Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
Good and great
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator was lucky enough to wake up again, one recent day, and soon discovered that the atmospheric temperature would be in the high 60’s during the afternoon, which triggered me into taking a fairly long walk. I was determined to work a few flights of steps into this one, and the path I chose included several such obstacles to my continuing happiness.
The T light rail carried me over to Pittsburgh’s North Side from HQ, whereupon one pointed his toes in a generally southern direction, and proceeded to follow them. Several existential questions were positively gnawing at me on this particular day, however, and a location suddenly occurred to me where I could make a quick stop for consideration of my quandaries.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I have very few eidelons to which I assign the title of ‘all that’s good and great.’ I’ve mentioned a morality check of mine, in the past, as being “What would Superman do.” If you’re about to do something questionable, running it past the Kryptonian filter is a good idea, but always remember that Supes gaslights each and every one of his friends – including the woman he loves – (except for Batman, of course) – and he doesn’t seem to do much in terms of solving the big picture stuff on his adopted planet. I’m pretty sure Superman could eliminate world hunger in under a week if he wanted to, for instance.
The Man of Tomorrow always has to tell Bats the truth, since the Dark Knight probably already knows the score anyway. It’s hard to get anything past a Billionaire who calls himself ‘The Night,’ and or ‘Vengeance.’ That means you should always take what Superman says and does with a grain of salt if it doesn’t involve pinching off active volcanos or redirecting tidal waves, and that you should also acknowledge some serious issues about a Billionaire who dresses up in black leather, spends his money on an arsenal of esoteric weaponry, and beats up poor people at night.
The ultimate moral authority to judge your actions against thereby, in my mind, is always going to be Mr. Rogers and luckily I live not too far from his actual neighborhood. A Pittsburgh native, Fred Rogers was, and there’s a well deserved monument to him found on the north side of the Allegheny River.
Note: I actually perform the same act that Rogers always did when I get home from wherever, changing out of my outside clothes and shoes for a clean sweater and ‘house sneakers.’ In actuality, this habit of mine started after having read Marcus Aurelius, but when I realized that a stoic habit was what Fred Rogers was displaying to me as a child… that guy…
I like to sit down next to his statue and ponder my problems sometimes, meditating about kindness, and the maintenance of an open mind towards people and ideas which I don’t like very much. There’s a lot of that flying around at the moment, and it bums me out.
You ever listen to his 9/11 message?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Robert Berks was the sculptor who fashioned this metallic homage to Mr. Rogers, I’ve learned. I’ve wondered if the statue’s monumental stature was consciously decided upon to cause grown up adults feel like children, again.
The memorial plays recordings of the great man talking and singing, and it’s always a pleasurable spot to visit. The siting of the thing is pretty cool, I’d mention, nearby the beginning of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail on the Allegheny River’s North Shore, and in direct proximity to the sportsball stadium used by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Meditation time was over, my problems weren’t solved but at least I’d filtered out anger and self aggrandizement as motivations in my decision making. You can’t be prideful or self absorbed when you’re sitting next to Mr. Rogers, or at least a representation of him.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
Diesel
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lucky, lucky. While walking the last third of a constitutional walk on a chilly afternoon, a second CSX train appeared while I was on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail here in Pittsburgh. That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge behind it, if you’re curious.
CSX #845, I’m told, is part of General Electric’s ‘Evolution Series’ locomotive line – a model ES44AC-H locomotive. Read all about it here, nerds.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was actually quite cold out by this time of day, with winds kicking up and temperatures falling. Funnily enough, not 36 hours later, the temperatures would be in the middle 70’s with extremely pleasant conditions. They all told me when I was talking about moving out here – in Pittsburgh, if you don’t like the weather, just wait about 20 minutes and it’ll change.
Saying all that, I wasn’t properly insulated and despite the exercise, a humble narrator was growing a bit chill. it probably had a lot to do with the actual drop in temperature and upscaling of the wind, but there you go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was getting close to the end of this particular walk, which offered two cool views of train traffic up, so I considered it a ‘lucky’ day.
Too often, my rail timing is off and all I get to see are empty tracks. I’ve got to resume my vigil at Seldom Seen Greenway soon, and wait out the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR’s schedule until I get a desired shot there. I’ve made multiple attempts, but no bueno.
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.
Scuttle on, my wayward son
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Climatologically speaking, it was in in the high 30’s with a stiff wind on this particular afternoon, but exercise day is exercise day and a humble narrator tries to stick to a schedule. One scuttled up the hill from HQ, and soon found himself at the Potomac ‘Red Line’ Station of Pittsburgh’s light rail system – The T – and ready to board a city bound train set and subsequently set out on a short walk.
As stated previously, a short walk for me is one of about 4-5 miles. This one was also a ‘photowalk,’ which means that whereas I intended to wave the camera around, no specific shot was being sought. Catch as catch can, for this sort of thing.
The T service carried me to its terminal stop on the north shore of Pittsburgh, dubbed Allegheny Station, which is where the line runs up and out of the ground and onto an elevated track, which is found nearby Acrisure Stadium wherein the Pittsburgh Steelers play sportsball.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Curiosity leads me about on this sort of endeavor. What’s over there, or there, or… you just kind of follow your nose, and try to see something off the beaten track. I was intrigued by the masonry shadow of a long gone building. Its shape suggests that a house used to kiss up against the larger commercial structure, which is itself hollowed out and largely windowless, as it is seemingly undergoing a stalled renovation.
