Repeating Patterns
Repeating Patterns
Have we always topped our most important structures with spires or towers that reach for the sky? I finally decided to capture a photo I’ve been wanting to get for years. I had to park my car and walk to a spot where I could photograph this because it wasn’t one I could get through my windshield while driving. I usually don’t take the time, but for this one, on this beautiful autumn day in Pittsburgh, I decided to take the time to get the domes of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church on the South Side with the spire-tipped buildings of downtown Pittsburgh in the background. Old and new, religious and secular, A handful of buildings along the river and a church with onion-shaped domes in gold and patina and several three-bar crosses, it’s one of the things that looks like home to me, important to the people who live here. Below is the full view, including the high-school football field and the homes surrounding.
The church, the city and the high school football field.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Friendship Friday on Create With Joy
Inside and Out
Inside and Out
Though the photo looks old, it’s not, but the building is, and on a misty, snowy winter day the rest of the city around the building is misted out while the Victorian light fixtures and gingerbread appear. And the tromp l’oeil of the semi-circular awning reflected in the glass makes it look like a dome, though half of it is indoors.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
All That Glitters is . . . Not a Dinosaur
All That Glitters
Isn’t he pretty, all sparkly on such a dark day? Meet Philiposaurus (@ PPG), one of Pittsburgh’s artful dinosaurs. Entirely covers with reflective glass and mirrors, artist Gary Mesa-Gaido’s design was inspired by the similarity between the stegosaurus’s features and the architecture of Philip Johnson’s PPG building.
In 2003, Carnegie Museum of Art and the City of Pittsburgh presented DinoMite DaysSM, celebrating the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s reputation for scientific excellence and connection with the discovery and research into dinosaurs using three different fiberglass dinosaur models and showcasing the talents of established and emerging artists who themed their 100 designs.
Below is what Philiposaurus @ PPG looks like from the side.
Philiposaurus @ PPG
And also meet Ketchuposaurus, a Pittsburgh tradition!
Ketchuposaurus
And also Mr. Dig. Here are the three waiting to greet you outside the entrance to the Wintergarden at PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh.
Mr. Dig and his buddies.
Read more about DinoMite DaysSM and see the other designs.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Primary and Secondary Colors
Lights in Primary and Secondary Colors.
The traffic lights add red and green to the blue and yellow and orange of the lights in the Greyhound station in downtown Pittsburgh; the dusk adds purple to the building. All colors are present.
I took this with my smartphone, hence the extreme proportions of the building, and the crosshatches made by the lights. Usually I am frustrated by these compositional failings with my camera, but this time they were welcome.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Downtown Pittsburgh on a lovely October day.
Saturday was lovely and whenever I drive through Mt. Washington I try to stop and photograph Pittsburgh, in any season or time of day.
Here’s a panorama I put together from a series of photos.
Panorama of Pittsburgh
See other photos of Pittsburgh.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Just a Little Anachronism
Anachronism
Hey, who left their castle behind when the centuries changed?
This castle turret may think it’s convincing people that it surrounds a moat, but the fire hydrant kind of gives it away, and the gas station across the street.
This is the far corner of Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville, established in 1844, at the corner of Stanton Avenue and Butler Street. It gave me a good laugh as I sat at the light.
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms. For photos of lots of black cats and other cats—and even some birds as I first published this post there—visit The Creative Cat.
Hello From Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh.
Someone let me loose on a lovely sunny warm spring day in Pittsburgh with my camera. I really just wandered one area, Mt. Washington, from where you can see to the end of the world. i will actually use a number of these for a design project I’m working on. I couldn’t get a good photo of the point so above is one from last year on just about exactly this date. Below is a “tiled mosaic” of some of the photos I took today.
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.
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
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.
Old Allegheny City: 2011
Old Allegheny City
A section of Old Allegheny City, Pittsburgh’s North Side, the rooftops, dormers and windows keeping watch for more than a century.
This neighborhood is one of the oldest in Pittsburgh, and was at one time a separate municipality from Pittsburgh named Allegheny, laid out in 1788 and incorporated in 1828, featuring orderly brick streets and a mix of Victorian-era row houses, middle-class family homes and stately mansions softened by street trees.
Originally, lots and homes were awarded to Revolutionary War veterans. As the century wore on, this sophisticated and attractive urban metropolis became the first home to Pittsburgh’s millionaire industrialists. After the Mexican War, General William Robinson subdivided his plot of land and named all the streets after battles in the Mexican War, attracting even more wealthy homeowners; this photo is a section of the Mexican War Streets, sections of which are on the National Record of Historic Places.
Along with many other industries that found a home along the Allegheny River near the Point in Pittsburgh, the original H. J. Heinz factory built its home in Allegheny and employed generations of people in creating the “Heinz 57” varieties of pickled vegetables, relishes and chutneys, and many other condiments.
And who grew up in Allegheny City, or North Side? Mary Cassatt, Gertrude Stein, Martha Graham, Kate Harrington, George Washington Harris, John Pitcairn and Art Rooney, to name a few. And who else lived there? Mary Roberts Rinehart, Henry Phipps, H.J. Heinz, Andrew Carnegie, Henry O Tanner, Colonel James Anderson, William Thaw, Jr., Lois Weber and William Penn Snyder. And, of course, Andrew Carnegie built a library here. It must have been a hotbed of creative talent in those early days to have nurtured the likes of those people and attracted so many others. And lots of money.
