City Lines

It’s been a while since I walked around the city just for the purpose of photography. Being a holiday weekend I had some free time and wanted to at least try to do some shooting in downtown Pittsburgh. I figured late Sunday afternoon wouldn’t be too busy but a Pirates baseball game just let out as my wife and I arrived and there were throngs of folks wandering around. Contrary to most “street” photography, I generally don’t like shooting around too many people, so we headed a little further away from the crowds and I set out to explore a little.

My whole purpose was to shoot some architecture and my focus was on black and white images. I kind of tired of nature photography for the moment and I was looking for some hard lines of concrete and steel to satisfy my abstract mind. I found some in the limited time we were there but contrary to my wishes the color seemed to set the mood on this selection. They CAN work in black and white but I’m just not seeing right now. So a little blast of color for a change.

Starting off with one of my favorite subjects – old brass revolving doors, which were at the William Penn Hotel – and then finding some simple lines at the old Alcoa Building and finally a few lights in a temporary sidewalk tunnel. The brass door photo worked best with a square crop, in my opinion, something I’m trying to visualize a little better these days. I’m still playing around with some processing and textures so I hope they work here.