Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
heretofore reclusive
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A bit of Newtown Creek business found me at Newtown Creek Alliance HQ in Greenpoint recently, specifically on June 30th. After the meeting concluded, one decided to take advantage of a nice patch of light and air and scuttle back to Queens via the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge.
Greenpoint Avenue Bridge is 1.3 miles from the East River, and connects the Long Island City neighborhood of Blissville to the Greenpoint section of the Eastern District of Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given that I’d been out of town for a week or so, and I didn’t have any particular plans for the evening, my plan evolved around visiting Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary in LIC, and then making my way over to Queens Plaza to catch a train back to Astoria.
It was a particularly comfortable night, weather wise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Over at Dutch Kills in LIC, there’s the former Loose Wiles Bakery building, which serves the community in modernity as “building D” of the LaGuardia Community College campus.
This shot was gathered from the Hunters Point Avenue Bridge. A similar early morning shot back in February saw me walking back home with a case of frostbite in my fingers that bedeviled me and caused numbness for nearly a month. A man for all seasons, that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My eidolon of hope, a lone tree of paradise growing out from under the eave of a factory building along a Federal Superfund site, was in flower.
That tree is the same speciation as the titular focus of Betty Smith’s “A tree grows in Brooklyn,” by the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After confirming that the bulkheads on 29th street continue to collapse, unabated by any activity on the behalf of New York City or State, the Thomson Avenue viaduct offered egress over the Sunnyside Yards.
An Amtrak unit had just exited the East River tunnels and was making its way along a set of tracks, rolling past the same LaGuardia Community College building seen from Dutch Kills.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Queens Plaza’s IND station is where I caught a local train heading back towards HQ. Have I mentioned that I love the new OMNY fare control system that MTA installed during the last few years? Not having to sweat how much cash I’d installed on my Metrocard is not something I miss. You tap your phone to the thing and bang, you’re riding.
One less thing to worry about, huh?
“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.
wrinkles formed
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an annual fireworks display in Astoria Park, usually right at the end of June. It’s staged for the 4th of July, of course, and there’s a band performance that precedes it. It’s a big draw for the neighborhood.
In 2022, it was presented on June 29th.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, there’s a pretty simple camera recipe for fireworks shots – f8/ISO 200/4-8 seconds shutter speed. You pick something distant to focus on, do a test shot to confirm focus and turn off the autofocus entirely, then set the camera run on auto for the duration. My camera has a built in intervalometer, which allows me to set it to just keep on shooting once I click the shutter button. I had the camera set to create an exposure, wait a second, and then pop out another, and another, and another.
The actual trick to fireworks photography relates to the same issue encountered during “landscape.” What’s in the foreground and how do you embed a sense of “place” in the image?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For these shots, what I was interested in getting were the two bridges – Triborough and Hell Gate – along with the fireworks. The last time I shot the fireworks show here, which was at least ten years ago, I made it a point of being right up along the waterfront so I could include the East River in the shots. Given the mobbed and crowded condition down at that location, I wanted to stay away from that sort of lockup.
I moved around a bit this time as well, which I would have precluded from doing down in the thick of things in the crowd on Shore Blvd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were 10,000 people – at least – watching the show. It’s a big deal for Astoria, this fireworks show, and especially so after the last few years. People bring their kids, pets, and folding chairs along with coolers of beverages.
In the shot above, I was playing around with a few camera tricks. I used the focus stacking technique to combine multiple fireworks shells into a single shot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The show ended, and I sat down for a half hour at the skateboard park section of the larger Astoria Park, under Triborough Bridge. The crowds dispersed slowly, and I didn’t see any advantage at all in being part of an enormous human herd as it headed back towards 21st and 31st streets along Hoyt Avenue.
Fun night, with a cool neighborhood vibe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One scuttled his lonely path down Broadway back towards HQ and an inevitable late night in front of the computer spent developing these shots. Digital development occurs entirely within photoshop for me. I don’t lean heavily into my shots. I adjust horizons, do a bit of cropping, and correct the color temperature of the capture. I never, ever edit out anything in the shot as it would negate the journalistic integrity of the image. What I saw is what you see.
Something different 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.
keenly resented
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, and several times in fact, the way I pass the long hours of an Amtrak trip is by taking random snapshots of America. That sounds pretentious, but… that’s what they are. A homemade foam collar is affixed to my lens, then I set the camera up at a very high ISO setting and a wide open aperture. I then set the shutter speed to an insanely small sliver of time – 1/2000th or faster. It’s a challenging situation – Amtrak’s windows generally ain’t too clean or free of scratches, and the window glass itself has a reddish brown coloration to it. Saying all that – 8 hour train trip, yo – gotta do something to pass the time.
The video above represents what I saw between Harrisburg and somewhere in the middle of New Jersey. The sun was illuminating my window from about 4 o’clock on, and there’s really no way to combat the fact that your lens is pointed directly at the sun through a dirty and scratched brown window. Anyway… made it back to “home sweet hell.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I stepped off the train into a “NYC swamp ass hot day.” There was also a parade letting out, which was probably “Pride” given all the rainbow gear the paraders were parading around with. I walked a block to the E, returned to Queens at Queens Plaza, and caught a R back to the rolling hills of almond eyed Astoria.
So – That’s that story. This was June 26th, incidentally.
Six image posts are going to continue for a bit, as the particularly prolific photographic spree I’ve been experiencing continues. This post is being written in the second week of July, which is also good news as I’m way ahead of schedule.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I hung around HQ and the neighborhood for a few days after returning from Pittsburgh. June the 29th, however, was a day that the world put out “Mitch Bait.” Given that this is my last summer in NYC, I’m trying to do everything that’s possible for me to do. Visiting people, seeing things, wondering where that smell on the air is coming from. There’s a sentimental resonance in every step I take.
