Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
stark objective
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a pretty long drive, Pittsburgh to NYC. Give or take, it’s about 370 miles, which is an all day sort of affair. On the way to Pittsburgh, my pal Max and I used the northern route, which was picturesque and scenic. On the way back, we used the southern route along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which was tedious and somewhat difficult driving. The tedious part comes in because of road work, which narrows the high speed road to two rather meager lanes, which is where the difficult part comes in. At one point, we encountered a 40 miles long stretch of concrete jersey barriers on either side of us, and the block of traffic we were moving with included dozens of semi tractor trailer trucks which were moving at 70-100 mph. No fun.
Max and I split the driving up, and whenever he was behind the wheel, I had the camera in hand and set up for high speed captures. The shots in today’s post are “snapshots” randomly captured along the route, rather than composed photos.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a few spots along the Pennsylvania Turnpike where they just dug out a tunnel going through the base of a mountain rather than routing the road over it. I doubt there’s ever been anyone more qualified to do this sort of thing than mid 20th century Pennsylvanians, given their history in the mining industry. About a mile in advance of these tunnels, you start seeing signs telling drivers to remove their sunglasses and turn on their headlights. That’s how long these tunnels are.
Saying that, it’s really something when you exit one and “boom” – there’s a valley with heavily wooded slopes leading into farmland. Beautiful sights.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Oddly, we didn’t see too much of this sort of thing. The fellow who committed one of his fields to free advertising for a NYC Real Estate huckster’s political ambition – pictured above – seemed to have a property bisected by the highway. On the other side of the road was a decrepit semi trailer which had a hand painted “Trump” logo which was accompanied by the screed “God. Guns. No Socialism.”
This of course, pissed me off. There is no business sector in these United States more dependent on “socialism” than farming. There’s tax benefits, direct handouts of money and supplies, oversight, price controls… Honestly…
Whatever, opinions are like assholes, everyone’s got one and I’m not interested in seeing or hearing about anyone else’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the day wore on, we passed through Pennsylvania’s Capitol Harrisburg and the very rural central section of the state that’s referred to as “Pennsyltucky.” I had one of my biannual McDonald’s double cheeseburgers in this section, and killed a couple of dozen Spotted Lanternflies while we were gassing up the car. Apparently, Harrisburg is the national “ground zero” for this invasive species’ infestation.
Soon, we were hurtling along at 70 mph again, heading towards the Atlantic coast of America, and the archipelago Megalopolis which squats rudely along its edge against the ocean.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was actually surprised at how many horses I saw. I mean, I wasn’t expecting not to see livestock, but usually it’s cows or pigs or maybe sheep. Horses.
My pal Max handled the drive from Harrisburg to New Jersey’s Allentown. From there, I took over the wheel and dealt with the maddening set of pinch point barriers that multiply and fester as you get closer and closer to NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The one above is the last shot from this excursion. Somewhere in the blue mountains, which are, as you can see – actually kind of blue.
Something different tomorrow, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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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.
over running
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My most recent trip to Pittsburgh ended with a boat tour at sunset, one offered by the Gateway Clipper outfit which operates out of a dock on the south side of the Monongahela River. Truth be told, one was rather excited to exercise his hand held night shooting skills.
Haven’t had too much of a chance to do this lately, what with all the tumult associated with preparing to move out of NYC and to this amazing City called Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself descended behind… Ohio… a few lens swaps were required. The trusty 25-105 zoom lens went into the bag, and the 85mm and 35mm primes came out.
The photographic situation and circumstance is difficult – you’re on a moving boat, and everything around you is either clad in deep shadow or brightly illuminated by artificial light. Sometimes, it’s both.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, unlike NYC, Pittsburgh still uses old school sodium lamps for their street lighting. NYC uses modern LED luminaires. The LED’s cast a cold blue glow whereas the sodium ones emanate w warm yellow/orange light.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Gateway Clipper ride is about an hour in length, and is narrated by a tour guide. The boat itself has a bar onboard, but I wasn’t at all interested in libation. Truth be told, I was actually perspiring a bit as I was hard at work. Typically, I move about when onboard a boat, jotting from bow to stern, and port to starboard frequently.
Got to make the most of your investments, when you’ve actually paid for a ticket.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above is one I dearly wish that I had the zoom lens on for, but it was a “worst case scenario” kind of subject. A fast moving freight train, backlit by very bright and strongly colored lights, seen from onboard a moving boat.
I keep on telling myself that there will be all the time in the world, starting next year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s downtown Pittsburgh, as seen from the confluence point of the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny Rivers.
