Posts Tagged ‘photowalk’
CSX 5401, coming through
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself headed out on a fairly nice evening – with temperatures in the high 40’s and just a bit of wind, no precipitation – with the intention of drinking a couple of beers at the Sly Fox Brewery location found in the South Side Flats section of Pittsburgh and waving the camera about if and when a train came by.
So… I’ve been asked why I keep going back to take from this same well, and present a fairly similar series of shots of trains here time and again. You’ve seen one CSX train, you’ve seen them all, right? Not so much, for me at least. I’m working on camera technique, and hoping ‘the planets align’ on a few fronts eventually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A habit born back in NYC, when I’m ’working a shot,’ I’ll return to it a hundred times until I get ‘the one.’ There’s variants of photos captured in this spot which are pretty close to what I’m hoping to get. Is the T Light Rail is visible on the Panhandle Bridge in the background, is the sun hitting the freight train, and is the locomotive itself is kicking up dust that’s also catching the sun? If so, hoorah!
For instance, this version of the scene from September was fairly banging, as far as what I’m looking for in this composition. Saying that, this spot has become a bit of a hang out for me, and when you find ‘fish in a barrel’ you return to that spot.
Suffice to say that this brewery location offers a lot more comfort than you’d normally get while out shooting – easy access to a toilet, beer and food, etc. The trains roll through, in the evening hours, about once every 30-40 minutes here and you really can’t fault a location for the frequency of interesting subject matter which comes hurtling past the lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I used to have sludge boats, you see, and several well worn locations on Staten Island where you could be assured of a maritime presence. I also used to have a certain Creek, which had fairly infrequent rail and tugboat action, but it had them. Honestly, if there had been a bar up on the Pulaski Bridge…
These days, it’s freight trains, one reckons. I swear, if I don’t take a picture of a large machine at least once a week…
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.
Rock Bottom
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were a few spots on a Google map which I had prepared in advance of this drive through the Borough of McKees Rocks here in Pittsburgh, ones which the search giant’s satellite imagery suggested as being photogenically interesting – possibly. You never know till you go, though.
This was the view from the parking lot of a seemingly empty warehouse which I had turned the car into, during my return from McKees Rocks to Dormont where HQ is located.
I was hoping to see some train action happening along CSX’s tracks, but no luck. It was New Years weekend, after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Truth be told, I was actually feeling pretty good while shooting these. The ankle wasn’t giving me any trouble, even when I got out of the car and walked around a little bit. There were swampy lowlands alongside the rail yard, pictured above. Must be buggy during the summer around here…
‘Mustn’t over do it’ is one of my catch phrases at the moment, so one reentered the Mobile Oppression Platform and started its motor. Soon, I was positively hurtling through space – at tens of miles per hour – and heading back towards home. It was about a 15-20 minute drive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of the ‘through the roof’ shots which one has been oddly drawn to capture of late. A sort of liminal space, intersections like these are unoccupied, but over the course of the day tens of thousands pass through. I used to describe Queens Plaza the same way.
This is a pretty interesting intersection, designed under the tutelage of Robert Moses himself. You’ve got the Liberty Tunnel to the left, which is a primary arterial leading away from downtown Pittsburgh and towards the South Hills with the ‘tube’ having been cut right through Mount Washington. This intersection feeds onto a secondary arterial road called West Liberty Avenue (to the right), after crossing a primary arterial called Saw Mill Run (PA Route 51) first. Additionally, there are light rail tracks weaving about, and there’s also freight tracks which are carried on a highflying rail bridge over the vehicular traffic. Neat, huh?
Back tomorrow 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 Rocks rock
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks, and the Borough’s circumstance, was discussed at some length in yesterday’s post so rather than repeat all of it I’d ask you to just scroll back to that one as an introduction to the place these photos were gathered. Suffice to say that this particular section of McKees Rocks, called the Bottoms, is largely an industrial zone with a smattering of centuried homes and a collection of rather interesting looking churches. I was just driving around the industrial zone slowly, seeing what’s what and where that might be found. Scouting, basically.
The big player down here, other than a CSX intermodal yard, is a company which manufactures rail cars and rail ‘stuff’ called ‘Standard Forge Products.’ Venture Capital money is flowing through this economic sector right now, seeking to consolidate all the remaining national players in the space into a single conglomerate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered on New Year’s weekend, if you’re curious as to why the place was so thoroughly deserted. I’m planning on a few return trips here when the place is buzzing during the work week. I’d also like to get a good look inside some of the intriguing Slavic churches that I spotted on the way in here.
Of course, given all of those terrifying statistics about McKees Rocks, maybe I’ll convince somebody to come along with me to watch my back. Saying all that, there is an interesting discussion thread at Reddit which gathers observations from locals about the place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, a Google map of points of potential interest was created prior to the drive over here. I had several things way-pointed, and mostly stayed sitting behind the driver’s wheel while shooting. I got out of the car a few times, of course, but this was mainly a ride rather than a walk.
