A dose of cabin fever, coupled with the desire to fix the Carrie Furnace no batteries fiasco of several years ago - so off to Pittsburg on a last minute whim. Hmmm, maybe a little too underplanned. Rain in the forecast for Saturday, a Pirates game across from the hotel and a ticket for a guided tour.
Ugh, traffic worse than Manhattan (everything in P'burg is worse than Manhattan — unfortunately), steady rain Saturday morning and a Carrie Furnace pipsqueek with a severe napolonic complex - "guided is guided". Bagged the furnaces (both short and long term - over photoed now in any case) and set off to some backup sites.
The ball game provided a closed Clemente bridge (the northernmost of three matched self-anchored suspension bridges in a short six block space over the last half mile of the Alleghany. The others heading south are the Andy Wharhol (obviously the same evaluation of the relative merits of the two waterbound cities) and Rachel Carson (apparently from just up the Ohio). Lots of bridge shots with PNC Park (didn't it have a better name before being commercialized) in the background. A few more around the hotel (right at the downtown side of the Clemente bridge, wrapped up by a few in the morning rain in Historic (ahem) Braddock, PA. BTW, General Braddock has his name splashed on pretty much everything that doesn't say PNC on it in the greater P'burg region and out to very exburbs.
From there US 30, to US 119 and finally US 40 back to Cumberland, MD and the stunning I68 for the sprint back to B'more.
Lots of lenses in the bag but only the Nikkor 20 and the Canon 45 TS-E saw any use on the A7r. Pretty much trying to stay in the Friedlander mode with the 20, less sucessfully, faux Stephen Shore and Walker Evans with the 45 TS-E. One Evans knockoff in Mt. Pleasant of the WWI memorial (see below). The towns along 119 surprisingly have very vibrant downtowns and for some unknown reason a plethora of Marriott properties. That intersection looks like a combo that will get worked, starting in the fall. Three F. L. Wright houses in the vicinity. All within in about a three hour drive of home. All good.
Four galleries, two each for P'burg and the US 119 corridor, split in B&W and color. Color is pretty much done, B&W are just getting started. Click per the snap captions to head off to the respective gallery.
Click for P'burg Color gallery
Click for P'burg B&W gallery
Click for 119 Color gallery
Click for 119 B&W gallery