“The Jewel on the Hill” and “Spring Dusk on Main Street”
The Jewel on the Hill, Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall
Walking home through Carnegie on this date in 2005, carrying just my little 2MP digital camera that didn’t even have a zoom and a small lightweight tripod, I managed to photograph two of my favorite photos of all the photos I’ve taken, above, “The Jewel on the Hill” and below “Carnegie at Dusk”. Though I’ve got plenty of photos to share, and even newer ones from Carnegie, today I’ll celebrate these two, two of the photos that convinced me to take another, closer look at my photography.
So we call this treasure in our town so named for its builder, the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. This is actually an older photo but with a story, plus I recently installed an exhibit of photos of this facility at this facility, which is also one of my favorite places to go and which is also one of my regular customers for freelance design work. Quite a lot of connections.
Anyway, this photo is one we’ve used repeatedly as the signature image for the facility, and was a real stroke of luck and timing. I was walking home on a clear, warm spring dusk in late April, 2005, April 24 to be exact, and arrived at the bottom of Library Hill at just this moment. The sky was fading from brilliant turquoise to cobalt, the still-bare trees were etched against it in silhouette, and the grand building itself stood partially lit by the sunset but with all interior and exterior lights on, solid and stately, serving its public in its 104th year. By the time I had snapped a half dozen or so shots the light had changed completely and the moment was gone. That was part of the timing, the other part that they had only temporarily installed the foundation lighting but never used it again, and this was part of what gave the building that lovely definition against the dark hilltop. A few minutes earlier or later, the previous or following week, and this photo would never have existed. And it was taken with my first little point-and-shoot 2MP digital camera—I don’t know how it came out as clearly as it did!
Read about the exhibits and find links to slideshows of the images at “Of Harps and Fig Leaves” and “Carnegie Photographed”.
A little background on the names…in 1894 the leaders of two small communities on either side of Chartiers Creek, Mansfield and Chartiers, decided to merge in order to provide better services as one community instead of two individual administrations. Andrew Carnegie, who had owned a mill in Carnegie, had by then sold off his mills and begun spending off his worldly wealth by building libraries. These town leaders had a proposal, that he build a library and a high school for the new community and they’d name it after him. He did build the library but said they were on their own with the high school; nonetheless our town is named “Carnegie” in his honor.
He also set up the Library itself a little differently from the others he’d had built. Where others are named “(name of town) Carnegie Library” or “Carnegie Library of (name of town)” and were built with his expense but maintained by the community, this Library bears his full name and given an endowment for its maintenance. Also, more than just the Library space, a Music Hall was incorporated into the design along with a gymnasium in the full basement.
You can read all about this unique facility on its website at www.carnegiecarnegie.org. I’ll also mention that the website design is mine, and you’ll see many more of my images in the photo album.
Spring Dusk on Main Street
Pittsburgh at New Year’s
Pittsburgh at New Year’s, 2008
It’s snowing and I’m not going to First Night, but I thought I’d post two of the photos I took of Pittsburgh, viewed from Mt. Washington, taken on New Year’s Eve a few years ago.
Pittsburgh at Night
I don’t know why it’s always captivated me, but Pittsburgh at night, the modest buildings lit just right, bridges decorated with lights, all reflected on one river or another, has always been one of my favorite scenes. I took this series of photos and created a panorama on Monday night about 9:15, so many of the office buildings weren’t as well lit as they would have been earlier in the evening, but I never pass up a chance to stop on Mt. Washington to photograph the city.
This view is of “First Side”, along the Monongahela River right before it reaches the point; off to the right a little past center is the Smithfield Street Bridge, then in the darkness over the river is one bridge after another—Panhandle, Liberty, 10th Street, Birmingham, Hot Metal, then the bend where J&L Steel used to fire the night sky with an orange glow.
But even before that bend in the river, this little cluster of buildings coming to a point where a great river is born is all of downtown Pittsburgh.
Moonlit Sycamores
Moonlit Sycamores
The Cold Moon of December is not quite full but illumines the land with the cool blue of coming winter in the deep dusk of a winter evening.
