Posts Tagged ‘weather’
it shines
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dutch Kills, and my little tree of paradise. I check in on this tree about once a week these days. It would absolutely break my heart if I showed up here and it was gone. Eventually, it will affect the structure it adjoins and will be removed, or it will be hydrologically undermined by the waterway and fall into the water. I understand this.
Saying that, gosh do I hope this thing continues growing and thriving in these horrific circumstances, along the Long Island City reaches of the fabulous Newtown Creek. These shots were captured in mid February, I should mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The thick plate of ice which Dutch Kills had been encased in was “rotting” away as I was moving around the zone. The polka dots effect was fascinating. I’ve had a few people ask me if this was due to some environmental factor, but I think it’s just what happens in a tepid tidal situation involving brackish water.
The extreme cold of early to mid February typically creates icing along the tributaries of Newtown Creek and in isolated sections along the main part of the waterway. Saying that, it has to be fairly cold for a protracted period of time for the “main stem” to get fully frozen over.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What I found kind of interesting was the presence of these snowflake shaped ice holes closer to the boundary between liquid and frozen. This particular spot is always lurking under the Borden Avenue Bridge.
As far as you seeing photos from February, with today being the Ides of March, one has been lucky enough to be a couple/three weeks ahead of schedule here at Newtown Pentacle for most of 2022. I’ve got some cool stuff coming your way, including another Amtrak based day trip to America’s consolation prize – Philadelphia. Also, I’m cooking up a few “in person” Newtown Creek events which I’ll be announcing soon.
More tomorrow, 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.
other constellations
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, a humble narrator took his camera on vacation in September. The camera wasn’t bored, but it’s been trapped here in NYC since arriving from Japan at the end of 2020 due to COVID restrictions and all that, so I wanted to show it what other parts of the USA look like. Amtrak takes you places, and one of the places we went together was the pretty city of Pittsburgh.
One left the rented room in Pittsburgh early in the morning, after having received weather forecast warnings about a powerful line of storms meant to arrive in the area where their three rivers converge about 4:30 p.m. Accordingly, one’s activities for the day had been built around this. After exploring both sides of the Allegheny River frontages, a humble narrator began scuttling back towards the AirBNB I was staying at in downtown Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the PPG tower. Pittsburgh Plate Glass, that is, and if there’s an “Empire State Building” in this city, I guess that’s the one. Proper photographs of the thing will be offered tomorrow, the shot above is a bit more of a “snapshot” than it is a photograph.
On the way back to my room, I picked up some coffee and a couple of bananas at a 711. Also as mentioned, the temperature when I left in the morning was about 60 and over the course of the day it had risen to about 85 and it was quite humid. One had been out wandering and walking all day and I was perspiring.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The AirBNB was in a former office building which had been converted over to residential usage called “The Clark Building.” Apparently, it used to be the regional HQ for Warner Brothers, was built in 1928, and I was staying on its 23rd floor. The elevation provided a front row seat to the oncoming storm, and after a quick shower and change of clothes, the window was first rolled up and then the tripod was deployed so that the camera could watch the show.
I really was hoping for lightning, but c’est la vie, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For about 90 minutes, rain and wind pummeled Pittsburgh, and according to the local news I was watching on my phone, a tornado had set up nearby the Allegheny county line that caused no small amount of damage. Me? I was sitting pretty, drinking coffee and enjoying a banana.
I also took this opportunity to offload the day’s photo effort from the onboard memory cards of the camera to the laptop which I had carried with me all the way from Queens in NYC. I recharged the batteries and wiped down the equipment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the front had passed, the temperatures dropped back into the low 60’s, and there was still a bit of occasional drizzly rain coming and going. Around the corner from the Clark Building, an ornate movie theater was observed with a lit up marquis advertising a showing of the “Wizard of Oz.”
When in Rome, as the saying goes, and since I required a meal at this point – as I had long ago digested the pancake breakfast quaffed nearby the Heinz Factory on the north side of the Allegheny – I headed for a nearby outpost of Pittsburgh’s iconic “Primanti Brothers” sandwich shops.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Primanti Brothers sandwich is a “cholestival festival.” I ordered the menu item they called “The New Yorker.” How could I not, after all? Pastrami, Corned Beef, french fries embedded in the sandwich… delicious, but it’s a cardiologist’s nightmare made manifest on a plate. I washed it all down with a couple of pints of Yuengling, which is apparently a locally manufactured beer. After eating, I gathered my crap together and decided to remain busy.
Tomorrow – night shooting in Pittsburgh.
“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.
snouted denizens
Monday
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
Experimental in nature, the images in today’s post are actually hundreds of images wound into YouTube video files. I set the camera up to capture time lapses of the storm setting itself up on Saturday night. Was hoping for lightning, but there you go. The one above is looking westwards from Astoria right about sunset.
X
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When the storm really got going, and it turns out that Saturday broke the record in NYC for a single day’s worth of rain, I had to move the camera to a somewhat safer and drier position. All of these were captured at HQ – by the way – where a humble narrator was bunkered down, drinking tea and eating toast. This one looks at the sewer grate on my corner as it drank up hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water.
X
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is from a little earlier in the evening, looking southwest along Astoria’s Broadway as the clouds and humidity built up. One was quite aware of his ear drums at this point in the evening, as the atmospheric pressure built and the storm neared. Back tomorrow with something else.
Also, tonight is the actual, calendrical, Night of the Living Dead.
“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.
glutless zeal
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s an example of a Flopwhistle’s Water Hen pictured above. Given that I’m always wrong about what kind of a bird a bird is, one has undertaken the practice of just assigning random names to the various avians I encounter. This particular “bird on a wire” was hanging around HQ here in Astoria during the 72 hours I got to spend quarantining myself from the exposure to Covid which offered by an anti-vaxxer friend of mine. Grrr.
This particular person received a verbal dressing down the other day. For those of you who haven’t experienced what it’s like when a humble narrator drops the facade and stops pretending to be a nice guy… it ain’t pretty. I’ve been told it’s like having a thesaurus yelling at you, since I also drop all pretense of colloquialism and the carefully constructed artifice of my working class persona.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This week, since nobody who works for New York State – nor Con Edison or Spectrum cable – can visualize the hornets nest of dead wire and overburdened utility poles without photos of it, one has to go out and perform a photographic survey of the ludicrous situation hanging over our heads. Literally the entire regional economy hangs off of utility poles, and it can be derailed with a single fallen tree. Y’all want it, you’re gonna get it. Then you can found a blue ribbon committee that recommends things which will never happen.
I am so tired of fighting, lords and ladies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, a negative Covid test for both Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself has ensured that we haven’t been derailed from the extensive travel schedule which is in the works for September. My anti-vaxx friend’s defenses of his perceived “freedoms” came close to attenuating my own freedom – see? I’ve got an Amtrak package which I’ll be spending in that interval, and bringing the camera to new and different locales for a change of pace. It’s been so long since I left NYC…
Vacation, all I ever wanted…
“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.
loutish fellow
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator is taking a break this week, as his anxiety and or stress levels have become absolutely maxed out. Also, I’m working on something rather time consuming that requires 100% of my attention this week since learning the nuances of a new software package is involved. Thusly, you’ll be seeing single shots and regular postings will resume next week.
Pictured above is the Hunters Point Avenue Bridge, spanning the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek in Long Island City, on a fairly foggy night.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, October 26th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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 