For a mega massive panorama showing this scene with both the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers – click here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We headed back to dock and my pal Max and I summoned a ride back to the AirBNB we were staying at. While waiting for the car, we noticed several people milling about who looked like super heros. Turns out that the local Marriot Hotel was hosting a bodybuilders convention over the weekend and a group of very fit people were flexing about.
It was time to pack up though, the next day would see us returning to NYC, and a long drive awaited us.
“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.
lattice windows
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Driving in Western Pennsylvania feels like a blood sport in comparison to the stop and go traffic of NYC. They don’t fool around out here, as far as aggressively pushing their vehicles forward, and high speed roads abound. My pal Max and I were on a “seeing tour” of the greater metropolitan area surrounding Pittsburgh during the last week of August, visiting the various population centers.
“Spokes and wheels” is how a long time resident described the setup of one community to another out here to me. The wheels being the population centers, with the spokes highways and expressways.
Even in the center of the city of Pittsburgh itself, traffic was moving along at a decent clip – to my eyes – but I currently live in a place where it’s not uncommon to spend 90 minutes crossing a 25-30 mile distance. Locals talk about horrific delays at rush hour, and the frustration of getting caught up in choke points leading to a certain tunnel or bridge, but compared to what I’m used to… I suppose it’s a matter of perspective and that it doesn’t matter where you are or how fast it’s moving – it’s still traffic congestion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We were heading north on this particular day. Eponymous in name, the county of Butler is where you find its governmental center – and our destination – the City of Butler. Butler is 35 miles north of Pittsburgh proper, but it feels like it’s part of a different world. Distance is very, very different in this part of the country. 35 miles from my house is where Staten Island is – a two hour drive with a bunch of tolls.
My pal Max and I were heading north for the day in his late model Mercedes, and he took the morning drive on. At least until we stopped off for the sort of heavy breakfast that I favor on “away games.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the 1885 vintage Butler County Courthouse pictured above, which is the tallest building in the municipality. It’s also the local seat of Government, and there were all sorts of Lawyerly, Uniformed, and Politician type people milling about its immediate vicinity.
Max and I decided to split up, and I marched the camera over to an overpass’s pedestrian sidewalk to try and get a few good views of the place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An amazing residential structure caught my eye, once which immediately said “rooming house or former hotel” to me. The building seemed to be of wooden construction. I flashed the lens around here and there, but in no ordered manner. I’m planning on getting to know these exurb areas well, after relocating to the region at the end of the year. Butler, as it turns out, was Diamond Jim Brady’s factory town.
As I’ve said several times in this series of posts – there is so much to learn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was quite amused at the setup on the fire escape on the building which caught my eye. I used to have a gas grill on my porch in Astoria, until I was told by a friend who works for the FDNY that such a setup is considered “murder level” illegal by the fire inspectors. Fines, AND jail time, he said.
After spending about a half hour waving the camera around at various points of interest in Butler, I had to head back towards my pal Max, and his late model Mercedes. We had other places to visit, on our “seeing tour” of the Greater Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We were heading off towards a fairly rural area that has a huge historical footprint next. One reconfigured the camera to the now familiar settings I was using for the last few days, which allowed for the capture of landscape snapshots that we were driving past at 70 mph.
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.
doglike things
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a terrifying visit to a cautionary tale known as Hudson Yards, a quick ride on the 7 train carried me back to the gently rolling hills of Western Queens where a transfer at the Queensboro Plaza subway stop was actuated and I was soon on an N train heading towards almond eyed Astoria. This was from the end of my journeys on Sunday – August 21st – which were meant to include riding on a Fireboat, but which ended up in a staggered scuttle about the abominable Hudson Yards.
One was hoping to wander through a street festival or something lively in the way home through Astoria – a Detestation of some Abyssal Power, or a Celebration of a Lord or Lady of Light – but it was just another Sunday in the ancient village.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Notice was taken of this woman feeding a group of birds. The birds seemed to be arranging themselves into a geometric pattern, but logic dictates that it was just the pattern of the woman’s arcing throws of seed or bread that they were following. Still, one wonders, and more than wonders…
Once I caught a photo of a group of birds sitting upon a series of Astoria power lines, in a pattern which reminded me of musical notation. I sent it to a musician friend of mine for analysis. He refused to discuss the matter after viewing the image, instructing that I should never mention it again and advising that I destroy the image.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 24th of August, a day trip to visit a friend in the pretty town of Hudson, New York was undertaken. It was a long drive and my photographic curiosities were stifled due to social obligation.
