London’s “Thin House” looks as if it belongs in a Potemkin village or as a background facade on a Hollywood studio lot, but it’s something of a Tardis, larger on the inside than it appears on the outside. Created to make way for the tracks of the Metropolitan Railway (now the District and Circle lines) behind it, its triangular footprint gives it the illusion of being little more than a shallow rectangle when viewed from the street.

Captured with the Rodenstock 40mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/6.3), Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50), Cambo 1200 camera (shifted vertically -10mm).

Fun fact: the Reading was a major northeastern US railroad (made famous internationally by its place on the Monopoly gameboard), which ceded its rail business in 1976 to the newly formed Conrail consortium. But the company kept most of its non-railroad real estate holdings, and today mostly operates cinemas (including NYC’s Angelika) in several countries.

(The Reading Company was named for the Pennsylvania city, and so is pronounced with the past tense of what you do with words on a page).

The GX680 was a fun but very unusual camera that couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be. It was a truly gigantic beast of a medium format SLR camera providing (limited) view camera movements. It used 120-format roll film with a 6x8cm frame (so a 3:4 aspect ratio), with a built-in autowinder. It’s sort of what you’d get if you somehow merged a Nikon F4, a Hasselblad, and a Crown Graphic. Definitely not a point & shoot camera.

Captured with a Fuji GX680 camera, 80mm lens, T-Max 100 film. Some tilt was applied to control focus. It was very dark in there, and focusing required the use of a flashlight.

The Pennsylvania Avenue Subway was built to provide a sub-grade freight connection between the Reading Railroad’s main line and its “City Branch”. It served the Baldwin Locomotive Works’ Callowhill plant and, later, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s printing plant, among other Center City industries. Abandoned in the 1980’s.

The Waldorf-Astoria is perhaps New York’s most prominent monument to jazz age luxury and glamor. It’s been the traditional residence for US presidents and foreign heads of state when in town (the “presidential suite” was meant rather literally there).

Built over the below-grade railyard of Grand Central Terminal, the hotel was equipped with a private rail siding and platform where guests could park their personal railcars(!). (Andy Warhol once threw a party on the platform.)

This was captured with a DSLR and a 19mm shifting lens, from a balcony of another building.

It’s mostly an exercise in angles and symmetry. The vaguely wedge-shaped dark cloud that appeared overhead, following the lines of the buildings, created a fortuitous moment.

The Waldorf was closed for an extensive renovation shortly after this was made and has not yet fully re-opened. Many of the rooms are being converted into condo apartments.

@lindsay@nullpointer.org More of a dining table book, then.

Captured with the Rodenstock 70mm/5.6 HR-Digiron-W (@ f/6.3) lens. Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50), Cambo WRS-5005 Camera (shifted vertically -22mm, pushing the limits of the lens). 16x9 crop.

This fire escape stairwell, retrofitted onto the back of Georgetown’s Healy Hall, reminded me a bit of a Piet Mondrian painting. Hard afternoon shadows added to the abstract view.

@chillybot@infosec.exchange Thank you

Here, as elsewhere, infrastructure is heroic.

The scale of these wind farms is beyond what we’re equipped to process in day-to-day human experience. They conquer the landscape in ways we can’t fully comprehend even when they’re in front of us. In a sense, they’re abstract sculptures of themselves, mostly visible in fleeting glances from interstate highways or airplane windows.

This was captured near the Tesla substation (no relation to the car company) near Altamont Pass with a DSLR and a 400mm lens, compressing the turbines in a way that made them resemble a histogram.

There’s a lot of power being generated in those hills. There was an audible hum in the air and vibrations could be felt in the ground. In some spots, the camera rebooted from induced currents.

Infrastructure like this is easy to ignore, but has an accidental beauty that I think is worth examining.

@jacquiharper@mastodon.world Which I can’t help but think inspired this wonderful Improv Everywhere gag: https://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

@jacquiharper@mastodon.world Oh yes

Captured with a DSLR and 19mm shifting lens, from a somewhat precarious traffic ramp not really designed for pedestrians with tripods.

Built in 1913, Grand Central is one of my favorite buildings in NYC (and maybe anywhere), both inside and out.

The Chrysler building couldn’t resist photobombing.

@SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange I go back and forth on how much context I like to show.

Here, as elsewhere, infrastructure is quietly heroic.

This was captured with a DSLR and a 24mm shifting lens.

This “portal” type transmission pylon, looking like part of an army of rather menacing giant robots, is part of the Pacific AC Intertie, one of the two major power transmission trunks running up and down the western US. It has capacity for about 5 gigawatts of electric power.

Do not climb.

This capture made extensive use of view camera tilt movements. The depth of field is quite shallow here, so the lens was tilted forward to keep the stems and leaves in focus from the front to the back.