Pitt Wall

I’ve looked online and can’t find anything about this decorative wall on the North Shore of Pittsburgh.  I’ve lived in the area for 9 years and it pre-dates me, but I don’t know the history.  At some point over that time, they gave it a facelift…Otherwise it just been sitting there. 

I took this photo a week ago while Michael and Robert were in town.  We walked around downtown Pittsburgh Friday evening taking photos.  I liked how the river and city behind the wall look in this photo.

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Early Morning

As I’ve said before, I often get up very early on vacation to photograph the location (resort, beach, ship, hotel, etc…) before the rest of the tourist wake up.  That was the case with this spot as well.  I wanted to capture this spot without anyone in the way. 

This is from a resort north of Cancun Mexico from last February.

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Andy Warhol Bridge

What should I share with you tonight???  Honestly, I’m probably not in a good frame of mind to share much without sounding negative.  Therefore, I’ll just leave you with this nice photo of the Pittsburgh skyline with the Andy Warhol Bridge in the foreground.  That’s it.  I’m out!!

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Morgue

I’ve been off social media for a few days.  I just needed a break.  I’m back now.

While I was away, I spent the entire weekend out taking photos, which felt great.  One of the locations I photographed was the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia.  We had full access to all the buildings for the entire morning, some portions of them going back to the Civil War.  One of the buildings on the large campus was a medical facility.  I can only guess what took place within that facility.  In the lowest level, I came across the morgue.  It still has a two-shelf human body cooler for storing bodies and a coffin on the floor.  MJ referred to this photo as creepy.  I didn’t feel that way, but I’m weird.

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Memorial Amphitheater

This cool little spot…well it isn’t really a small place, is within Arlington National Cemetery near The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  I had no idea it existed until we found it by mistake.  I assume they use if for performances, if not what a shame.  They (we the people of the United States) clearly spent a ton of money building this great theater.

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Down View

Here is a unique perspective of the US Steel Building in Pittsburgh.  We don’t normally see the world from these angles.  I’ve taken a bunch of photos looking straight up buildings in the past.  I haven’t taken many like this using the opposite perspective.  I’m digging it.

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St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery

I loved this cathedral in downtown Kiev, but I had a hard time capturing it.  It’s large so you need to get back to get it all in, but you can’t due to the outside wall surrounding the building.  You also can’t get a clean shot without dozens of people standing in the way.  There are some clean perspectives around the back that are not as pretty.  So, I went with this zoomed in perspective of the rooftop, which was also hard to capture due to trees (as you can see). 

The position of this cathedral is great within the city.  Its at the end of a major road overlooking the Dnieper River.  The facility itself is amazing.  I just failed as a photographer to capture it.  Sorry about that.

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Duga

During our time in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, we had a cool opportunity to visit Duga.  Of course, the entire experience was amazing, but this spot was super cool. 

Duga is a Soviet built Over-The-Horizon radar system used as an early missile defense system from 1976 to 1989.  When it was working, it was nicknamed the Russian Woodpecker by shortwave listeners due to its pattern of clicks and napping noises. 

This thing is massive.  I’m guessing here so don’t hold me to this (and I looked on the Intranet for specs but failed to final anything), but I’d say it is a couple hundred feet high and maybe a half mile long.  It just when on, and on, and on……  This photo captures about a third of the entire structure. 

As you can tell, it was fall at the time and I took this photo with my drone at sunset.  It might not seem like such a good photo to you, but for me, it’s the memory that makes it special.

I captured a ton of video at this spot and around Chernobyl.  Maybe someday I’ll edit some of that to share with you.

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6th Street

Have a great weekend.  I had all kinds of ideas about what I could and should do….  And I’m not doing any of them.  So, what did I do?  I ran a 5K fun run today to raise money and awareness for TRPIL, but otherwise I’ve got lazy and didn’t do much.

