Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
North Side, up in the hills
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The section of Pittsburgh which I landed in after moving out of New York is called the South Hills. There’s eighty something different neighborhood/regions which make up the Pittsburgh Metro Area, and I still haven’t been to most of them, which is something I’m trying to rectify. When you say “North Side” it’s generally referring to a largish section that’s north of the Allegheny River, which is actually the former Allegheny City municipal area that Pittsburgh annexed ‘back in the day.’ There’s a small relatively flat area along the river where you’ll find a couple of the stadiums, and other cultural stuff. As you move away from the river, a steep hill begins to rise out of the river valley. The only time I’ve previously spent in this zone was a brief ‘explore’ in a part of the neighborhood that is called the “Mexican War Streets.”
I had made my way up that steep hill leading away from the flat river bank area in pursuit of a public park which promised an overlook. I like finding points of elevation for the camera to enjoy so there you are. Click, click, whirr, whirr. Afterwards, I hopped into the car and drove around a bit to see what else might be up here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Turns out that the neighborhood I was in is either called “Fineview” or “Perry” or both, and it’s a residential area which has definitely experienced a series of challenges. About every fourth structure I passed by was abandoned or boarded up. It seemed quite lovely, as far as the surviving and occupied structures that seemed fairly well maintained, but as in the case pictured above, there were several buildings where two homes shared a wall and one of them was open to the elements with the other being occupied and neat as a pin.
Apparently, this area is a fairly “crimey” one according to the TV News reports and the Police blotters. I generally don’t listen to such sources uncritically until they’re confirmed to me by people who live local and by observation, but this was my first time through and I don’t know anyone from this zone yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is staggering, just how many homes there are in Pittsburgh which stand abandoned. That apartment house pictured above is just a few blocks from the abandoned house in the second shot. So was this one, this one, this one, and this one. Just on the other side of the steep hill this neighborhood sits on, you see wealthy suburbs and semi rural areas in the hills and valleys found along the Ohio River.
Pittsburgh is crazy, yo.
Back tomorrow, and please share this post to your socials if you found it interesting.
“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.
Brentwood and Thomas Jefferson
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the many, many things I’ve been busy doing since arriving in Pittsburgh has involved taking advantage of the fantastic medical systems they’ve got here. Nothing particularly wrong, except for the hundred physical ailments which you’ve read me complaining about over the years. None of these aches and pains are particularly “treatable” unless they’ve discovered the fountain of youth somewhere, but it’s been a while since I had the folks in the white coats poke and prod and it’s best to let them work their arts periodically. I actually have a series of these appointments this coming week, establishing a base line and a relationship with the new medical peeps.
Our Lady of the Pentacle has also been getting checked up by the Doctors who practice her various specialties, and after a drop off at an appointment in the nearby community of Brentwood, I had about 90 minutes to kill. Luckily, I’m easily entertained and since I hadn’t set foot in this section of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area… I decided to set the car tires down and a ride around survey occurred. Nice little suburban style spot, this.
I tooled around in the Mobile Oppression Platform – aka the Toyota – and found myself on a series of somewhat serpentine local roads which wound their way around the hills. There was a golf course/country club, and a couple of cemeteries, which all seemed visually interesting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one, and the next shot too, were gathered within the fencelines of a cemetery which I hadn’t had the chance to record the name or location of when I was entering, since I was driving. Grr. A half hour of scouring Google Maps later…
Turns out that this area is called “Pleasant Hills,” and that the cemetery I had blundered into also functioned as a park, and is dubbed “Jefferson Memorial Cemetery.” Here’s a nice and fairly succinct article about the founding and creation of the place in 1929. I literally drove into the cemetery just to get off the road and out of the sort of high speed traffic that’s pretty common here in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The titular center of the place is the Thomas Jefferson Mausoleum (the 3rd President is buried in Virginia, as a note), which I kind of blundered across just after getting a call from Our Lady informing me that it was time to pick her up from that Doctoral assignation back in Brentwood.
I’ve got a few Doctor appointments myself, coming up, and I plan on taking a better look at this place on foot – after I’ve been poked and irradiated and sampled – at some point in the very near future. Interesting structure with a cool history.
Back tomorrow, and don’t forget to share this post of you like it.
“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.
Don’t go chasing waterfalls
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Project flowing water” is starting to shape up a bit, as far as the camera settings thing which I’ve been talking about for a while. I won’t bore you, but I think that I’ve just about figured out to get water shots looking the way I want them to.
Obviously, there’s a whole set of approaches to the oceanic and harbor conditions of NYC that were developed over a long period of time. That’s a different kind of flowing water, though. Tidal is a lot different than running, as I’ve found out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The same set of rock steps are in the shot above and below, which are the first ones that I’ve really been able to produce what I have in mind.
It’s actually quite complicated, getting the motion blur in some areas and seeing streaks of texture in others. If you click through to the larger incarnation of this shot at Flickr, you’ll see what I mean. Especially if you read this on your phone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s not just exposure triangle either. There’s a bunch of ‘machinations in the field’ during capture that have to be part of the plan. Ultimately, if you’re not willing to experiment a bit, you should stick to the rivers and lakes you’re used to instead of chasing waterfalls.
LOL.
Back next week 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.
