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Mushrooms
These look to Father Pitt like Porcini or Penny-Buns (Boletus edulis). But he is not a mushroom expert. If they turn out to be Death Caps or Doom Shrooms, you have only yourself to blame if you ignored his warning: Don’t eat mushrooms unless you know with absolute certainty that they don’t want to kill you.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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St. Boniface Church
The Parkway North swerved to avoid this splendid church, but destroyed the whole neighborhood that made up its parish. Now a worship site of Holy Wisdom Parish, St. Boniface is also home to the officially sanctioned Latin Mass community in Pittsburgh (as opposed to other Latin Mass churches that call themselves Catholic but are repudiated by the Roman Catholic hierarchy).
Camera: Canon PowerShot S45. The picture of the west front above is a composite of six photographs.
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Dappled Shade in the Woods
“Two stops underexposed!” says the camera. “Nuts to you!” says the photographer. Manual exposure was necessary to keep the spots of sunshine from being blasted out into solid white.
You may notice that Father Pitt keeps returning to this one scene the way Monet kept returning to his water lilies. Not that old Pa Pitt compares himself to Monet, but there are certain rewards for the artist in returning to the same subject in different lights and different seasons. Getting to know the one place intimately reveals the changes wrought by time and light.
Camera: Canon PowerShot S45.
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Alcoa Building, North Shore
The Alcoa headquarters is a modernist symphony in aluminum. Father Pitt confesses to liking this building a great deal better than the old Alcoa building downtown, which still looks like a pile of old television sets to him.
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Frederick Osterling’s Architectural Studio
Frederick Osterling built this charming little building in 1917 to be his office and studio. From it he had a fine view of the Pittsburgh skyline that he was helping shape—a view now blocked by the new Alcoa building.
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Eastern Cottontail
A rabbit pauses while grazing on Herr’s Island (or Washington’s Landing, as it likes to be called these days).
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Herr’s Island Railroad Bridge
Built in 1890 to reach the stockyards and other industrial unpleasantness on Herr’s Island, this bridge now carries bicycles from the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. Herr’s Island itself, renamed “Washington’s Landing,” is now full of expensive townhouses at this end, with some offices and businesses in the middle of the island and a park at the northeast end.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
