365-281 Traffic

If there is a word that describes today, it would have to be traffic. There seemed to be heavy traffic everywhere today. Just getting around, anywhere, was a chore. My wife and I left the house late in the afternoon and I thought we would go into Oakland area of Pittsburgh to try to some architecture photos. Unfortunately on our way there we hit a heavy backup on the highway due to construction. Three lanes of heavily traveled interstate reduced to a single lane. It took an hour to travel the six-mile stretch! After getting out of that fiasco, I made the wrong decision of having an early dinner before trying any photography since I thought it would take a while getting around the city. We were able to get into the restaurant easy enough only to find it full of people traffic. It, like every other restaurant we passed, was packed already. It seemed like everybody in the area was doing the same thing, either stuck in traffic or eating out. Dinner ended up taking longer than I imagined and by the time we got to our car the light level was already getting low. Before I got in the car I peered out from the parking garage and saw these houses on a nearby hillside. I thought I would take a photo of them “just in case” and I’m glad I did. After sitting in even more traffic on the Southside, I scrapped the architecture photography in Oakland idea as it was already getting too dark. Instead, I thought that I would try some “artistic blurry” shots downtown.

Taking the nearest bridge across the river, we headed into downtown only to find there wasn’t anywhere to park. The street parking was full and garages near anywhere I would want to go were also full. I guess a warm Saturday evening in October really brings the people out. It seemed like I drove around the same few blocks over and over looking for a quick place to park for a few minutes. I didn’t find any and decided to just abandon any ideas of doing any photography. Wanting to avoid the construction on the highway we took the suburban roads for the trip home which, of course were full of traffic.

So the best I could do today was this picture of houses for my 365. They weren’t particularly colorful so I went with a contrasty black and white process. The picture is borderline of acceptable sharpness I would desire for such a shot. I’m not a pixel-peeping perfectionist but some shots need that sharp clarity to work well. So, please accept my apologies as I mark this day down as near loss. I guess it was inevitable. Pentax K20D, Da 55-300.

Click on pic for larger view

Southside Houses

© David Guidas