Holiday Lights in the Rain
Holiday Lights in the Rain
I had a lovely photo of yesterday’s frosty morning in my back yard, but as the day grew dark early today I passed this ebullient display of holiday cheer on a dark rainy day and decided I had to share it.
This particular little house was once a garage to a huge Victorian home. It not only faces the alley but the narrow porch steps right onto the sunken and undulating bricks of the alley. One would think it wasn’t the choicest place to live, yet I always see children and adults around, lots of toys and talk and play; it seems to be a happy little house. I wasn’t surprised to see this complete selection of holiday decorations.
The shining bricks and puddles in the alley reflect the holiday cheer. Note the homemade Steelers emblem in the left-hand window; no display in Pittsburgh would be complete without it.
I usually associate holiday lights with snow, or at least with a clear cold night, but I also love colorful night photography and especially rainy nights.
Colorful Stars on Main Street
Holiday lights on Main Street.
Carnegie’s holiday decorations light up the street.
Hmmm, how can I make a street I photograph all the time look a little different from the last year? Well, get out the cross-screen filter for starters so that each light or highlight in the images has extra interest; I like to set the cross a little off-kilter, not a plus-sign, not an “X”, but something in between. Next, use the 70-300mm zoom lens and manual focus so just the very first light and wreath are in focus and all the rest, all the wreaths all the way down Main Street to Washington Avenue, are successively blurred just a little each step of the way. Even the stop lights look festive, as noted in a holiday song. I liked the effect.
Last night as I was crouched to photograph this in a fairly dark spot on Main Street, I frightened a couple of teenage guys who apparently didn’t see me before I suddenly stood up very near to them, and the shuttle that takes residents from one of the local nursing homes on their errands stopped, opened the door and looked at me, then went on. I photographed this last year as well, and included a story of photographing where people don’t expect it, including hunching down in the dark by a wall wearing a cape and having the police stop to ask what you’re up to.
Pittsburgh at Night, 2011
Pittsburgh at Night
I don’t know why it’s always captivated me, but Pittsburgh at night, the modest buildings lit just right, bridges decorated with lights, all reflected on one river or another, has always been one of my favorite scenes. I took this series of photos and created a panorama on Monday night about 9:15, so many of the office buildings weren’t as well lit as they would have been earlier in the evening, but I never pass up a chance to stop on Mt. Washington to photograph the city.
This view is of “First Side”, along the Monongahela River right before it reaches the point; off to the right a little past center is the Smithfield Street Bridge, then in the darkness over the river is one bridge after another—Panhandle, Liberty, 10th Street, Birmingham, Hot Metal, then the bend where J&L Steel used to fire the night sky with an orange glow.
But even before that bend in the river, this little cluster of buildings coming to a point where a great river is born is all of downtown Pittsburgh. See other photos I’ve taken of Pittsburgh
The Jewel on the Hill
The Jewel on the Hill, Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall
So we call this treasure in our town so named for its builder, the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. This is actually an older photo but with a story, plus I recently installed an exhibit of photos of this facility at this facility, which is also one of my favorite places to go and which is also one of my regular customers for freelance design work. Quite a lot of connections.
Anyway, this photo is one we’ve used repeatedly as the signature image for the facility, and was a real stroke of luck and timing. I was walking home on a clear, warm spring dusk in late April, 2005, April 24 to be exact, and arrived at the bottom of Library Hill at just this moment. The sky was fading from brilliant turquoise to cobalt, the still-bare trees were etched against it in silhouette, and the grand building itself stood partially lit by the sunset but with all interior and exterior lights on, solid and stately, serving its public in its 104th year. By the time I had snapped a half dozen or so shots the light had changed completely and the moment was gone. That was part of the timing, the other part that they had only temporarily installed the foundation lighting but never used it again, and this was part of what gave the building that lovely definition against the dark hilltop. A few minutes earlier or later, the previous or following week, and this photo would never have existed. And it was taken with my first little point-and-shoot 2MP digital camera—I don’t know how it came out as clearly as it did!
Read about the exhibit and see a brief slideshow of the images at “What’s New in Bernadette’s Studio?” or just visit the slideshow on my website.