There used to be a whaling fleet who’s home base was here in Hudson. The financial benefits of this industrial activity explains how they could afford the expenses of building out the grandiose architecture from the 1840’s – 1880’s era which is still extant in the town, as said fleet often did business with Ambrose Kingsland in Greenpoint. The Newtown Creek tributary “Whale Creek” is so named because of Kingsland’s whale oil refinery, and the corollary industries of rope manufacture, blacksmithing, shipwrighting, and miscellaneous ship supply hugged the shores of Whale Creek in Greenpoint.
Staten Island artist John Noble actually painted Whale Creek during this era – here’s a link to the Noble Museum at Snug Harbor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson is a very attractive town, and I wish that I had more time to explore. I also really wanted to get a shot of the old docks where the Newtown Creek bound whaling ships would launch from, but as mentioned above – this was a social visit and not a photo mission.
The shot above is from a park along the Hudson River that obviously used to be part of a barge to rail setup.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saturday the 27th of August, and this shot was from something like 8 in the morning, captured while sitting in the passenger seat of a late model Mercedes on the George Washington Bridge.
The Mercedes belongs to my pal Max, and we were on the road heading west for a week long “away game.” I left the pinstripes at home, put on my gray uniform, and configured the camera to a very odd group of settings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ISO was set into the range I normally use for night time low light conditions, the aperture was set to either f8 or f11 depending on time of day and ambient light, and the shutter to 1/8000th of a second.
When you’re traveling in a late model Mercedes at about 70 miles per hour, westwards through Pennsylvania, you need to take steps to freeze the action for the camera.
More next week.
“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.
nightmare spawning
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson Yards is an abomination. The Related Companies have been allowed to steal the sky, blotting the firmament out and privatizing it for those who can afford to pay their price.
This is unfortunately the future, and one of the models that NYC will be using for future development. As you’re reading this, the “powers that be” are at work on the area just east of this development. The Penn Hotel is being torn down, as Midtown Manhattan is underdeveloped, and the Political Estate’s sponsors are slavering for more.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When you flush a toilet here, your bodily waste flows through underground pipes to a NYC DEP facility on 13th street and Avenue D, right in the middle of the projects. It’s then pumped under the East River to Greenpoint, where it’s processed along Newtown Creek. If there’s a summer blackout in Brooklyn or the Bronx, you can bet your bottom dollar that the lights will stay on at Hudson Yards.
If you spend any time interacting with the vampiric aspirations of big Real Estate, and speak against one of their projects, you will be called a “NIMBY” by one of their sock puppet “non profit” organizations that describe themselves as being “YIMBY’s.” NIMBY is an acronym for “Not in my back yard,” and YIMBY is “Yes in my back yard.” These YIMBY’s will accuse you of denying people – who haven’t been born yet – homes because of racism. Never will the hundreds of thousands of apartment units currently warehoused, and purposefully kept off the market, by their masters in the Real Estate industry with the intention of keeping their market prices on an always upward trajectory be mentioned.
Jared Kushner. Donald Trump. The Durst Organization. Larry Silverstein. The Tishmans and the Speyers. These are the sort of creatures who control the discourse over housing and development in NYC. The aspirant politicians are sponsored by these forces, and expected to do their bidding when appointed elected to office. Oddly, the most “Socialist” of the electeds also happen to be YIMBY’s. So are the hardline Republicans, the middle of the road Democrats – everybody in office seems to be bought off to one degree of another by Real Estate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson Yards is an abomination. Ever wonder what it must be like to live in a building where you can’t open the window for some fresh air?
On the plus side, you don’t have to worry too much about getting rained on in the Hudson Yards area. There ain’t that much visible sky there to allow a cloud to piss down on you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The only reason you can see the Empire State Building in the shot above is due to a NYC Dept. Of City Planning rule about “preserving sight lines.” The fellow who oversaw this project for City Planning was Vishaan Chakrabarti, who was the same guy that the NYC EDC hired to oversee the Sunnyside Yards proposal. Now… do you understand why I fought so hard and long against that one?
This is what was going to happen to Sunnyside and LIC if that project moved forward. If the Mayor overrules the Council member and Borough President on the Innovation Queens proposal, this is what Astoria is going to turn into in about 10 years. NIMBY my ass.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given the huge input of $1.2 billion in public money, you’d imagine that the rents here were somewhat reasonable, huh? Well, if you’ve got $7,100 a month for a furnished one bedroom – you’re set. That’s $85,200 a year, which would have to come out of your post taxation paycheck. If you want to buy instead, their available condos start at $5.5 million and range up to a 4 bedroom, 5,000 sq ft. one on sale for $29.5 million.
Does this sound like an industrial sector which requires tax breaks that divert moneys away from the public sector?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson Yards is an abomination.
“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 