A little more than nine miles from downtown Pittsburgh in the Ohio River is Neville Island ,
Friends Deb and Sy, residents of the island, are the guest bloggers today- photographs and writing. This blog post is in two parts.
The first is the moment of Zen sent by Deb to me on my phone and the autumn hillside reflected in the Ohio River and the barge and tug capture the feel of where they live on the island. Peaceful and a gorgeous image. Thanks Debbie and Sy for creating the blog post today.
But the day before there was a lot of activity right by their home.
Gigantic Crane Operation Part 2 of the Guest Blog
Sy writes about the crane photos
The photos reveal a crane on a barge that was towed upstream on the
Ohio River, along with an empty barge, from Midland (Beaver County) Pa
to Neville Island. This crane had a large clamshell bucket, weighing,
according to the owner, approx. 8,500 lbs. EMPTY!
This bucket was utilized to clean out silt from our neighbor’s boat garage. It removed four cubic yards of silt at a time which is a lot of silt! Muddy
river water would flow into this calm area. While calm, the silt
would fall out of the water and onto the river bottom in the boat
garage. This boat garage was last cleaned out in a similar fashion
about 11 or 12 years ago. This crew removed approximately 8 to 10 feet
of silt from the river bottom in the boat garage.
Before this calm area was a boat garage, it was part of the storage area for the
upstream gate to a lock on the Ohio River that was constructed in the
late 1890s and decommissioned in the early 1930s when the present
locks went into operation. The steel lock gate was removed and
utilized for scrap metal around the time of WWII.
Additionally, an old, heavy steel barge cover (at least 60 or 70
years old and more than 2000 lbs.) was removed by the crane as the
boat garage only utilized two such covers and this third cover was
deteriorating and not really needed. All of this work was accomplished
in about 4 hours.”
Hostess Deb created the perfect Pandemic lunch on her deck overlooking the Ohio River. We’d not seen each other since early March. Centerpiece courtesy of Donna, who gave me a kalanchoe in a tiny pumpkin, too. Asian chicken wraps and potato salad with a side of red grapes. A tall glass of apple cider from the farm stand. An oatmeal cookie.
There were two barges that went by with tug boats, several freight trains across the River. Just a few trees starting to turn.
It was so lovely to see longtime friends. Catch up before the winter sets in.
Yes that’s a mask in the middle and an oatmeal cookie in a cellophane sleeve on top of the fish napkin.Kalanchoe in a pumpkin I was knitting. Donna was crocheting. Deb captured her luncheon guests on the deck and cast on a pumpkin hat right after lunch.
This is where I photographed the hungry bee devouring his pollen lunch .
Neville Island. Shot Saturday during the retirement party at a friend’s home along the Ohio River.
Maybe you saw yesterday’s night photography of the barges and tugboats. Those were taken handheld with Canon 24-70 L series lens. The reflection of the lights on the dark river at night are more dramatic but the daylight shots taken with the Canon 70-200 L serieslet you see the details and appreciate the size of the vessels. They move at a fast clip.
The retirement party at our friend’s home on Neville Island began in early afternoon but the barges and tugs went by into the night. Both directions!
Lots of drama to watch. Multiple freight trains on the opposite bank blew their train whistles.
See the powerful blue light the Captain was shining down river to illuminate a buoy in the middle of the river? Neville Island Bridge is in the background.
Centerpieces with tiny white lights and fishing accessories glowed like lanterns.
Here you can see the dark barges being pushed by the tug as they approach the bridge.
The bonfire kept us warm and warded off the increasing damp chill as the sun disappeared. Skipping the photo my friend took of me devouring a gooey s’more.
Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could photograph and barge and a tug. And I’ve been trying. When I can….Problem is, that the times I have captured it, the light is wrong, it’s raining, I couldn’t get access to the riverfront. Today I was at a friend’s house on Neville Island and I’d asked her about the tugs and barges going by her house. ALL THE TIME she said. And they did go by, Empty, filled, just a tugboat not pulling or pushing any barges. Problem is it started to rain. And it would not stop. Trying to capture a specific scene has taught me a lot about how I photograph things.
Most of the time I see something and just photograph it. Or I think about something, have an idea and go and find it. The light might be great, the garbage has a treasure in it, the kids are ignoring me, I drive by something I just can’t believe it is right there in front of me. Now- try to capture something specific. I am not as good at that assignment I’ve just learned. It would be as a true assignment like a National Geographic photographer. Stake it out. Camp out. Know the ins and outs. Shoot thousands of frames. Monkey around with your results. Do it again. Different time of day. Return to the scene. Try a different angle, different lens and or camera. Shoot. Shoot some more.
It isn’t that I am not that serious about shooting a specific photograph, I just couldn’t make it come together for this one. Exasperating and frustrating.
But the day before there was a lot of activity right by their home.The crane arrives
Removing the covers
And there they go
NIghtfall. The bonfire.
The 
Happy Retirement, Sy
