Ohio River Sunday night. We were visiting our Neville Island friends again. They live on the banks of the Ohio River. We had a wonderful boat ride earlier and it was time for dinner. Two tugs and their barges appeared up river and down river. Our host pointed out the buoy that marked the channel and told us they both had to be on this side on it. How would there be enough room? As the sun was sinking we watched them approach one another, a horn blew. It was a dramatic end of the day on the river.
Tag: river
Pittsburgh River Rescue
Fortunately it’s a timed challenge practice drill and not a real rescue situation on the Ohio River yesterday. These men and women do important and difficult work.
I’d taken two grandkids to the Carnegie Science Center and we had just toured the submarine docked behind the Center.
Watching the diver dive into the river while tethered to the rope as it unfurled, was something to see. Another diver waited on deck, ready to help if diver one got into trouble.
You have to be a paramedic first before any further training can begin. The instructor was patient and answered all Jack’s questions.
On the Ohio River
“USS Requin, a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named after the requin, French for shark. Since 1990 it has been a museum ship at The Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania”. Wikipedia
Neville Island Night Lights on the Ohio River
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.
Happy Retirement, Sy
The Schuylkill
The Schuylkill River. Philadelphia.
On my way back to Pittsburgh from New York after a nice Thanksgiving holiday with the family.
Here’s a shot taken Monday through a train window- #43 The Pennsylvanian – as we crossed over both the river and the Schuylkill Expressway.
My parents lived in Philadelphia 12 years but I lived there for only one of those years. A flood of nostalgia as the train rolled into Philly.
There are interesting place names (how about Wissahickon?) you don’t find anywhere else in the country. The river and expressway name always was hard for me to spell correctly. It’s that extra “L” in there. Turns out it’s a Dutch word meaning “hidden or skulking creek”
Extracting the Abstract: Gallery in Color
Yesterday I met the weekly challenge in black and white.
Converting pics to black and white helped them transform into ABSTRACT
Today I sifted through photos from nature and tried to extract the abstract.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
- Upside down Monongahela River reflection in Autumn
- Bluebonnets and Paintbrush in a blur from the bus, Austin TX
- Lemon wedge
- Ed’s Lobster
- Puddle reflection
- Peeling Paint
- Homestead Grays Bridge upside down- definititely still literal.
So I guess I think turning the image makes them abstract?
Fun to play with bits and pieces of photographs, like a jigsaw puzzle.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Extra, Extra
This week’s challenge of Extra, Extra is defined on WordPress
“A beautiful photo is one thing, but a photo with an unexpected detail has personality and pop. This week, share a photo that has a little something extra. writes Michelle W…Draw us in with a humorous detail”
Last night at the Point, where the Allegheny River and the Monongahela come together to form the Ohio, I saw this group of young people sitting at the edge.
Looking out at the Carnegie Science Center at sunset.
Tugboat and Barges on the Monongahela
Saturday afternoon, after the poetry reading at the Pump House, I walked outside.
I saw the tug pushing the loaded barges up the Mon towards the Rankin Bridge.
Because the leaves are still on the trees, I had to find an open space to catch the scene before it got away. Carrie Furnace is in the background. Shot with the iPhone5.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections
Tugboat Pushes Barges on the Mon
Shot through a chain-link fence.
I was in the passenger seat and I had my camera out. The 70-200 lens.
We were headed to the wedding reception from McKeesport to Greentree. (Lots of double ee)
Crossing the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge. A truss bridge.
And there was a tugboat pushing filled barges on the Monongahela. (Monongahela means “Falling Banks”)
Pushed the shutter and shot shot shot as fast as I could, no chance to change settings. Lucked out with the cables on the edge and the gull in flight. The chain link fence gives the photo a soft haze and fuzz to the sharpness.
I’d asked my friend to drive a little more slowly but everything whizzes by when you are moving and it was unrealistic to go slow on the bridge. Couldn’t have done it if I were driving as there was no place to pull over. It was a squeeze.
and might as well show you the failed shots, the ones with the bridge cables, the blocking the view, the actual fence.
Photography can be exasperating. You would like to get it right.
There was no time for a turnaround, rerun, do-over.
It was the one shot that worked. Lucky day. Oh yes, at least three below that didn’t.
That’s What I’m Honking About
And just moments earlier, this was the peaceful scene. Not sure why all the honking and general nastiness from the Canada Goose in the above image..
A grandmother and her granddaughter by the Allegheny River. (Unidentified subjects)