Walking a distance is still a somewhat elusive goal for me in this post broken ankle recovery period. The other night I managed to scuttle about 1,500 feet, and then I needed to sit down. It hurt for two days. It wasn’t pain from the ankle that was biting, although there was some (it’s omnipresent), rather it was soreness from the atrophy of muscles in the upper thighs, no doubt caused by me sitting in a wheelchair for two months.
Back next week with more, 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.
Bottoms up
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks is a borough municipality pretty close to the center of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and it’s found alongside the Ohio River and to the west of Downtown Pittsburgh and all the sportsball stadiums. It’s a fairly dangerous place, I’m told, and according to the official statistics you’ve got a 1 in 61 chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime hereabouts. In the rest of Pennsylvania that chance is 1 in 357 (which includes… Philadelphia…). McKees Rocks is considered to be safer than just 1% of all U.S. cities, and the violent crime rate here is 16.47%.
The people who live here are stressed economically. McKees Rocks’ has a high real estate vacancy rate of nearly 20%, despite the average rental unit going for about $1,200 a month, and there are a surprising number of its residents who are living alone – nearly 61%. Average per capita income here is lower than in 99.6% of the country, let alone the local Pittsburgh region. 2/3’s of the kids who grow up here will do so in dire poverty.
There is a higher rate of childhood poverty in McKees Rocks than in 98% of all communities in these United States. 7.1% of the population in McKees Rocks speaks Polish exclusively at home, with 88.5% of them speaking English, and there’s a concentrated population of Slavs (Yugoslav and Polish) here. There’s also quite a few Spanish speakers, a growing population of South East Asians hailing from the subcontinent of India, and a sizable African American contingent that resides here as well. Add in the standard northeastern mix of immigrant descendants – Irish, Italians, German, etc. and you’ve got the recipe.
I’ve been meaning to take a ride through here for a while. Sounds like my kind of place. Dire, industrial, dangerous…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the McKees Rocks bridge, spanning a series of rail tracks, pictured above. It’s the longest span offered by a bridge in Allegheny County, at 7,293 feet and the thing was built in 1931. It overflies the Ohio River, and is currently receiving a good amount of maintenance by road crews. The tracks are CSX’s, which they share with the Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad (one of the railroad ‘white whales’ which I haven’t seen or photographed yet). A lot of that CSX traffic, which I often photograph along the Monongahela River at that brewery I like, originates here.
This section of McKees Rocks is called ‘The Bottoms.’ Historically speaking, this area was about iron and steel and manufacturing locomotives – engines, cars, that whole deal. They’re still doing that here, I’d mention, but on a far smaller scale than formerly. There’s a highly desecrated but notable Native American burial mound nearby, but it’s inaccessible and on private property, and is protected by antiquities law.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nearby, found on the Ohio River, is a landform called ‘Neville Island.’ I’ve taken a few looks at the place, but it’s definitely something I want to get all granular about in the future. Lots of heavy industry and rail infrastructure on that island. Fascinating place.
As a note: I’m not doing a tour of Pittsburgh’s most challenged neighborhoods currently. You might think so after a few posts from Hazelwood last week, and now a visit to the McKees Rocks Bottoms. Instead, since I’m stuck with taking the car with me everywhere right now due to the ankle recovery deal, I’m trying to hit some areas a little bit further away than I can walk to and others where walking about might incur unexpected consequences.
Back tomorrow with more, 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.
Selah, yo
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When your humble narrator is motoring about by himself, here in Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh, the camera is usually sitting on the front passenger seat – just in case something interesting happens. More often than not, nothing interesting is going on, but a new habit I’ve been cultivating is to stick the camera out of the car’s moon roof and crack out a shot or two when I’m stuck at red lights. The film making crowd would call this the gathering ‘B-Roll’ footage.
To me, street intersections are yet another one of the scenarios which doesn’t normally get photographed, and is thereby worthy of a bit of notice. This is West Liberty Avenue, an arterial roadway, at the corner of Macneilly Road in the Dormont section. I was heading straight on West Liberty for a few miles, passing through the tony Mount Lebanon suburb and towards Bethel Park for my ankle ‘PT.’
The ride took forever, as school was letting out, and obeisance along the scholastic sections of this road to a 15mph speed limit is the law here in the Commonwealth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one’s from the South Side Flats area, nearby that brewery I often mention that has the CSX tracks running along it. That’s Mount Washington in the background, and there’s all sorts of motor vehicle/rail/light rail infrastructure on that slope.
The procedure with these shots is to twist the camera’s screen out to a ninety degree angle and then awkwardly aim the thing out the roof hole of the car. You have to account for the camera not being stabilized by squishing it against your face, but that’s just an adjustment to get used to. Everything else is autofocus and zoom.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The hard part is keeping your car out of the shot, but a purposeful inclusion is offered above. I’ve been astonished by the numbers associated with train collisions recently. In 2023, for instance, there were 2,192 collisions with moving trains in this country which caused 247 fatalities and 766 injuries. I’m not quite sure how drivers didn’t know a train was coming in a circumstance like the one above, but not all intersections between the track and road are gussied up with signal arms and bells. Also, half of U.S. population are dumb asses, so…
At any rate, Happy New Year, and I’ll be back tomorrow 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 