Tag Archives: photography

N.Y. Trip

30 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by in Hiking, New York, Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Another day trip to New York. Always a lot of fun and a lot of walking. You cannot beat the Groupon $33 round trip price. Our driver just flies up the highway. Went thru the Holland Tunnel and got off at 8th and 45th. Went to the City Kitchen then headed over to the subway. 

It was a lot cleaner than I thought it would be. Lots of people in N.Y. for some reason.

Looking down at one of the trains.

Our first stop was at the 9/11 memorial. This is some sort of mall?

Inside view.

Bright sunny day with lots of reflections.

More reflections.

Reflecting pool. Hard to believe there once was a building here – full of people.

Kathy left her cellphone at work, so I’m not sure who she is talking to – on a cloaked phone.

The Survivor Tree. Discovered amidst the wreckage of 9/11 – transplanted and cared for, then brought back to be planted here.

An art sculpture from the wreckage at WTC Plaza. 1971 “The Sphere”

Back on the subway and headed to Staten Island Ferry. The subway card did not work after Kathy went thru – a woman held the gate open for me! Niceness in NY!

From outside the ferry terminal you can see the Brooklyn Bridge.

Leaving the terminal and watching a million people standing in line for the ferry, we walked over to Battery Park. Besides being able to see Lady Liberty from there, they have many statues around.

My B&W post of the day.

This was a strange one – called The Immigrants. 

Castle Clinton. Had some nice dioramas inside.

Another statue. This was blocked off and we couldn’t read what it was about.

Korean War Memorial – Got his camos on.

The Seaglass Carousel. 

Leaves are slow to turn up here.

After Battery Park we caught another subway to Chelsea Market. Building on the way.

This place was packed. Halloween stuff going on.

Halloween stuff!Left the market and headed to the High Line.

Another view. This is at 14th Street.

And here is an old time view. Interesting history about this. Plenty of articles on Google.

The High Line was old train tracks above the City, turned into a garden.

Finally some fall colors.

From 14th street we headed south to the end. Kathy got a kick out of me wanting to keep walking. This is at Gansevoort St. From here on, the rails were destroyed.

Besides being a nice hike, you get to see so much on the High Line.

I saw an old time photo of this. Didn’t think one still existed!

Lots of art work around and to be seen from an eye level view.

On the way heading north.

We are almost at the end and we come across this, just before 34th St.

Lots of new construction going on. This is Hudson Yard.

Leave the High Line and head back to the Theater District. Sights on the way.

Ha! Ralph Kramden!

Times Square is always a treat. Guy flipping over tourist.

Nice day and lots of people. We ate at Shake Shack, went to Muji and just hung out until it was time to head home.

Eastern Pumping Station aka Food Hub

25 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Baltimore, engineering, water history

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Went to check on the status of the work being done at the old EPS down on Wolf St. (Not to be confused with the Eastern Avenue Pumping Station). The first thing I see is a new roof on the old Gay St. Yard, which later became City S/R 06 then part of the Transit and Traffic storage yard. 

Below is what the building looked like when it was first built.

This was about 1902. 

Sign on the gate showing what is going on. The gate was opened so I invited myself in. Something I’m not sure of, because I thought the Pumping Station was a Historic Place, why does this banner show it as a flat roof (green)?

The building to the right is what it originally looked like. 

This building was just recently put up. It is called the Food Incubator (Best to go to the Foodhub website for more info on this) I went inside here to find the general contractor to ask permission to roam around. Granted. He told me the City no longer owns these 3-1/2 acres. They were bought. And soon to be rented out. The new roof, as shown in the first photo is only to help protect the property. It will be up to others to fix the buildings.

The pumping station ready to be rented out. Someone actually went thru and cleaned the inside of these buildings. I was here in 2014 and it was a mess.

Hallway up to the 2nd floor.

A room with a view.

Heading towards the next building…

Last time I was here, I was able to go up and down this spiral staircase.

Last night’s rain splattering on the floor.

These shots are all of the old maintenance shop. They made valves and hydrants here.

The maintenance shop, in middle, and the storage yard. P.S. to left. 

I think this sign should have been at the front gate?!

I believe this was the workmen’s bath house. It is completely gutted now.

This is the rear of the first building with the new roof. Steps inside are shot, so I took the scaffold up.

Nice new roof. 

Headed across the yard to one of the shops/carriage houses. The blacksmith shop had burnt down a few times.

Here is what the above building use to look like.

Hard hat area.

Looking from stables back towards main buildings.

Random engineering craziness!

This was from the Food Hub’s brochure. When I was in front of the building, this was all grown over. Although the date says 1890 my notes tell me that this Pumping Station was completed in 1891.

If you send me your email, I will send you a brief word document covering the history of these buildings.

