Posts Tagged ‘photowalk’
adroitly pumped
Wednesday has happened again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Still on Randalls/Wards Island, but looking wistfully towards Astoria Park and Queens whilst under the Triborough Bridge, imagine my joy at the sudden arrival of an NYPD Harbor Unit vessel which pushed through the scene. There’s a base and berth for the gendarmes on the Harlem River side of the island, but I don’t know if that’s where they coming from or going to.
One refuses to use the secondary name for Triborough Bridge, or for the Queensboro, until they rename the Brooklyn Bridge as the Michael Bloomberg Bridge. Sounds crazy, huh? Renaming Mighty Triborough or the majestic Queensboro after other politicians doesn’t? No respect, I tell ya, no respect.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s no possibility that something like what you see above can cross in front of my lens with me not being drawn to capture it. I’ve talked about this many times during tours conducted on the Soundview Ferry line, but Triborough is one of the great historical feats of civil engineering and industrial power. There’s a theory which postulates that this bridge is the reason that WW2 went as well as it did for the United States, offering that the Triborough operations orders for steel alone restarted that entire sector of the American economy during the darkest years of the Great Depression. Factor in the labor, the concrete, the forest of wood needed for scaffolds…
That’s something to consider, while looking forward at the next few years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Randalls/Wards Island offers an up close and personal look at another one of NYC’s wonders, the Hells Gate Bridge. Carrying railroad tracks rather than vehicle lanes, as Triborough does, this arch bridge is thought to be the most permanent structure in the entire city. Supposedly, long after the Empire State Building has collapsed and the other East River bridges have been reduced down to masonry piers with no span between them, the Hells Gate will still be more or less intact.
In the foot steps of giants we do walk.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 20th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
ill concealed
Let there be light, it’s Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Careful negotiations, about wearing a mask and the other hygienic issues faced during the age of cooties we’re all living through having been arrived at, last week I hung out with a photographer buddy of mine who drives everywhere she goes. Picked up, a humble narrator suggested we visit Randalls and Wards Island, so over mighty Triborough did we fly.
I’ve been telling anyone who will listen, literally for years now, that the next round of NYC Ferry stops should include Randalls/Wards. It’s actually goofy how many hurdles there are to getting to this scenic complex of parks without a car. This was, of course, Robert Moses’s base of operation, the very center of the fabled “House of Moses” where the Power Broker himself spent his days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is literally the first time I’ve left “the zone” in – as of today – 141 days. The zone is walking distance from HQ in Astoria, which has included all of Newtown Creek. Faulty logic on my part says that Randalls/Wards are further, there is a pedestrian pathway here from Astoria after all, but for whatever reason I’ve never walked it.
As a matter of fact, I’ve only been on the ground at Randalls/Wards once. I’ve driven over it a bunch of times, of course, but have never come here with a camera and the intent of taking a bunch of photos. I’m happy to say that this effort was very much worth the trip, and I intend on coming back for more and soon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Consider the ones above, and the shots that will be following them this week, as being part of a scouting mission. I was in “hey, look at that” mode the whole time.
The one time I had come to Randalls/Wards in the past? The NYC DEP has a water treatment and sludge dewatering facility here, and I was invited to attend the christening and launch of their three new sludge boats along its bulkheads. Sludge Boat, you ask? Christening, you say? Sludge Boat, baby, Sludge Boat.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 20th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
omphalos gazing
Friday, Friday, which seat should I take?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While the above shot was being captured, one was standing just a few feet away from one of the City’s Bioswales – or as they’ve been renamed “rain gardens.” Absolute legions of cockroaches were seething in and out of the planting. I don’t mean roaches of the sort that you might encounter under your kitchen sink, I mean the giant two inch long flying variety. The kind that doesn’t give a shit about you, or how many times you stamp your feet.
In NYC, the conqueror worm is a cockroach. If they ever get organized…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While I was taking this shot, behind me and across the street, some fellow was sitting behind the wheel of his car staring at me while he was smoking a marijuana cigarette. Whoever was in the passenger seat must’ve dropped something, since I saw their head repeatedly bobbing up and down in the shadows within the car. They seemed nice.