A little background on the names…in 1894 the leaders of two small communities on either side of Chartiers Creek, Mansfield and Chartiers, decided to merge in order to provide better services as one community instead of two individual administrations. Andrew Carnegie, who had owned a mill in Carnegie, had by then sold off his mills and begun spending off his worldly wealth by building libraries. These town leaders had a proposal, that he build a library and a high school for the new community and they’d name it after him. He did build the library but said they were on their own with the high school; nonetheless our town is named “Carnegie” in his honor.
He also set up the Library itself a little differently from the others he’d had built. Where others are named “(name of town) Carnegie Library” or “Carnegie Library of (name of town)” and were built with his expense but maintained by the community, this Library bears his full name and given an endowment for its maintenance. Also, more than just the Library space, a Music Hall was incorporated into the design along with a gymnasium in the full basement.
You can read all about this unique facility on its website at www.carnegiecarnegie.org. I’ll also mention that the website design is mine, and you’ll see many more of my images in the photo album.
Main Street at Twilight, 2011
Main Street at Twilight
The first block of East Main Street in Carnegie, PA at dusk.
I have no idea how my little hand-held digital metered the colors like this, but I heartily approve! Honestly, this is not touched up in any way, even though the sky looks as if I either added from another photo, I adjusted the color in that area or I just painted in another sky. The whole thing looks like a movie set.
The time of day was twilight, after the sun dropped below the horizon but still reflected on the sky and the thin overcast of clouds. I know I pointed my focus spot on the darkest area in the scene, way down at the other end of Main Street, the building that is actually on a hill in the next community, and that would have influenced the internal metering especially since the scene looks very bright although it’s only the street lights that provide illumination. I can assure you they are not that bright.
And likely the yellow lights also pushed the complementary blue of the sky a little brighter than it actually was. However it happened, I approve.
This was taken with my little Lumix point and shoot where I have very little control, but the other settings that would have influenced this outcome are two I’ve always set on these little cameras. First, I turn the stabilizer mode, which will help to eliminate blurriness in low-light conditions, to “off” because in these small cameras it simply changes the ASA setting to a higher number. This results in a photo that looks great in your view screen, but when you open it up on your computer it’s completely grainy. I use a tripod, or, as in this case, I find something to set the camera on or press it against and set the shutter for a 2-second timed delay so that everything is as still as it’s going to get when the shutter finally opens.
Second, I set the EV, or exposure value, setting two or three steps below the middle. Most cameras shoot light so that as much light as possible gets into the lens, but you also lose detail in the highlights and I find it doesn’t meter well for images with a lot of contrast, which is usually what attracts me.
So, I guess that’s how this one turned out like this.
This photo is available as a print in my gallery on Fine Art America. I can also prepare a print in a variety of styles and sizes.
Roberto Clemente Bridge, 2011
The Roberto Clemente Bridge, Pittsburgh
I took a little drive through Pittsburgh this evening at dusk, and while I didn’t take this photo this evening, what I saw reminded me of it, the gold of one of Pittsburgh’s bridges, the deep blue of the evening sky reflected on the gentle ripples of the river, the lights dancing. I thought it would be nice to share.
This is the Roberto Clemente Bridge, the former Sixth Street Bridge crossing the Allegheny River from Downtown Pittsburgh to the North Side right next to PNC Park. It was lit on this night because there was a game at the field.
It’s the first of the “three sisters bridges”, the next being the Andy Warhol Bridge and then the Rachel Carson Bridge—sisters in spirit, perhaps. You can see the stone piers and a little of the bridge decks and suspension wires beyond this one. I’m kind of proud that these three bridges are named for these three people.
Summer Festivals, 2009
A Date at the Fair
Those old-fashioned street fairs are fun in the daytime, rides turning in the heat of August, too much cotton candy and pop taking their toll…but for all their fun in the day, they are magical at night, the lighted rides turning against a starry sky, the attractions an oasis of colorful neon and incandescent in the midst of an inky darkness of streets, then just as suddenly as it sprung from nothing in a parking lot, it’s gone, leaving only darkness and cool September nights.
In this photo, a couple on a date wanders toward the rides.
From back in my first year of photo blogging! This event is coming up again, and I hope they have the rides for great night photos.
