Pittsburgh
America has a handful of quintessentially photogenic cities– New York, Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco to name a few. But there are certainly also some underrated cities for photography and I would easily put Pittsburgh into that category. Nestled within the rolling Appalachian Mountains and centered at the confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongohela Rivers, Pittsburgh geography has a lot of unusual quirks. With so many hills and bends, Pittsburgh has hundreds of bridges, leading to the unofficial ‘City of Bridges’ nickname. Fitting in with the black and yellow city colors, about a dozen bridges in the downtown core are painted in bright yellow creating a color palette unseen anywhere else in urban America. Mount Washington, just overlooking downtown Pittsburgh and the colored bridges, provides a great vantage point to photograph one of the coolest urban scapes in the country.
The Duquesne incline is regularly ranked the best tourist attraction in Pittsburgh. Aside from being a trip into the past, the peak of the circa 1877 incline gives sweeping views atop Mount Washington. Now a part of Pittsburgh Public Transportation, the incline is made accessible for locals and visitors alike. You can visit the attraction either by parking at either end of the incline or taking transportation (or walking) from downtown Pittsburgh. With sunset in mind, I parked at the top of the incline and got dinner at one of the few restaurants on the ridge of Mount Washington.
After finishing dinner, I set up sunset gear along the incline overlook. While the overlook itself is facing mostly eastward, sunset colors still make their way behind the Pittsburgh skyline. Mount Washington gives views over the entirety of downtown Pittsburgh and allows for numerous photo angles. At sunset, I targeted a wide angle with the bright red incline in the foreground. I also made sure to get views of the sister bridges in the north and some zoomed views of the city skyscrapers. Once the sun set and dusk settled in, I ran longer exposure shots to get red streaks along the bridges and highways outlining downtown.
Pittsburgh is a heavily underrated photography city and Mount Washington is just a little proof for that. Not many places have such easily accessible viewpoints and a unique mix of both vibrant and industrial colors.
Here are some bonus images from the Carnegie Mellon University campus (overlooking University of Pittsburgh)!