One decided to head back home to Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here at the HQ fortress, with its moat and towers, one felt safe from any possible incursion by Antifa, Trumpist Militias, Woman hating Neckbeards, Rosicrucians – or just about any other random threat which click hungry websites have told me are coming this way to take away my things. Without things, what are we?
Back next week with something totally different.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
obsolete phraseology
Thursday, in LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Frustrated by yet another unsuccessful expedition and attempt to photograph “it,” one decided that since midnight had been arrived at it was time to begin plying a course back to HQ in Astoria. The night was hot and humid, and despite the absence of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself bobbing about in the sky, sweat was running freely from my skinvelope. It had rained heavily earlier in the day, and olfactory observation indicated that NYC’s Combined Sewer system had contributed some meaningful amount of untreated sewage into the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, here in the Long Island City section of Queens.
Also, I’d been on my feet for hours at this point.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The latter statement proved my undoing. Knowing this area as well as I do, places where one can take the proverbial load off for a few minutes are a part of my list of features and attractions. In the shot directly below, you’ll notice a picnic table and umbrella in front of the surprisingly excellent delicatessen “Sparks.”
I did mention the heavy rain? Did I mention that before I sat down at the picnic table I didn’t check to see if the seat was concave in shape and hosting an absolutely terrific amount of rain water? Well, I hadn’t, and so didst one sit down. As I felt the liquid penetrating up through my pants, and underpants, it occurred to me that I should have – in fact – checked to see if it was wet. I didn’t, and now I was.
At least it is was quite cooling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This incident prompted one to summon a cab, which is something I’ve only done twice in the pandemic period. Not having wet skivvies, as far as “twice” goes. I mean taking a cab. Nothing is more miserable than walking multiple miles in wet clothing during a heat wave. Chafing, it affects us all, and some more than others. Masked up, a car was summoned for my trip home via the miracle of cellular telephony.
Everything mundane is scary now, in the age of the killer cooties, even calling a Lyft.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
writing impossible
Wednesday photos of the after times, and the search for “it.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nothing to see here, Officer, just an old schmuck with a camera hanging off the side of the Borden Avenue bridge at midnight, shining a laser into the water to excite the schools of little fishies in the hope that their activity will attract “it” into frame. Of course, if any of the rumors about “it” are true, it would be big enough to pull a large dog off the shore and drag it to the bottom of Dutch Kills.
Excitement abounded, during the process described above, when a sudden flurry of shoreline movement and chittering began to emerge from the darkness.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whipping out my pocket flashlight, I soon discovered that the sound wasn’t coming from “it” but rather from “them.” On my way to this particular location, one encountered a lovely woman named Virginia whom I discovered as being the mysterious person that had been feeding the colony of feral cats along Dutch Kills for the last few months. Her deposits of cat food and water, apparently, had been contributing to the growth of a family/colony of Procyon lotor – or Raccoons if you must. The notion that wild mammals are inhabiting the banks of Newtown Creek is encouraging, given the fearsome reputation and environmental issues which put the waterway on the Federal Superfund list.
I only got a clear shot of the one pictured above, but I counted around seven sets of eyes shining back at me from the self seeded brush lining Dutch Kills’ banks. Speaking as I do on behalf of other creatures of the night, being shy and careful is a great survival mechanism.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My inspection for “it” continued, and given that “it” has always been reported to me as being aquatic, the camera was again pointed at the water. Unfortunately, the mirror surface of Dutch Kills betrayed the fact that not too much in the way of living activity was occurring this particular night. During the summer months, oxygen levels in the waters of Newtown Creek fall precipitously due to the heat. The warm water, which is fed into by NYC’s Combined Sewer system, becomes a haven for algae that live and die in the stagnant water. When the algae die off, their remains precipitate down into the water column and bacterial entities go to work consuming these leave behinds. The life cycle of the bacterial world consumes dissolved oxygen in the water and produces carbon dioxide and other gases in its stead. The bacteria then die and putrefy, which in turn promulgates the growth of the next algal bloom.
If you spend enough time around Dutch Kills, you’ll notice the waters are sometimes yellow ochre, then olive green, then black, then silver, and then the cycle repeats.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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 