The Duchess at Night
The Duchess
This is the Duchess, one of the boats of the Gateway Clipper Fleet in Pittsburgh. As I was leaving an event the other night, there she was, reflected in water behind the dock, near the shore where the surface ripples are gentle and fairly large. Those yellow party lights give it a carnival atmosphere and gently light objects around the boat.
There was a very bright spotlight on the top deck, though, and it not only threw off my light metering, but it was so bright that it was distorted and hazy and reflected too brightly on the surface of the water. No matter how I tried to tame it down, it would have no taming, being painfully bright even when I looked at it in my view screen on the back of the camera.
So I edged over until it was behind the docking station and pressed my camera against the uprights of the little walkway that carried us over the channel behind the dock, and there was this photo.
Night photography is a favorite of mine. The contrast of bright and colored lights against the darkness is so visually appealing, and the patterns of light and dark change a familiar landscape into an entirely new world.
Just add water and you have another element to add to the illusion, reflections distorted and broken apart by even the slightest movement in the water.
City Fountain on a Hot Night: 2010
Dancing in the Fountain
Families chase each other through the dancing waters of the fountain in PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh on a hot night in the city. Changing colored lights illuminate the obelisk in the center as the water jets put on a show of their own.
The Evening Star
The Evening Star
I first posted this in July 2010 as I left a visit to my mother in a nursing home, not long after her 85th birthday. Today she would have been 87; I have another remembrance in the works, but I post this today to celebrate her birthday.
What a beautiful sight in the night sky long after the sun had set but still colored the horizon. I was convinced this point of light was an airplane since there were others moving in that area, very near Pittsburgh International Airport. But this one held its ground.
I only had my little hand-held digital with me, and I don’t have as much control over the lens as I do with my SLR, but the photo looks like a tropical evening even though it’s Pennsylvania and I’m in the parking lot of Kane Regional Nursing Hospital leaving from a visit with my mother. A rejuvenating sight after an evening visit.
The evening star, the real “star” of the evening, here is Venus, showing just after sunset and brightening as the sky darkened around it. To the upper left are Saturn and Mars, much fainter and only appearing as the sky nears full dark; I actually didn’t see them at first, then thought they were just digital dust in a slightly grainy image. But I snapped several images over the course of a few minutes and the last one included them in full, though I didn’t know it at the time!
The full Thunder Moon was rising behind me, but by the time I got that photo a slight haze of clouds had moved in front and I couldn’t get a clear one.
Dairy Queen on a Dark and Stormy Night
The Dairy Queen
I was going to post another snow photo, instead I decided to post this from last year…what a respite from summer heat, a rainy summer night, and a Dairy Queen with its white and primary colors promising cool, refreshing, happy bliss.
I love that good old-fashioned look of the Dairy Queen, primary colors, nice clear shapes, that late-50′s slight upward angle of t he roof and outward angle of the windows.
It rained last night, it was hot and humid, and the Dairy Queen beckoned from the dark in the middle of nowhere. The night was dreamy enough and the road dark enough that it almost seemed the DQ was an illusion, and either I’d pull in and it would turn into something else or disappear altogether, or it was a trap, a portal to another dimension and I’d enter some dramatic scenario, the heroine in danger but bravely saving herself and others from some hidden danger in this seemingly innocent place.
But I just enjoyed a medium vanilla with chocolate dip, really enjoyed it. It’s been a while. Maybe that’s why the DQ magically emerged.
I love to photograph scenes on rainy nights; visit my gallery At Night in the Rain—it’s older so the images are small, but they are full of magical colors and neon and puddles and streets.
Cultural at Night
Cultural at Night
A lovely spring night in downtown Pittsburgh as the pear trees in the Cultural District bloom and petals swirl in the evening breeze and drift along the sidewalk, lights flicker and people walk around without coats. Waiting for the bus is easy with this much to look at.
Magnolia House
Magnolia House
My neighbor’s house featuring their most perfect magnolia, at dusk.
Even on a rainy day the clouds broke at the end of day and at dusk there was enough reflected sunlight to enjoy another springtime turquoise sky although the day was actually much darker than appears here. The time is late enough that the streetlights are on casting their warm pink glow onto the magnolia and corner of the house, while all else is cool and blue.