Unknown Country
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Nature wants to kill you.” You look tasty to all other creatures, and it’s probably in your best interest to just up and slaughter any animal, insect, or vegetable that you might meet – just in case, and in the name of self preservation. Additionally, there’s a reason our ancestors paved over everything. Further, who in their right mind would want to sleep in a tent – by choice when they don’t have to – in the middle of the woods where there’s bears and Sasquatchs and all kinds of crazy running around in the dark. There’s probably a cache of feral children on the loose out here, howling and scratching about amongst the trees.” That’s what I was thinking when visiting the Hollow Oaks nature trail recently.
As you may gather, a walk in a nature preserve was recently on the menu here in Pittsburgh. There were trees, and a couple of quick running streams of some sort – creeks, runs, something. My shoes became very dirty, and were soon covered in mud. The sun light… the sun light was dappled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was on high alert as always in case I had to engage “maximum boogey” runaway mode, and I’ll admit to scanning the tree line for evidences of that monstrous pig/dog hybrid reported to inhabit the deeply forested valleys of Western Pennsylvania which is called the Squonk. The world is a terrifying place full of existential and unknown threats, especially so in areas where nature has not been conquered and reshaped with hammers and scythes. Walls, and doors that lock, keep the Elks out when you sleep.
Seriously though, this was a really nice and low intensity trail through a protected conservation area which winds around a patch of woods and several streams, ultimately joining up with the Montour Run waterway near Coraopolis. Really nice spot, but since I’m a City Boy and anything natural is unnatural and threatening to me… it’s threatening and weird.
What if some predatory bird was to attack and try to take the eyes? Snakes… there’s actual Rattlesnakes around here too. What if I drop my car keys, how would I ever find them? What if a Deer ate my keys? I can’t chase a Deer through the woods…
I once got into a fistfight with one of those dick Canada Geese at First Calvary Cemetery in LIC, have had to fight off a raccoon in the dead of night at the Maspeth Plank Road using the legs of my tripod to fend it off, and I grew up in a neighborhood known for having packs of wild dogs roaming about (1980’s Flatlands/Canarsie.) See? Proves the point. Nature wants to kill you, or at the very least – Me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of the above is a composite of various statements transmitted to me by my parents whenever the subject of leaving Brooklyn for a day and going somewhere nice – “En Da Kuntree” as my Mom would screech – came up. The entire “country” storyline presented to a young but already Humble Narrator would inevitably lead to my hair getting wet causing a condition known as ‘wet head,’ resulting in me getting deathly ill as a result of the moistening, and subsequently being buried “In Dah Grownd.” The final salvo was “Is Dat Whatchu wants… yore a real icehole, don’t know who raised you but youse didn’t learn dis from me, go reads a book instead.” Before leaving the conversation about taking a walk in some sylvan glade, one would be commanded to fetch and prepare a “soda glass” filled with Diet Pepsi and 4, not 3 not 5, ice cubes.
Despite the programmed in script offered above, which is an embedded part of my source code, I actually quite enjoy a nice walk in the country these days. The ‘wet head’ threat is ameliorated through the simple prophylactic of wearing a cap. When I die, my wish is to be sealed up in a large glass ampule filled with preservatives and put on commercial display as a cautionary tale. A traveling freak show, perhaps. That is, if animals don’t get to my corpse first.
At least I’d be continuing to visit new places, in my glassy ampule.
“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.
2 trains and a boat
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the car needed gas. Nearby the gas station I’m currently fueling up at are a set of freight tracks which are used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR, pictured above. I’ve driven up to the pump and discovered this train passing by, driven away from it and witnessed the train arriving…
This time around, after topping off the tank, I parked the car in an industrial driveway and sat around in it for about a half hour, eventually getting lucky enough to catch a shot of the thing as it steamed along.
A Class 2 regional railroad, Wheeling & Lake Erie is a modern operation started in 1990 that uses the name of Jay Gould’s original 1880-1949 company. W&LE ended up becoming part of Norfolk Southern, until the larger company started selling off parts of its portfolio of assets and in 1990 the modern company was born. They serve areas of Northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, and now I have a photo of one of their trains. Apparently, their Engine 6982 was built in 1971, and rebuilt in 1995. It’s apparently an EMD SD40-2, but not being a true railfan – just a guy who likes to take pictures of trains – I had to look that one up.
If you disagree with make, model, etc. you’re probably right, so please share it with the rest of the class in the comments section.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was at a fairly cool location in Pittsburgh which I’ve visited in the past – West End Overlook Park – when I noticed a CSX train hauling cargo down the Monongahela River toward its intersection with the Ohio River. That intersection is more or less in the shot above, I guess. Those orange and black shapes at bottom left are barges of coal.
Twice I got lucky with trains. Twice in one afternoon. This has been driving me nuts, as a note, being surrounded by cool railroad stuff and not having the ability to get some shots of it because I’m driving or my timing is off. There’s always something. Saying that, I’ve begun to develop an idea of when some of these trains seem most likely to come through, and where I should be lurking about to get my shots of them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I promised a boat in the title, and there you are. There’s a towing operation based right about where the West End Bridge, pictured above, is found. As of yet, I haven’t figured out how to get down to their base and say hello. Saying that, I know where they are, so that’s some sort of progress. Things here are beginning to become “familiar.”
Back 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 