in the last shot. Couldn’t help but pop out a shot and start heading back to the MOP. Things to do back at home, and projects which needed attention, all that.
I regret not climbing onto the swing for some ad hoc fun, I’d mention. Need to play more, me.
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.
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