US 279

This shot has been done by dozens, if not hundreds of Pittsburgh photographers.  Regardless, I wanted to capture my version of this popular spot.

This is taken from a pedestrian overpass that crosses 9 traffic lanes of US 279 looking back south towards the city.  The overpass has a chain link fence along the entire bridge, but someone (not me) cut holes in it just for photographers to take this picture without the fencing getting in the way.  Again, I’ll stress it wasn’t me.  The holes were already there when we showed up.  Below I included a behind the lens photo taken with my iPhone to show you our set up (my camera next to Brad’s camera).  The hole in the fence was small, so we had to work close to each other.

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My camera on the left, Brad's on the right.  It was nice of someone to cut this hole for us.

Smooth River & The HDR Crew

Smooth Stream

I took this picture of a stream running along the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike.  We never planned on taking any pictures like this when we went to the turnpike, basically because we didn’t know there was a river along the roadway.    This is a 7 exposure HDR merged with Photomatix Pro and edited in Photoshop CS6.  I also used a +8 ND Filter (Neutral Density) to slow the shutter speed down to get the movement in the water.

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The HDR Crew:

This is the ragtag group that I routinely go on photo walks with.  From left to right:  Brad Truxell, Dave Truxell and me.  We are standing at one of the tunnel entrances.  This photo was taken and processed by Brad.  I appreciate him letting me share this photo with you.

The HDR Crew: Brad Truxell, Dave Truxell, & Brook Ward

Tunnel Of Love??

I doubt it, but people love to paint graffiti on it.  This is another picture from our excursion to the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike.  I don’t know what it is about this picture, but I like it more then I should. 

Photo Technique:

This is a 7 exposure auto-bracketed HDR image.  I merged the photos together using Photomatix Pro and edited it in Photoshop CS6.

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More Abandoned Turnpike

Tonight’s photo is another one from my exploration of the abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike.  This is the entrance to one of the tunnels.

To see a few pictures from Dave Truxell, who was with me, click HERE.

Brad hasn’t posted any pictures yet.

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Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike

Today, I traveled to the abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike (it was opened in 1940) near the town of Breezewood.  I met Brad and Dave Truxell at the site and we spent hours riding bikes on the Turnpike, exploring the two tunnels (one tunnel was ¾ of a mile and the other was 1.2 miles long), talking with other bikers, and climbing through the old tunnel mechanical areas. 

The abandoned turnpike is a 13-mile stretch that was abandoned when they built a bypass in 1968.  They built the bypass, because the tunnels were built to handle one lane traffic each way and the number of vehicles grew to the point the tunnels couldn’t handle the volume.  So this stretch of road has been abandoned for 45 years.

I heard about this last year and have been looking forward to checking it out ever since.  It was a fun day.

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