I don’t know if I’m going to miss this dystopian shithole or not, as it’s all I’ve ever known. See that photo right above? That looks normal to me. Everything about it is messed up, starting with the Cops leaving their car parked in a bus stop.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whatever…
One of the things that I haven’t done in a whole lot of years is attend the fireworks display at Astoria Park. It’s a short cross Astoria walk to get there for me, right up 31st street and over to Hoyt Avenue and then scuttle to the water. 31st Street, with its elevated subway tracks, seldom disappoints. There’s always something to take a shot of.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had been thinking about where I wanted to set up the camera on a tripod. I knew with certainty that the East River waterfront along Shore Blvd. would be mobbed, and I also wanted to get a shot with both bridges in it – the Hells Gate Bridge and the Triborough Bridge. I wanted a bit of water in the shot, but not too much. I’d have to contend with crowds, passerby who wanted to talk about cameras (this happens all the time), and any number of unknown things. When I got to the spot I had visualized, later on, there was a guy setting up a theatrical flying rope rig up in a tree which he was swinging around on, and doing gymnastics. You never know.
Photographing fireworks is fairly simple. You put your camera on a stable thing like a tripod. You set it to ISO 200, F8, and 4-8 seconds depending on ambient conditions. There’s variations on this, but that’s the basic exposure triangle. I usually record fireworks with the camera set for 3400K color temperature.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were captured on the way to Astoria Park.
Along the way, I encountered this Manitou (a French manufacturer of a range of heavy equipment) vehicle parked on the street. It caught my eye, this thing. Given my interest in the belief systems of various parties, the first thing I thought when I read the logo was related to the religious views of the Algonquian peoples. Odd choice, thereby, in corporate branding if you ask me.
You could probably take out a lot of zombies with that thing, I bet…
Tomorrow- fireworks!
“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.
stealthy whirring
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
June 19th saw Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself riding around on NYC Ferries for the afternoon and evening. I often espouse the virtues of this service, given its thrifty nature and the fact that you’re traveling around the City with a somewhat clean toilet nearby.
We were all over the East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We boarded the Astoria Line, which carried us southwards down the East River towards Manhattan’s Pier 11 Wall Street stop. Along the way, I spotted the Roosevelt Island Tram coming in for a landing from the East Side of Manhattan.
Have to ride that thing again, soon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Astoria line makes a stop at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which always offers you something interesting to point a camera at.
Next stop is Pier 11, where we transferred onto the South Brooklyn line and headed over to Red Hook. Our Lady wanted one of those Key Lime Pie thingamabobs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was a bit of schedule disruption at the South Brooklyn Line’s Atlantic Basin/Red Hook stop and we got hung up there for about an hour. That sucked, but what are you gonna do?
Finally, the boat which would take us to Manhattan arrived.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the financial district, there’s an imposture set up for tourists called “Stone Street” which goes out of its way to look “old timey,” but other than some barely utilized historic building stock – it’s the financial district. There’s a pub called “Ulysses” there which has pretty decent burgers and the beer is only $8 a pint. By the financial district’s standard, that’s as cheap as it gets.
We had a drink and a meal, and decided that we would splurge on a nice air conditioned cab ride back to Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I’m paying for a ride, I like to at least get something out of it that I can keep, so my habit is to rig the camera up for high speed and low light shooting. Got this one just after we got onto the FDR Drive.
Tomorrow – something completely different.
“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.
retinue of
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saturday the 18th of June, my trick left foot was singing a song. Baleful and rich with lament, this arthritic melody informed my night’s journey and thereby I decided that it would be a fantastic evening to “ride the train.” Accordingly, my toes were painfully oriented in the direction of Queens Boulevard from Astoria.
That’s the Standard Motor Products building, whose frontage is on Northern Boulevard at Steinway Street. There’s an urban farm up on the roof, which is just plain old cool.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Steinway Street becomes 39th Street when it crosses Northern Boulevard and passes over the Sunnyside Yards, but to members of the cult of historical specificity here in Western Queens – this section of 39th street will always be known as the “Harold Avenue Truss Bridge.”
Nerd.
The sunset was setting up nicely, and it seemed like I had actually timed things right for once.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At Queens Boulevard, a Manhattan bound 7 line subway was coursing along its tracks. My plan was simple, and it involved hopping on and off of the 7 line between Queensboro Plaza and somewhere east of there. At some convenient point, I’d transfer down onto one of the underground lines which move through the 46th street stop nearby HQ in Astoria.
It was a warm night, and somewhat humid in Long Island City. My name is Waxman, I live here and I carry a camera. Dum de dum, dum.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At Queensboro Plaza, there are two iconic shots always available for the passing photography enthusiast to gather. One revolves on variations of the shot above, depicting a Manhattan bound 7 line train entering the lower level of the station.
I should mention, a recent update of the software on my camera introduced a “vehicle tracking” feature for autofocus into my tool kit, and I’m currently working out the nuances of the new feature.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The other “iconic” subway shot at Queensboro Plaza is found at the extreme end of the platform, where the Flushing bound trains make their turn into the station on the high elevated steel of Queens Plaza, with the old Silvercup Bakeries signage in the background.
Figured I’d do a portrait format one for a change. I’ve been trying to remind myself to do this more often these days – turn the camera 90 degrees.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I began hopping on and off at various stations and popping out train photos for about an hour. On the 7, at least, ridership seems to be back to pre Covid levels.
Tomorrow- 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 