Turkey Point at Elk Neck

06 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Hiking, nature, Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

With Kathy at her sister’s for a week, I figured I’d see if my daughter wanted to go kayaking or hiking. She chose hiking so we went up to North East, Md. to Elk Neck State Park. Nice day for a hike. A little warm then started cooling off with the clouds moving in. I haven’t done this hike for about 5 years. Always nice to revisit places. This was a two part hike:

First we stopped at the lighthouse lot and walked the paths. Round trip here was about 2-1/2 miles.

A few of these signs scattered about.

With good reason. My daughter, Jules, has an app on her phone that measures distance. She said this cliff was 72′ up. This view is looking N.W. towards Havre De Grace. The head of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Nice path. The fields on both sides have grown over some since the last time.

Not sure what this was.

Jules staying away from the hawk viewing sign. Multiple wasp nest on this thing. We did see a couple eagles while roaming around.

Finally made it to the lighthouse. Five years ago I was able to go inside. Not today.

We followed the light house trail down to the bottom. Another area seriously grown over. Use to be able to follow this trail south to an area just under the light house and look up the cliff.

So we headed the other way. So nice and peaceful listening to the water lap against the rocks. I could sit here for hours.

A little beach up ahead.

Driftwood and seashells. 

Back up top.

No pee-call here! This spot-o-pot had a lot of stink bugs in it. Most fell off the roof, onto the toilet, when I opened the door. 

Onto the next leg of our hike – Rogues Harbor and the Beaver Pond. This was a short hike. When we got to the upper left there was a detour around a ravine. I’ve done this hike before and it takes quite a while. We could see enough from our vantage point on this side. The trail does go all the way around the pond.

First stop though was at the marina bathrooms. Looking east across the Elk River.

Buttonwood Beach RV Resort. From this view it looks like sardine villa. From Google Earth, they are well spaced and looks like a nice place to set up an RV (or trailer home)

Unknown ruins.

Swim? I don’t think I would put my kayak in here!

If I did, it would take a while to rinse it off! Beaver Pond.

Lots of trail markers and maps at each entrance.

Beaver House. 

It won’t be long before these invasive phragmites take over the whole pond. 

Little cutie. There were a group of these right here. Good eyesight for as small as they are. And they could jump about 3 feet. 

No bridges to burn on this trip…

Lake Ashburton 1908-1910

04 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Baltimore, engineering, Photography, water history

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

More files, more documenting. More work. As stated before, I am trying to get my archive files in some sort of order so that at a later date, it will be easier for people to find things. (Not that I really think anyone will go through this stuff once I’m gone, but I can retire with a clear conscience that yes, I did my job).

What has made this job difficult, yet interesting, is that various people have had numerous boxes of archives scattered throughout the City. A lot were mislabelled. These photos came from a box of glass plate negatives marked as ‘Loch Raven’ Bringing it all together in some sort of order is challenging. Chaos:

It is hard to believe that out of this construction chaos there will be built a reservoir so that the citizens of Baltimore will be able to enjoy drinking water. These are the pipes from the lake to the gate house (foundation in background).

Many years ago when I started this project, I had no clue about glass plate negatives, positive photos, restoration, etc. When I held the above GPN up to the light I thought it was a bad one – the white shown coming from the pneumatic jack hammers is black on the negative. I thought it was ruined until I processed it. Duh.

This one I have yet had a chance to restore. What I found interesting here is the suitcase in the upper right corner. Not only is this GPN broken, some of the image has peeled off.

Another interesting one from 1908 shows a church in the background. The writing on the sleeve said: Epiphany College in background.

Before building the lake the engineers had to move and raise the sewer/storm water manholes.

The photographer did a good job catching this dynamite blast at the right time.

This broken jigsaw puzzle plate I did restore.

 

Cromwell Park

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Hiking, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Saturday it was a nice day for a walk in the park, followed by a visit to the Greek Festival. Kathy’s friend’s dog Jay joined us.

First stop was to check on the renovated lime kilns. Amazing job these guys have done.

This is what it looked like in 2006.

And then in 2011 when they were just starting to work on them.

Now and…

Then.

Another shot from back then.

Our favorite little house has gone thru some changes over the years. This is 2015.

This was last year. I asked what happened to the windows and they said they took them out to restore. I like that they removed the weeds from around the house but…

This was Saturday and it is all growing back. Sad.

New benches around the park.

And a new foot bridge.

A new pond.

Jay and Molly chillin in the shade. It was rather warm.

A path we had never taken.

After a couple miles, Jay wanted to cool off. Molly not so much.

Mine Bank Run was really dried up.

So when we found a puddle, Jay took the opportunity to cool off.

