Father Pitt

Tag: Monochrome

  • Concord Presbyterian Church and Cemetery, Carrick

    Concord Presbyterian Church

    This building was dedicated in 1915, but its congregation was organized in 1831—and really dates from before that, since local members had been meeting before the Presbytery recognized them as a church. This was a country church that was engulfed by city in the early 1900s; in its old country churchyard are the graves of a number of early settlers and the third mayor of Pittsburgh.

    In black and white
    From the churchyard

    Addendum: The architect of the church was George Schwan. From the Construction Record for October 11, 1913: “Architect George Schwan, Peoples Bank building, is working on plans for the proposed church building, for the Concord Presbyterian Congregation, Carrick. The building will be one-story, either brick or stone, and cover an area of 72×90 feet. Cost $35,000.”

  • Rooftops of Brookline

    Father Pitt was trying out a very long lens after making an expedition to Pitaland. In the center of the picture is the tower of Engine House Fifty-Seven. It was about half a mile away.

  • A Walk on the South Side with a Black-and-White Camera

    Corner of 16th and Sarah Streets
    Corner of 16th and Sarah Streets.

    It was not really a black-and-white camera; it was old Pa Pitt’s nineteen-year-old Samsung Digimax V4, a strange beast that was made for photography enthusiasts who wanted something that would fit in the pocket but still had most of the options of a sophisticated enthusiast’s camera. Father Pitt has set the user options to black-and-white. There is no good reason for doing so: obviously the camera collects color data and throws the colors away, and the colors could just as well be thrown away in software after returning from the expedition. But knowing that the picture must be black and white forces one to think in terms of forms rather than colors. So here are half a dozen pictures from a walk through the South Side Flats.

    Building on 17th Street
    Building on 17th Street, probably from the 1920s.
    Entrance to St. Adalbert’s
    The entrance to St. Adalbert’s Church.
    St. Adalbert’s Rectory
    St. Adalbert’s rectory.
    Rowhouses
    Rowhouses on Sarah Street.
    Front steps
    Front steps.

  • Mushroom

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 600px-Mushroom%2C_Homewood_Cemetery%2C_2022-06-27.jpg

    Trying out a new camera. Actually, it’s twelve years old, but it just arrived, and twelve years old is newer than most of old Pa Pitt’s cameras.

  • Cloudscape

    Cloud

  • Rooftops of Polish Hill

  • Strawberry Way

    Strawberry Way

  • A Medieval Fantasy

    A little experiment in digital art. It began with a photograph of one of the Gothic gateposts outside the chancery behind St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oakland. That was made black and white, and then put through a multiple-layer “etching” filter, and then every detail that looked at all modern was scribbled over. This is the result. Was it worth the work? Probably not, but one can always learn something from these experiments.

  • First Avenue Station

    First Avenue station

    The distinctive undulating platform roofs of the First Avenue subway station, seen from across First Avenue.

  • Tracks in the Snow

    Tracks in the snow

    A rookie hunter might follow these tracks expecting to find a freight train; but a seasoned tracker would notice that they are Pennsylvania broad gauge, and therefore must lead to a trolley eventually.