I find it interesting how a digital camera captures this scene; a film camera would have captured only the directly-lit house and tree but the other houses and sky would have been mere shadows in the dusk.
But I also liked to focus on what caught my eye in the first place, the house with its brightly-lit window, and the magnolia tree and its long slightly smeared indigo shadows on the house.
Magnolia House 2
Blossoms at Night
Blossoms at Night
The pear trees along Main Street in Carnegie are blooming already. Here it looks as if each tree has its own inner light. The row of mature and well-shaped trees look airy and elegant against the turquoise dusk sky of a spring evening.
Supermoon: 2011
Supermoon
Here is the full moon from March 19, the “Supermoon”. It certainly did appear larger than most other moons I’ve photographed, though I didn’t have a way to show the scale so here it looks like any other moon.
Still, the full moon is a beautiful creature and I have always enjoyed studying her surface patterns. They’ve always looked like cities and roads, like what you see when you fly over the desert.
This full moon has been one of the most meaningful and exuberant in cultures throughout human history as evidenced by these full moon names from various traditions, regions and beliefs:
- Pink Moon, named for the wild phlox or “pinks” which are often the earliest showy flowers to bloom in the woods and fields;
- Sprouting Grass Moon, because grass will begin to sprout in most of the northern hemisphere except the most northern regions;
- Egg Moon, I’ve never heard a clear explanation of this one, but it may be that chickens in unheated coops will produce more eggs as the days lengthen and grow warmer;
- Fish Moon, fish begin migrating and spawning;
- Worm Moon, worms begin moving as the soil thaws, leaving castings for the garden and attracting robins;
- Crow Moon, crows begin to caw signaling the end of winter;
- Crust Moon, snowcover melts during the day and freezes over at night;
- Sap Moon, sap begins to flow in trees and shrubs, especially maple trees;
- Lenten Moon, this full moon always falls during Lent, no matter when Easter falls;
- Paschal Moon, only in some years, when the March full moon falls after the equinox marking both Easter and Passover—this year the April full moon will be the Paschal moon.
“Wolf Moonrise” Published in Conservation Newsletter
Wolf Moonrise
The Hills Conservation Network (HCN) of Oakland CA published one of my photos, “Wolf Moonrise”, in their latest newsletter.
The HCN was formed after the devastating 1991 East Bay Hills fire. In a state known for wildfires this was the worst one to date in 1991, killing 25 people and injuring 52 others, leaving some 10,000 people homeless by destroying 3,354 single-family homes and 456 apartment units. The group formed to help organize efforts in restoring the scarred land while preparing for other wildfires in a way that would mitigate future damage as much as possible.
They publish a quarterly newsletter, and in this case the Winter 2012 was “celebrating trees”. They would publish a poem by William Carlos Williams entitled Winter Trees and wanted my photo to illustrate.
No one has to twist my arm to have a photo published along with a poem by William Carlos Williams, and while I didn’t remember this particular poem once I read it I was in full agreement, especially at the lines: A liquid moon/moves gently among/the long branches.
I am also glad to help an organization whose mission I support, and those interested in carefully reforesting and restoring the land and preparing wisely for future actions.
Click here to read the newsletter; my photo and the poem are on page 3.
Click here to see the original entry for “Wolf Moonrise” on my daily image blog Today.
It was well after dark as I went to check the front door, and the front room looked magical in the reddish light of the neon sign in the upper windows. Lots of glass in the room, and crystals on the chandelier, all catching the deep glow against the saturated darkness made things look as if they were floating.
The shop is really not antiques but neat old stuff, more vintage in nature, excellent craftsmanship, interesting design, a lot of tacky but all of it illustrating its era of origin. This move is something we’ve talked about for years as we’ve built her website and promoted her shop along with her growing estate sale and appraisal business. I’m thrilled to have a little space there because I don’t have to be there all the time, I can share the time with others, and people will still get to see my things even when I’m not there.
I’ve written about and featured Carnegie Antiques in paintings, photos and stories here on Today, see more.