It merged with the City of Pittsburgh in 1907 but maintained its small-town feel until “urban renewal” in the 1960s took out the original town center and replaced it with a mall and hotel, another portion was removed for highways and overpasses, and “old” sections of neighborhoods were removed because they were “old” and replaced with “new” multi-story modern style brick buildings, removing just enough of various neighborhoods to destroy their cohesion. The mansions of Millionaire’s Row on Ridge Avenue were largely incorporated into Community College of Allegheny County.
But you’ve got to call it the “Nor’side” now, even if it is becoming quite gentrified.
I actually took this photo with my inexpensive little digital point-and-shoot out of a window on the 11th floor of Allegheny General Hospital, so I didn’t have my better DSLR with me. Darn!
Pittsburgh at Night
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.
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Ahh, Pittsburgh. That’s all of it, right there, just a little handful in the valley where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio. And on a day like this, there is no more beautiful little city.
Actually on any day. Or at night, when Pittsburgh’s lights reflect on the rivers. Personally, I’d rather be out in a field somewhere watching the hawks or stalking butterflies; I’m not a person to visit cities for fun. However, that’s where my art materials are, and often where the poetry readings are and the symphony and ballet and opera, the universities and better hospitals and a lot of other things I don’t even realize make life a little better for the existence of this little city.
And the most magical thing, as I was standing atop Mt. Washington with a bunch of other locals and visitors all taking the same photos was the cacophony of languages in addition to English: Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi or Urdu, German, and someone speaking with a very rounded Australian accent. Also, Pittsburghese, ‘n’at. I grew up hearing a variety of foreign languages spoken by people whose first language came from their home country, and in some cases their children who learned it as a matter of everyday life, and still all these wonderful conversations happening like leaves fluttering on trees, everyone could be saying the same thing, but everyone’s version of it is different and special.
Don’t see any “hell with the lid off”, do you? I think we can dispense with that myth. I heard about the 1940s when my mother said she had to wrap herself in a scarf, wear her blouse inside out and another on top, then change when she got to work every day or all would be caked in soot. I remember some pretty polluted summers in the 60s and 70s when the air would hang yellow and sulfurous over everything. It was indeed unfortunate to lose our one big employing industry, steelmaking, but out of the pits of darkness Pittsburgh rose up, cleaned itself off and went on. It’s an example of how not only a city but an entire region can change into something completely different from what it was.
I love our tree-covered hills, our free-flowing rivers and clear blue skies. And where else in the world would Roberto Clemente, Andy Warhol and Rachel Carson stand side by side, as they do in our “sister bridges” over the Allegheny River, the three peaked suspension bridges on the left? I live ten minutes away from this, and ten minutes away from farmland in the other direction. If I have to live near a city, this one is pretty good.
Old Allegheny City
Old Allegheny City
A section of Old Allegheny City, Pittsburgh’s North Side, the rooftops, dormers and windows keeping watch for more than a century.
This neighborhood is one of the oldest in Pittsburgh, and was at one time a separate municipality from Pittsburgh named Allegheny, laid out in 1788 and incorporated in 1828, featuring orderly brick streets and a mix of Victorian-era row houses, middle-class family homes and stately mansions softened by street trees.
Originally, lots and homes were awarded to Revolutionary War veterans. As the century wore on, this sophisticated and attractive urban metropolis became the first home to Pittsburgh’s millionaire industrialists. After the Mexican War, General William Robinson subdivided his plot of land and named all the streets after battles in the Mexican War, attracting even more wealthy homeowners; this photo is a section of the Mexican War Streets, sections of which are on the National Record of Historic Places.
Along with many other industries that found a home along the Allegheny River near the Point in Pittsburgh, the original H. J. Heinz factory built its home in Allegheny and employed generations of people in creating the “Heinz 57” varieties of pickled vegetables, relishes and chutneys, and many other condiments.
And who grew up in Allegheny City, or North Side? Mary Cassatt, Gertrude Stein, Martha Graham, Kate Harrington, George Washington Harris, John Pitcairn and Art Rooney, to name a few. And who else lived there? Mary Roberts Rinehart, Henry Phipps, H.J. Heinz, Andrew Carnegie, Henry O Tanner, Colonel James Anderson, William Thaw, Jr., Lois Weber and William Penn Snyder. And, of course, Andrew Carnegie built a library here. It must have been a hotbed of creative talent in those early days to have nurtured the likes of those people and attracted so many others. And lots of money.
It merged with the City of Pittsburgh in 1907 but maintained its small-town feel until “urban renewal” in the 1960s took out the original town center and replaced it with a mall and hotel, another portion was removed for highways and overpasses, and “old” sections of neighborhoods were removed because they were “old” and replaced with “new” multi-story modern style brick buildings, removing just enough of various neighborhoods to destroy their cohesion. The mansions of Millionaire’s Row on Ridge Avenue were largely incorporated into Community College of Allegheny County.
But you’ve got to call it the “Nor’side” now, even if it is becoming quite gentrified.
I actually took this photo with my inexpensive little digital point-and-shoot out of a window on the 11th floor of Allegheny General Hospital, so I didn’t have my better DSLR with me. Darn!
Today 