Posts Tagged ‘photowalk’
Scuttling in Duquesne
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator found himself scuttling about in one of Pittsburgh’s satellite communities, dubbed Duquesne. Like its neighbor, Homestead, which is where I was heading towards, Duquesne was hit hard by the evacuation of the steel industry from its territory in the last quarter of the 20th century and there’s a staggering level of poverty and urban decay which its residents and governmental organizations are forced to deal with. I wasn’t here for a sociological deep dive, of course, and the path I was walking along was one of the ‘rail to trail’ sections of the Great Allegheny Passage which has been mentioned several times.
The trail follows the shoreline of the Monongahela River, and across the waterbody on the northern shoreline is found a surviving US Steel plant called the Edgar Thomson or Mon Valley Works in the community of Braddock. Pictured above are a couple of the locomotives used by USS to operate its privately owned and operated Union Railroad.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Before leaving the street ‘grid’ of Duquesne, one had made it a point of scuttling past the switching yard of the Union RR. I have only seen this facility from behind the wheel of the Mobile Oppression Platform, when driving past the place at near highway speeds. This time around, however, one was taking a long walk – as in well more than five miles (actually closer to nine, all said and done). I left the car at home and used a cab to get to Duquesne from HQ. The plan was to execute the long walk, and then meet up with a friend at a brewery in Homestead for a Friday night beer and a ‘bitch and moan’ session about whatever happened to go ‘ass over tits’ for us that week.
This is a pretty cool walk to take, I would mention, although the pedestrian street crossings are kind of terrifying. Once you’re off the street and on the trail, you’re ‘safe as houses’ as the British would say. Thing is, once you’re on the GAP trail, you’re committed and it’s miles and miles until you come to the next entrance/exit to the thing. Most of the GAP users seem to be bike riders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was hoping for some interesting locomotive shots on this day, but trains are kind of a hit or miss thing here. There were a couple of spots along the trail where I stood there and waited, but quite frustratingly, if a train did pass by on the nearby tracks it was generally occluded by vegetation. I had to be satisfied with a long lens shot or two of the USS Mon Valley Works steel mill, pictured above, instead.
More 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.
Mirror mirror, on the floor
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When Pittsburgh’s North Park was created, a waterway called Old Pine Creek fed into a marsh hereabouts. The Great Depression era engineers got busy, and created the largest manmade lake in the State of Pennsylvania with the help of hundreds of Work Projects Administration laborers. 75 acres in size, with trails around it, Marshall Lake (aka North Park Lake) is annually stocked with game fish, and there’s at least a couple of Bald Eagles which form the top of the littoral food chain here. The licensed citizenry can fish here, as it’s considered public land.
These shots are from about 6:30 in the morning, and there were already hundreds of people jogging on the trails, and I also spotted two fishermen casting their lines.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a warm morning, with little to no wind, so the lake itself was pretty much a perfect mirror. I set up the tripod and got a few shots of the rather bucolic scene. There’s a lot of interesting stuff to see here at North Park, which is some 3,300 acres in size. There was a giant Pterodactyl sized Heron flying around, but I didn’t get a shot worth mentioning of it.
The camera was set up for landscape style shots. Lately, I’ve been considering bringing along a second camera body geared up for ‘catch as catch can’ shots, for use when the main camera body is purposed towards and busy with these sort of photos.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The lake is shaped somewhat like a boomerang. The water flows out to a spillway on the eastern shore, which maintains its level. That’s where I was heading next, because ‘infrastructure.’
The spillway feeds into a waterway called Pine Creek, which is ultimately a tributary of the Allegheny River, joining its parent at the Borough of Etna section of the Pittsburgh Metro several miles distant.
Back tomorrow with a very cool chunk of infrastructure!
“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.
Trees and… y’know… Da Effin Woods
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These photos aren’t actually from ‘the effin woods.’ To me, this is woods, as I’m from Brooklyn and spent a not insignificant portion of my adult life wandering around the concrete devastations of Newtown Creek. This location is instead within the borders of North Park here in Pittsburgh, so by definition – thereby – not ‘woods.’
Actual wilderness, with critters and hunters and an opportunity for your body to never be found, that’s about 50 miles from here. Sasquatch sightings are apparently a big thing thereabouts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, one found himself drawn to this side of the Pittsburgh Metro by news of there being a ‘Fountain of Youth’ on the property. As is my habit, I did a bit of ‘research’ on Google maps to find a few other interesting things to point the camera at while in the neighborhood. I try to maximize my efforts.
Currently, I’m planning a day trip for the end of this week to the Panhandle of Western Maryland which sits along the border to West Virginia. That’s an 86 mile/2 hour drive, as opposed to the 30 minute journey to North Park, so the researching I’m doing for that one is a bit more in depth regarding my itinerary.
One has also bookmarked a few sites along the southeastern route from Pittsburgh I’ll be traveling along, including stopping off at a place called Dunbar’s Knob, where a 60 foot tall crucifix is on public display. Said monument is dubbed ‘The Great Cross of Christ.’ Should make for an interesting set of photos, I reckon, if the skies are right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just like the trip to North Park, I plan on being in the car no later than about 5:30 a.m., in order to take advantage of the utility of angled daylight, and won’t be returning to HQ until well after dark. The town I’m heading for is in Maryland, and is a historically important one, with several points of interest. You’ll be seeing that series of posts in a few weeks. Additionally, I’ve got a series of wooded spots which I plan on visiting as soon as the leaves start turning color. I’ve heard the term ‘the burning hills of Pennsylvania’ is used during the autumn hereabouts, due to all the yellow and orange.
More from North Park 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.
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.
I’m walking here
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent hullabaloo involving Pittsburgh’s light rail system, dubbed “The T,” found a humble narrator at the Penn Station stop on the system. This is a closed/disused station which the service normally doesn’t visit, nearby the former HQ of the Pennsylvania Railroad (which has been converted to a high end residential condominium), and the modern day Amtrak station and Greyhound Bus Terminal. I understand that seeing a T unit here is an exceedingly rare dealie, so I took a picture.
One was heading to the North Side of the Allegheny River, but due to the tunnel maintenance which caused the hullabaloo, employees of the service instructed us to debark the light rail and then board a shuttle bus to take us the rest of the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bus discharged the merry band of commuters a humble narrator was a member of nearby PNC Park, which is a sports ball stadium built around the needs of the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball corporation, and that’s where my day’s walk began. The plan was to head back to a T station on the south side of the Monongahela River, and the timing of the excursion was built around the descent of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself behind Ohio.
The first set of negotiable obstacles in my path involved the Allegheny River, so a quick set of obfuscations and interlocutors found me walking to the Fort Duquesne Bridge, which spans the waterway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After walking Fort Duquesne – aka the ‘bridge to nowhere’ – I would surmount the Fort Pitt bridge over the Monongahela. It was warm out, but the humidity was in a comfortable range. I was traveling fairly light on this particular day, with a minimum camera kit slung onto my back.
That’s Fort Pitt Bridge, spanning the Monongahela River, in the distance and at the right of the shot.
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.
