Posts Tagged ‘photowalk’
Scuttling with trains
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the south side of the Monongahela River, where a scuttling narrator found himself walking on the Three Rivers Heritage trail, and CSX #2720 was framed up all nice against the Fort Pitt bridge after it hurtled into the frame, here in Pittsburgh. I knew 2702 was coming, as I had heard signal arm alarm bells ringing from about a half mile distant, and one was desirous of making sure that I ‘got the shot.’ I had ceased experimenting with my two new lenses for a moment, and installed an ‘old reliable’ onto the camera – the 35mm f1.8.
This sort of ‘photowalk’ catch as catch can thing is a whole lot easier when you’ve got a zoom lens on the camera, but that wasn’t the point of what I was doing on this particular day. Test the new glass and get some exercise, that was me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There wasn’t any cargo being moved around on #2720, instead it was one of several locomotive engines that were coupled together and moving westwards on the tracks. I continued along the trail’s path, with the ultimate goal of arriving at that brewery I’ve been enjoying hanging around at, and rehydrating myself with a pint of Pilsner.
After quaffing my glass of beer, there were a few more lens tests which I wanted to perform in low light, and my plan was to ride the T light rail back towards HQ. I absolutely treasure the days when I don’t have to drive and can leave the Mobile Oppression Platform back home, in the driveway. The pluses of owning a car are many, but there’s also the whole responsibility thing and sometimes I just want to be ‘foot loose and fancy free,’ if you know what I mean.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another CSX train – #4228, pictured above – came roaring towards me. Where this shot was gathered, there’s a grade crossing of the tracks and a couple of those signal arms with the bells. That gave me the time and warning required to swap out the 35mm for the 16mm, and test out its focus tracking performance.
Where the shot above fails for me revolves around the wide angle distortion, which distracts me. The big discovery, mentioned earlier in the week, about this particular lens is that your subject needs to be in the dead bang center of the frame or the image distorts oddly. Live and learn, huh? That’s the whole point of testing a gizmo and seeing what it can do and where it fails.
Back next week with more – from the Paris of Appalachia, 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.
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.
Rinse and repeat
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yet another doctor’s appointment, and post surgical checkup, was endured by Our Lady of the Pentacle at Allegheny General Hospital. Thus – her loyal husband, your humble narrator, and journeyman chauffeur – had some time to kill. The Mobile Oppression Platform was piloted over to an opportune parking spot nearby Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Commons Park West Park after dropping her off. I went to a spot where a four tracked trench exists, one which allows rail egress through the city which avoids ‘at grade’ road crossings. One exploited this location previously, as displayed in a post from last week.
That’s Norfolk Southern’s locomotive engine #4705 pictured above. I’m told it was built in 1980 as a ‘EMD GP50’ model, but Norfolk Southern rebuilt the thing, refashioning it into a ‘EMD GP33ECO’ model at its Juniata Locomotive Shop in Pennsylvania’s Altoona. It complies with EPA’s ‘Tier 3’ pollution standards, in its modern configuration.
4705 has got 3,000 HP going on, under its hood, which provides some 64,200 lbs of tractive power. It was quite loud, as its engine sounds were bouncing around, on and off of those masonry walls.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was a delay at the Doctor, so Our Lady was stuck in the hospital for an hour or so later than we anticipated. Luckily, there’s a pizza shop nearby which is operated by a fellow named Anthony Badamo who learned his trade in GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN. After capturing these shots, I drove over to the North Side Badamo’s location (he has another one in Dormont, nearby HQ) and quaffed a couple of properly made slices of pizza. You people back in NYC have no idea how bad most Pittsburgh pizza actually is.
There’s an abrogation of all that’s holy called ‘Ohio Style’ which one of my neighbors back in Dormont is a devotee of. Avoid it. At all costs, avoid it. ‘Philadelphia style’ is also nasty, and makes the Mama Celeste frozen supermarket stuff seem palatable, but Y’know… Philly… everything about America’s consolation prize – Philly – just sucks. You’ve also got a few joints here that offer up the tomato and meat casserole which Chicago people will tell you is pizza.
It’s not pizza, it’s just a mess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The block which the Badamo’s pizzeria is found on is also one where a lot of the North Side’s homeless street people spend their days, and a humble narrator standing alongside the car while eating out of the pizza box started attracting their attentions upon me.
The first guy who beggared me got a slice of pizza, as he told me he was hungry and a slice was only a couple/three bucks, and I don’t like the idea that anyone is hungry when a bit of my pocket change can fix that for at least a little while. I’ve been buying bagels for bums my whole life. My one condition is that they eat the food in front of me, so I know they won’t turn around and trade it for other ‘substances’ with one of their crew.
His opportunist compatriots, however, then began sizing me up and figuring out how much they could get if they were to boil me down for base elements, so I hopped in the car and drove to another spot closer to the hospital to finish lunch. Being charitable is one thing, being predated by addict scumbags is another.
While I was waiting for Our Lady nearby the hospital, a helicoptor ambulance appeared. It seems that the Allegheny North people have a helipad that I didn’t know about, so see – you actually do learn something new every day.
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.
Foyleeages
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m always entertained at the way that the colloquial phrase “Fall Foliage,” gets mangled by the proletariat in the manner of it being describable as a tongue twister. Our Lady’s recovery from a medical situation had finally progressed to the point that we decided it would OK to go out of doors to somewhere pleasant, bringing along Moe the Dog, to take a short walk together amongst the ‘foyleeajes.’ We thereby drove about a half hour north of HQ, to the intersection of the Panhandle and Montour trails in the McDonald section of Pittsburg.
This particular trail location was described in posts from back in May of this year – here, and here. Back then, the folyages were spring time green, and I had been on my own. Moe had probably just been born into the dog shelter and pet fostering system, which ultimately brought him to us. Personally, I’m pretty much the same icehole.
Moe the Dog seemingly enjoyed a very nice time. Moe got to mortally wound a vole, as part of his never ending quest to annihilate all mammals smaller than himself, then menaced another dog, and os now capable of pulling me forward – via the leash – at great rates of speed that I’m uncomfortable moving at. He’s also discovered ‘dog anchor mode,’ wherein he suddenly stops moving and solidly locks onto the planet. The vole thing happened during one of these sudden stops.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s ‘leaf season’ hereabouts, when the autumnal ‘burning hills of Pennsylvania’ asserts itself. Lots of orange and yellow colors are painting the hills of Appalachia, and it’s not just a hundred shades of green for a change.
Really nice experience, this. Moe the Dog ate about four pounds of those autumn leaves, then accosted a passing stranger and forced the poor guy to accept his puppy love attack. The guy didn’t mind, and Moe – thankfully – didn’t bite him in the crotch. Our Lady was beaming, taking the sun, and esthetically enjoying the setting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I guess we were wandering about in this area for a couple of hours, but after an interval we had other places to go, and more prosaic things to accomplish. Our Lady enjoyed herself, after enduring a three week long hermitage. It was a good walk, with ideal climate. We stuffed Moe the Dog into the Mobile Oppression Platform for the ride back home. Moe fell asleep while standing in the back seat.
All was right in the world, at least for a few hours on an autumnal afternoon in Western Pennsylvania. This was the 7th of October, mind you, and it wasn’t until we got home that we saw the news from overseas about Israel. I think lots of things about that, but it’s not my wheel house and will be staying out of conversation about it, except to offer my actual reaction – ‘oh my god, all those ordinary people on all sides of this… who have been caught in the middle of all this hell… uggh.’
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 