Former Glory

This European castle, built in the mid to late 19th century, has been left to decay for the last 20+ years.  Despite the great decay that has taken place here, walking through it one can see reminders of this castle's former glory: a grand staircase, vaulted ceilings, towers, etc.  Even now, the beauty of this place still manages to capture the imaginations and curiousities of urban explorers.

Exploring Europe: A Sneak Peek

While for the most part I'm going to wait to really go through my photos until after I'm home, here's a little sneak preview.  This is the inside of a cooling tower at an abandoned power plant.

Sometimes things take a while...

Those who know me personally are aware that my photography of abandonements has very little to do with documenting the places I visit.  While I definitely have an interest in the history of the sites, I try to recreate the feeling I had when I was at a particular abandonement.  Sometimes, doing so takes some time and you've got to let the image and your treatment of it perculate.

I took this image in one of Buffalo's grain elevators a few months ago.  While I liked this image from the moment I shot it, I was never 100% happy with the mood evoked by it.  Every now and then I would go back to the image and work on it some more.  It wasn't until recently that I finally got to a final product that I think captures the mood I felt when I'd taken the image in the first place.

Commercialization of Urban Exploration

It's not uncommon for me to run into other people while exploring.  Sometimes they are other explorers, sometimes scrappers, other times maybe the odd homeless person or two.  This particular instance at a church in Detroit was very different.

While exploring this church for the first time with a few friends, we heard the sounds of other people entering the site.  Imagine our surprise when we saw they were carrying cases upon cases of lighting gear.  It turns out, they were going to be doing a commercial advertising photoshoot.

I had mixed feelings about this.  It's certainly cool to see abandonements used for advertising, after all, their aesthetic is what draws so many of us to explore them.  What bothered me about this though was how this group was going about their business.  Large moving truck parked outside, front door ripped wide open.  Not much to be said about being discreet or respecting the location.  I fully expect the location to get re-sealed in pretty short order, making it inaccessible to other explorers.

Packard ... in Slow Motion

I have shot parts of the abandoned Packard plant in Detroit on several occasions. I say 'parts of...' because the site is so huge I'm not sure it's possible for anyone to really say they've shot the entire thing. On my last trip there, I decided to do a little bit of experimenting and shot with some of my Neutral Density filters. I've used Neutral Density filters in the more traditional scenarios before (moving water, etc) but this was the first time I've used them in bright bright daylight.

While I'm not overjoyed with the results, the experimenting was a lot of fun. Even though I shoot purely for myself, there's always a bit of pressure I feel that I want to walk away from the locations I visit with at least a few images I like. None of that pressure I put on myself was present when I was messing around with these long exposures. It was liberating.

Moral of the story? Go out, experiment. Make time to do it. Seriously.

Grain Elevator

Another view of an abandoned grain elevator in Buffalo from a trip sometime ago.  There's always a little bit of extra excitement when I get to explore a new type of building.  This was the first grain elevator I'd ever had the opportunity to explore.

Educating the Masses

Most of the sites you visit as an urban explorer, particularly in North America, are in a fairly advanced state of decay. With vandalism, graffitti artists and taggers, as well as scrapper activity sites deteriorate quite quickly. As such, it's quite uncommon to be able to visit an abandonement which is in earlier stages of decay. This school in Detroit was one such site as evidenced by this dummy, used in teaching First Aid, that I'd come upon.

With a little bit of TLC, this dummy, along with the entire school could probably be opened to students in fairly short order. There is a certain degree of eeriness that one feels when walking through a site that seems as though it could be in-use today.

Farwell

Ever since I got interested in exploring abandonements in other cities, the Farwell building in Detroit has been in the top of my personal "must see" sites.  On all of my previous trips to Detroit, it has never accessible.  On my last trip, lo and behold, it was accessible.  Today Farwell is merely a shell of its former self, yet, it is still a beautiful building with fantastic architecture.  I can't begin to think how impressive this site was mere months ago when most of the railings were still present.

Explosion

One of the things I enjoy about shooting urbex with other photographers is being able to look at their work afterwards and see the same locations that I've been to through their eyes. One of the side effects of doing that is occasionally getting an idea to try something new, something you've never tried to do.

Such was the case with this image from the abandoned Packard plant in Detroit. On a previous trip to Detroit, my friend !Bart took a photo that reminded me that under the right conditions, it's perfectly fine to have blown out highlights or pitch black shadows. At the end of the day, learning and growing is what this is all about, regardless how that process occurs.

Convey

Not a lot to say about this.  Fairly standard conveyor belt shot from an abandoned factory in Toronto.