 

Always a Favorite

25 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in kayaking, Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

With a lot that needs taking care of this week, we were still able to find the time to go kayaking. We decided on somewhere close. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. We have been to Dundee creek many times and each time we take a different path.

Today’s trip kept us mostly along the shoreline, checking out the hidden coves. A little over 3 miles and two hours on the water. Beautiful.

The water was really calm and smooth – like butter. This is the first small cove heading north from the launch area.

Moving on, Kathy stops to look at a couple Isis. The one on the post, all the way near shore, did not move for quite a while. We could not get close enough to them for a good photo shot.

Moving on to the next little cove. I don’t believe a lot of people venture into here. Lots of spider webs.

Not only spiders but tree obstacles as well. But worth the silence and seclusion once inside.

A whatchamacallit hanging from an abandoned dock.

The one cove, upper left had these invasive guys growing. Kathy said her goldfish love eating these things.

My sun-goddess oblivious to the paddle boarders. We went early and it was getting really hot out by 11am.

Decided to go over to the osprey nest. I guess these guys moved on to Argentina? I did wave to the Marshy Point Osprey Cam.

The Marshy Point Nature Center, which is a very nice place, is just beyond the woods.

Another great day to be kayaking.

Tying Up Loose Ends

21 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by in Photography, water history

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Since my retirement is pretty much just around the corner, I need to start working on “Tying up some loose ends”, so to speak. At work, this means getting my files together and putting them in order so others may find important information. As far as my work on the DPW Museum archives, I do not think I will ever get this done. Just so much stuff.

I came back across an old box full of broken glass plate negatives. I guess it must be about 24 8″x10″ plates. Hard to tell because most are broken into a lot of small pieces. Some, like the one below, are in just a couple pieces, making restoration fairly simple. Years ago, before computer scanning and restoration software, the previous archivist either placed the pieces on a Xerox copier and scanned them or took a photograph of the pieces, placed together as best they could. They came out as negatives. I need to find those paper copies to help put the pieces back together.

Here is one of the better broken plates. The slivers from the crack will never be found by me. So I filled it in as best I could with the software. When I first started my water history research, I had no idea that Baltimore City built one dam on top of another. The upper right portion shown was built in steps, at an elevation of 188′. This was to be able to support the newer dam which would be built at elevation 240′. It was thought to be able to support a dam at 270′.

The jigsaw puzzle, restoration process is long and tedious and I don’t believe I will have the time to finish up this box of broken pieces. Let alone finish up documenting what is left to be done.

Random Labor Day 2017

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in nature, ocean city, Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

Trip to Salisbury and Ocean City

Looking thru the screen.

Losing a feather.

Brave Molly chasing the heron away from the pond. The heron likes to eat all the fish in the pond.

The old barn and the shed.

He decided to land on top of the barn for a while.

Kathy’s photo of a knot hole in the barn.

And her photo of a morning glory.

My view of the mg.

A walk through the cornfield.

Rows of corn on the sandy soil.

Kathy looking at something…

How the corn holds on for dear life.

Corn on the cob.

Picture of Kathy taking a picture of me.

Turkey feather.

Spider.

Milkweed.

To the ocean Hon.

Rides not being…Hmm…grammar question. Would it be ‘Not being ridden’ or ‘not being rode’?

If you get a chance, go in the Life Saving Museum and look at the collection of sand from around the world.

Across the inlet. No ponies today.

Need more light.

It.

Two sisters shopping.

Favorite art store.

Vacations in B/W

14 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by in National Parks, Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I could not imagine going on vacation and seeing everything in black and white, although I do sometimes convert my photographs to b/w. On occasion, while sorting and documenting the museum archives I come across photographs that are in unmarked files, no explanation as to why they are there. The only thing I can figure is that they were someone’s personal photos and left within objects donated to the museum or gathered up and packed away by mistake before they were archived.

I found the below photographs with their negatives in an old lantern slide envelope. They are 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″ prints. There are no dates but they have a short description on the reverse side.

Grand canyon of the Yellowstone from Inspiration Point, Yellowstone Park (Note falls in distance)

Old Faithful (car gives an idea to the date of this photograph – early 1900s?)

Angel Terrace, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park. Back then people needed to be told to stay off the natural wonders, so as not to ruin them for others to enjoy.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from Inspiration Point. Two of the photos I found had a glare to them, like they were taken through the windshield of a car?

View of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.

At foot of Uncle Tom’s Trail. Lower Falls of Yellowstone. Enlarging this photo doesn’t do it justice. Although I scanned it at 1200, it looks fuzzy. The actual photo is crisper. I never was one to like the effects some photographers do to moving water, making it all fuzzy looking. I like seeing what is being seen and not special effects.

Minerva Terrace. Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Park.