I took this photo few weeks ago at dusk in downtown Pittsburgh.  I think Pittsburgh is a beautiful city with amazing views.  This is one of many such spots.  If you’re not familiar with Pittsburgh, this is the 6th Street Bridge in the foreground and the downtown area of the city behind it.

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Spring In Pittsburgh

I don’t share many iPhone photos, so this is a rare event.  I captured this last week along the North Shore of Pittsburgh.  I used the Portrait mode to get this effect and  like it a bunch. There is just something great about spring…. 

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Bus Station

How is your Wednesday?  I hope you had a wonderful time.

Chernobyl Bus Station:  I took this photo during our trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine.  This bus station in Pripyat is pretty cool.  As you can tell, mother nature is taking over…… 

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Joe Hayden

How about a NFL photo for you?  This is the very small, but extremely talented Joe Hayden.  Have a great evening…….  I took this photo last season at Heinz Field, but honestly, I can’t remember which game.  Sorry.

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Colorful Chairs

When I pulled this photo up tonight before posting it, MJ said…”you don’t have colorful Easter eggs for them, but you have colorful chairs in that photo”.  So I’m going with it!! 

I took this photo on the east side of Bonaire at a Kite Surfing spot.  The colors and textures caught my eye as we explored the area.  Just looking at this photo, makes we want to go back.  What an amazing country!!  Everything about it is just beautiful.

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US Steel Building

Sorry I’ve been absent lately…. Just very busy with work lately. 

I finally got out to take some photos last night.  Yes, finally!!!  Dave, Emily and I hit the North Shore of Pittsburgh.  We took some photos, grabbed dinner and then took some more photos. 

Here is an unusual Pittsburgh perspective for you.  Have a great weekend.

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Prison

I think I mentioned last week that I need to get out an take some photos……  Well, nothing has changed since then… I haven’t taken any photos and I still need/want to….

Tonight’s photo is from our past exploration of the abandoned Pennsylvania prison….  I can’t imagine what this looked like or felt like with a couple hundred prisoners inside it.  It felt dark, sad, and repressive with it empty….

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Speeding Across Smithfield

I took this photo about a year ago, but just processed (edited) it today.  Using my normal process, (total random selection about what photo I process next) I came across this beauty this morning.  I had a rare event happen.  I had a few hours with nothing to do so I processed a large batch of photos.  I normally do few per day, but don’t often get a large amount of time to dedicate towards it.  It was raining outside, housework was done, and we didn’t have anywhere to go so it became photo editing time.

About this photo:  Blair, Dave and I went for a photo walk in early 2018 around the Smithfield Bridge in Pittsburgh.  We met up after work to capture some photos, grab dinner, and take more photos at sunset.  I captured this one as a number of cars and a bus zoomed passed me.  Pittsburgh has some interesting and beautiful bridges.  The Smithfield Bridge is high on the list of wonderful spots.   

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Bonaire Summer Nights

What a great country!!!  I want to go back right now.  Can I pretty please???  Okay, I know I have adult things to do, so I’ll stop complaining now. 

 I took this photo a little after sunset on the beach in front of our resort.  They started a fire on the beach a few minutes after I took this photos and people sat around it on those bean bag chairs you see in the lower right portion. 

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Downtown Up Close

Short post tonight……  Today’s photo is a aerial close up of downtown Pittsburgh that I took a few months ago.  If you haven’t been, you’d be surprised how cool this city is everyday.

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Cape Town Park

I took this photo during our South Africa trip at the end of 2017.  We spent a little time in this park checking out the plants, flowers, and animals.  I wanted to check out where this path went to, but I didn’t get the chance.  What a beautiful spot.  Can you imagine having this amazing park in your hometown?

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Abandoned Detroit

This is one of my favorite spots in Detroit.  The Michigan Central Station in the background is a wonderful spot.  The evening I took this photo, my group had 5 drones flying around at the same time (which was interesting)…. More importantly, the sky was magical that night to help make this photo special.

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