I’ve never been inside. So much controversy about this place when it was to be built. I remember that.
Not into gambling. It would pain me to lose money I’d worked for. But when I was up on Mount Washington I saw this light on the casino, surrounded by a total gray scene and it struck me as worth capturing.
To see other bloggers’ responses to the weekly challenge, click here
*click here to see Flat Ruthie Feed the Horses Cardboard Me Travels to Hardy, Virginia
I drive across bridges at least twice a day. I go to work on the arch green bridge(Birmingham Bridge) and sometimes come home on the yellow bridge(South 10th Street) but this day I crossed the Liberty Bridge.
Pittsburgh: The city of bridges. The change in light, water movement or in this case stillness, is ever changing.
The South Tenth Street is the one that was lit up for the filming of the Tom Cruise movie.
Along the Monongahela River by late afternoon light and at night on the way home from the Waterfront in Homestead. Two of my favorite views, anytime of day or night!
I had the cardboard “me” in the car already. We make people out of brown corrugated boxes. I always make myself as a model for the students, this year with gray yarn hair!
Some of you know I teach Art in the City K-8th grade. Not too many people get to make themselves out of scrap cardboard at their job. The “Flat Ruthie” (have you ever seen Flat Stanley?–I photographed him for granddaughter Anna’s school project) was driving around with me cause I was thinking it might make a fun Christmas card, myself and the skyline or something.
In 2009 I was in a self-portrait show at Silver Eye Center of Photography. I can’t tell you how many images I shot of myself in my kitchen, trying to look young and thin. Figured I could achieve both effects with myself as a cardboard puppet. No wrinkles on the smooth cardboard.
You might remember(or click the blue words) the night view of the same mill from April 2010.
To watch a 16 second stop action video of the incline – click the blue words- Duquesne Incline
Four Canon Digital SLR cameras shooting about 900 frames an hour ( with the kit lenses) mounted on gigapans and mounted on a long panel, attached to a tripod with a super duper car type battery-
and the results will make up a 10,000 frames which will be combined in a time lapse video. We will be able to see it at some point!
-and here is the story how this came to be on the blog today.
After school I was hightailing it up to Mount Washington to do a shoot for an engaged couple. On the way up the mountain at the top, I saw some camera equipment and a huge tripod. The guy manning it started to wave to me and then jog to keep up with my car as I slowed to a red light atop Grandview Ave. It was a former teacher of mine, Dror Yaron, now at Carnegie Mellon. I had taken one of his early Gigapan classes at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. {Here is the link to one of the gigapans I shot in 2008.}
I said , “I have to go shoot an engaged couple at the Duquesne Incline platform”, and he said, “Stop back here after that.”
As it turned out the couple couldn’t make it and so I parked close to the spot Dror was and walked down the sidewalk of McArdle Roadway, high above the Monongahela River.
In a few minutes the Senior Systems Scientist Randy Sargent and another CMU Robotics team member Anne Wright (forgive me Anne I didn’t get your title but remembered the “e”) arrived on the scene.
Randy had been there since 5 AM and planned to shoot until 11 PM. Oh my.
It was really cold, too. They were taking turns with the equipment. Later on I returned at 10 during the Steelers game just to document the commitment to the project. Randy had donned the ski gloves at that point.
I asked Randy about what he wanted to do when he was a child and he said he always liked to build things. EVERYTHING. Not just lego but pieces of scrap lumber from construction sites. I find that interesting how people are guided on a path to their current work.
Sunset was at 4:53 PM on Thursday the 8th of December.
Here is the link to the site to learn more about the projects and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
After school I drove down the slopes to the flats and headed to Homestead to buy a special cable for an external hard drive so I could retrieve a summer photo for Erika.
I turned onto Waterfront Road towards Best Buy and saw the late afternoon light reflected and warm the rusting metal across the Mon. Pulled over and stood on top of a guard rail to capture the sinking light on the Carrie Furnace, remnants of Homestead Steel Works and then I heard the tug and saw it pushing the barges up the river. It was a mighty scene on the river and the limitations of photography or my ability to capture it thoroughly, the seeing and feeling it, became clear once again.
The Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation sponsors tours but the last one was October 15th so will have to wait until 2012.
If you want to get a real feel for the Blast Furnaces and the incredible history, interviews with employees and historical photographs I recommend watching at least video # 1 at this website. I especially liked the man reading the last names of the workers he found in some type of log at the site. He spoke of reading obituaries of workers who gave 30-40 years of hard work for the Homestead Steel Works What a compilation of footage of Carrie Furnace. Closed in 1986.
Sponsored by American Eagle. After Breast Cancer Awareness Month the bras will be laundered and donated to charity. A friend spotted them and emailed me and suggested the Hot Metal Bridge display for the blog. Of course, it was the day I did NOT bring my good camera. I took a Pano on the iPhone.
