Homesick Feelings | Pittsburgh, PA
“There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.”
-Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
I was feeling a bit homesick, so I went back in the archives and decided to process one of the many, many photos I have yet to touch from my December trip home. I don’t know what brings on these homesick feelings every now and again, but it happens. It could be the excitement over Pittsburgh Pirates baseball, or the talk of Mike Wallace leaving the Steelers (heaven forbid!). It seems as if my Facebook and Twitter feeds are clogged every day with news of my beloved sports teams and that does nothing but remind me of home. Heap on top of that my little brother’s recent birthday and nice conversations I’ve had this week with my parents and grandparents on the phone and you have the perfect recipe for “homesick soup.” But then again, as you think about it, nothing makes you appreciate ‘home’ more than when you don’t live at ‘home’ anymore.
Anyway, this is a shot of ‘the burgh’ from the North Shore, on the dock below the sidewalk. To the right is the Roberto Clemente Bridge and reflecting off the Allegheny River is the beautiful skyline of downtown Pittsburgh. I captured this on a pre-dawn photo walk with Dave DiCello of HDR Exposed Photography.
The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105 Nikkor VR lens. Tripod mounted, remote fired. Single exposure- f/22, 25 seconds, ISO-100. The original photo had a blue cast over it due to the sunrise, as well as a mix of bright orange and yellow light from the city. I simply desaturated it slightly by adding a Nik Silver Efex layer, setting it at 50% opacity and then masking out a few elements to bring back even more color. I like the washed out look that this scene brings with that processing method.
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The Wait | Pittsburgh, PA
During my last visit to Pittsburgh, I got to take in the city from a new vantage point- The West End Overlook. Dave DiCello, of HDR Exposed Photography, and I traveled up to get a good view of the city. Unfortunately it was windy, rainy and COLD. The wind was blowing the clouds across the sky very quickly and we knew that eventually an opening in the clouds may shine a beam of light onto downtown. At least that’s what we thought. In the distance, we saw a gap in the clouds and knew it was only a matter of time. We waited and waited, then waited some more. Finally the gap, now a tiny sliver, reached the city shining a singe ray of light on the the right side of this frame. It just missed the city. The wait was over, but at least we got some material to take away from our trip up to the overlook.
©2012 Zach Frailey
Back Home | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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In just a few short days, I’ll be headed back ‘home’ to Western Pennsylvania. Living so far away now, I’ve grown to really cherish the few short weeks I get to spend in the Pittsburgh area each year. Being around family and friends that I miss so dearly is wonderful and spending time in downtown Pittsburgh is almost magical. I say it all the time, but it’s amazing how much I took the area for granted when I lived there. Rarely would I venture into the city, when I did, it was simply to go to a Pirates or Steelers game and then immediately go back home. When I visit now, I have to drink it in. I grab my camera and a friend or two and we spend hours shooting around town. One of the best parts about being as present in social media as I try to be is that I’ve met a few great folks who shoot a similar style of photography as I do and who live in the Pittsburgh area. Each time I return home it seems like I have ‘new old’ friends to hang out with. With the plans to shoot, visit friends and hang out with family during this trip, I might have to extend my visit for a few days :-)
The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105mm VR lens. 3 exposures, handheld. Merged in Photomatix and finished in Photoshop CS4.
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‘A Firefighter’s Rainbow’ | New Bern, North Carolina
I first spotted this scene from while sitting at a stop light when driving through downtown New Bern. What looked like smoke coming from the marina turned out to be the mist from the water being sprayed on the other side of the river. I crossed the Trent River on the Cunningham Drawbridge and saw the whole scene, figuring it wasn’t that photogenic. But when I came around behind it, the sun filtering through the spray created a large rainbow colored spot in the sky. I knew then that I needed to stop. It’s not everyday that you get to see the New Bern waterfront through a rainbow!
I posted this image on Facebook looking for a little help from the firefighters out there. I originally described it as a purging of the lines or some sort of training exercise, but I was told by a person on the page that it was likely a pump test. I stuck around for about 15 minutes shooting until it appeared that the test was finished. I guess I arrived right in the nick of time!
The shot: Nikon D90, 70-300mm VR Nikkor lens, handheld (and propped against the hood of my Jeep). Single exposure, Photoshop CS4 for curve and level adjustments; finished with Nik Color Efex Pro and Nik Viveza.
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Spires in the Sky | Pittsburgh, PA
Despite living there for 23 years, I can say without bias that I love Pittsburgh, PA. There is just a feel about the city and the people there that I haven’t gotten anywhere else. I can also say that in the two years since moving to North Carolina, I have spent more time in downtown Pittsburgh than I did in the 23 years I was there. Weird, huh? I guess the saying is true, ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.’ I didn’t realize how truly great the city was until I moved on and went out into the “real world.”
This is a three shot HDR image of PPG Place in the heart of downtown (or dah-tahn if you speak Pittsburghese). The security here is pretty big on kicking out tripod toting folks, so I shot this handheld and moved on. I guess I looked touristy enough. It was merged in Nik HDR Efex Pro, which is different for me. I have been toying with it a little more lately and I still have the same thoughts on it. Merged images seem a lot flatter than they do when using Photomatix (my #1 choice in tonemapping software), but with the aid of some contrast adjustments in Nik Color Efex and Viveza this image seemed to come out better then my Photomatix version. The jury’s still out on the Nik’s HDR software in my mind.
©2011 Zach Frailey, please do not use without permission.