A recently announced development project, whose footprint is nearby, promises a new effort at making use of a part of Pittsburgh’s waterfront to create a tourist, hospitality, nightlife, and shopping Mecca that would take advantage of sportsball tourism. The centerpiece of this project is a giant Ferris wheel.
That didn’t work out too good on Staten Island, I’d offer, but sportball stadiums actually cost NYC money, whereas the ones in Pittsburgh offer a surplus in economic activity and tourism (hotels, bars, restaurants, even the museums see higher revenue during weekend sports events here).
It’ll be interesting to see what happens, maybe ride that Ferris Wheel, and ultimately – I don’t really care. My gentrifiers are back in NYC. I guess that I’m one in Pittsburgh – howzaboutdat?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My nose following found me walking towards the West End Bridge, to enact a now familiar plan of heading back towards the distant T station which would be the end of this short walk. Luckily, for once, I had picked the right time of day – as you’ll see in posts all week long.
Apparently, and I’m sure this is an absolute coincidence and has nothing to do with the development plans, the West End Bridge is about to start redesigning its approaches and interfaces with the neighborhoods that it connects to… one of which happens to be where that Ferris Wheel dealie is supposed to be. There’s an local outfit called Riverlife which seems to be driving the train on this one.
Lots to see coming up this week – here at Newtown Pentacle – towboats and railroads, oh my. 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.
Listen for it
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While scuttling back to the T light rail station after a short walk, where a humble narrator hoped for transit egress back to HQ, a Norfolk Southern train was spotted rolling along its elevated tracks. Remember, yesterday, when I was musing about owning a better telephoto zoom lens than the one I have for random times when a long reach would be handy? Situations like this one are why I covet such things.
One of my favorite shots from last year was captured up near those tracks (location, and shot), when another Norfolk Southern unit was thundering through in the opposite direction. Apparently, there was a pretty dramatic derailment in this area a few years ago (2018) that saw train cars falling over the edge of the track bed, which damaged the light rail station. Wow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those tracks up there are set against Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington prominence and are pretty busy, to my observation. This is the south side of the Monongahela River, and downstream – after the ‘Mon’ joins with the Allegheny to form the headwaters of the Ohio River – there’s a bridge which allows these trains to cross the water and continue on westwards using the northern shore of the Ohio.
There’s a medium sized rail yard kind of nearby that those tracks go through, one which I haven’t gotten close to yet. It’s on my list, however. So’s Christmas.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now that things are warming up a bit here, I’ve got a few things I want to check out on that extensive ‘got to check that out’ list of mine.
In particular, I’d like to pay some more attention to the steel mills east of this area, check out what I can see around Norfolk Southern’s regional ‘home base’ at the Conway Yard, and get a shot of the Westinghouse Atom Smasher.
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.
Meditative
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ultimately, I’m quite pleased with the 16mm wide angle lens that was recently added to my kit bag, but it has limitations that can be frustrating. I like leaving my zoom lenses at home sometimes, and using prime lenses with fixed focal lengths instead. After cracking this shot out I changed up the gear, affixing an 85mm lens to the camera instead, which is the opposite of the 16mm in most ways and not just magnification.
The hole in my arsenal is telephoto at this point. Rumor has it that Canon is finally going to let third party manufacturers into their RF mirrorless mount ecosystem, notably Sigma. What I’ve been desirous of with this camera system has been a counterpart of the old ‘all in one’ Sigma zoom I used to attach to my old crop sensor ‘7D’ model camera. I sometimes adapt that old warhorse onto the newer ‘R6’ camera I currently carry, but I’m throwing away a third of the image by doing so and it negates the point and advantages of the ‘full frame’ image sensor within the gizmo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also – I’ve been a fan of this F2 85mm lens since acquiring it towards the end of the pandemic, I’d mention, but I’d love to be able to ‘reach out and touch someone’ with a 300mm or greater zoom occasionally. The legacy Sigma lens I like is an 18-300 ‘all in one,’ if you’re curious.
My path back to HQ on this walk included having to cross Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River, so I headed over to the Smithfield Street Bridge (pictured above) to do just that.
As opposed to the 16mm with its typical ‘fish eye’ style distortion, the 85mm is pretty true and ‘square’ to the eye, and it needs little in the way of lens correction during the developing process – unlike the 16mm.
Truth be told, I don’t ‘need’ a long view 99% of the time and my preferred method for rectifying that sort of thing is to just find a better point of view that’s closer to the subject. Saying that, sometimes you can’t get a better angle from closer up, or something is happening and you’re nowhere near it. Train coming into frame, tugboat, wild boar? Seconds, that’s what you’ve got to work with, and that all in one lens is perfect for such situations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, there’s a whole decision process that I force myself to have when I’m packing up my bag before leaving HQ. First question is the circumstance of light – what time is sunset/sunrise? Weather? Inside or outside or both? Am I bringing a tripod? Plan on doing filter shots? What’s my route and what do I expect to see? Lots of times, the answer is to just bring the heavy zoom lens, and switch out for a wide aperture prime when it gets dark. Saying that – All of this stuff gets pretty heavy on a long walk, so is there anything I can leave back at HQ?
Staying organized with all the gear is a real challenge, I’d add. Lens caps go in a certain pocket, as do gloves, and a tissue to blow my nose, there’s a small cotton towel I always carry in case it rains, there’s the phone, all of it needs to be kept track of. Every pocket has a designated purpose, and I’ve made religious obeyance of this a habit.
Nothing worse than the sudden realization that you’ve stupidly lost something along your way. At least to me.
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 