Abandonments!

Hi,
I will be relocating from Quebec City to Arizona in May for a 3-month period. Since this is a perfect opportunity to take a road trip, flying is definitely out of the question.:)

As some of you already know, I'm an amateur photographer and a sucker for abandonments. Mostly, I like to photograph them and do some research on their historical background. I'm hoping some of you can help me find some goodies to photograph along the way. I haven't planned out a route yet and I probably won't so feel free to post anything that comes into your mind and is located more or less between Quebec and Phoenix: old grain elevators, tunnels, factories, ghost towns (no tourist traps please), mines, old hospitals, schools, amusement parks, boats, old adobe houses, etc. Chances are, I'll "plan" my itinerary accordingly.

Thanks a million!
Gen

Note: I'm already aware of the "danger levels" associated with certain cities but it doesn't bug me, so if you know of a specific location in "one of those cities", please share!:)

Gen,
I would check out flickr.com to see where people have shot.
I really like Troy Paiva's work.

Also check out forums for urban exploration.

I enjoy shooting old stuff too, but nothing extreme.

Recently shot at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, CA, really an awesome
location.

Maybe there are decommissioned military bases on route.

Photo from Mare Island:
http://atenpo.smugmug.com/photos/443658494_b2s5t-M.jpg

Wow, I really love the capture of light in that photo. Excellent, excellent work

Thanks Mark. Mare Island has some great light.

Gen, one place I've stopped at alon I-40 in AZ is the Twin Arrows Cafe.
Not much left there.

http://atenpo.smugmug.com/photos/44255084_g8GR5-M.jpg

Your thread made me break out a book about Route 66 through Arizona
and there were a few places listed that looked interesting. I have no
experience visiting these places.

Valentine Arizona
Crozier Canyon
Hackberry General Store
Cool Springs
Oatman

I'm certain there is more out there, but it may be through word of mouth
rather than published.

Alvin

If you take US-54 or any similar highway across the Great Plains, you'll see many small towns that have clearly seen better days. This is one result of the fact that farming is becoming big business, the small family farms are being gobbled up by 10,000 acre spreads, and the families that supported those towns are leaving the land. I mention US-54 in particular, because I have driven it and it is, in general, an example of what I mention. But at the other end of the spectrum is the town of Greensburg, KS which a year or two ago experienced a severe tornado which essentially destroyed the town completely. While there might be a few old abandoned buildings still left, the town is well on its way to completely rebuilding itself. Its objective in doing so was to build a 'green' city that could serve as a model for other towns on the plains. I last was in Greensburg (home to the world's biggest hand dug well) before the tornado and would love to get back and see how they're doing.

AZBuck

I don't have any specifics that come to mind, but what about doing the Route 66 run?

Several of the RTA roadside marvels are located in areas that could fit that criteria. Here is a mural location in Tucson that certainly qualifies....

Mark

@ Roadie : thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep that in mind. I am very familiar with urbex websites as well as the flickr's urbex community (including Troy Paiva's work) but I realized recently that most of the best locations I shot were actually recommended by non members (friends, family, classmates, former teachers). Congrats on the picture BTW, nice lines! Here are a few of my own (2005-2008 - no PS except for the drain):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/...e922dc81e7.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/...a1f790d84a.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/...77e0cb1b32.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/...cee760ab30.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/...f607d2fa4c.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/...36a25cd146.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/...ea9fdc1e60.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3117/...c3f91a8940.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3138/...0892f649bc.jpg

@AZBuck: I read one of your posts regarding that town the other day, and I thought it might be a perfect place to stop en route. I'll send you some pics! Thanks.

@glc: I've already been on a few stretches of the Mother Road, but I'd like to explore it a but further...:)

Does anyone know of places in rural Texas? I love photographing the old adobe ruins in that area. I stopped in Valentine on my way to Big Bend a couple of years ago and it made quite an impression on me. So did Van Horn.

Thanks again!
Gen

Quote:

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Does anyone know of places in rural Texas? I love photographing the old adobe ruins in that area.

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Gen, This site is ideal for locating some of those Texan gems -- And in particular, I like to use their Ghost Town listings.... (They have documented 494 such Texan Ghost towns to date)

Mark

@Mark : Thanks for the websites recommendation, I'll certainly find a couple of interesting places with that! Don't you have any abandonments in the LV area?

Gen, great shots. Those all look like fascinating places.

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Do you have a link to your website. I'd love to see your work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by roadie

Gen, great shots. Those all look like fascinating places. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

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Thanks roadie. Here are some more:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/...67ebb89bf7.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3012/...f93bc58f87.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/...240834a7f2.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/...6cb16ac21a.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/...02c34929da.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/...c8e85768b7.jpg
Note : this was red paint not blood!!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3197/...d7305dbe1b.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/...44e75d7e4e.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3143/...1af4fab42e.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/...ebbd466f95.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3192/...7b67773c2c.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/...cdb42a1cdb.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/...b9d678da4c.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3267/...42407cd833.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3040/...3ed0b2b1e3.jpg
This is me wearing my "trendy" and much too large hip-waders.:) I call this "drain chic".


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/...6bf186a90a.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/...59ca681ef5.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3053/...d5cee106d1.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/...57d1162ef2.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/...cc750c6121.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/...963b45aca5.jpg
This is the moonlight coming through a manhole cover as seen from the underground...I call it the under-cover disco ball effect! lol
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/...457c306ffb.jpg
A drain fountain.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/...3f741bb5a8.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3125/...9300613b5a.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3488/...c994fdf1fc.jpg

As you can see, I love diversity. I enjoy industrial, institutional, drains, bridges, tunnels, water towers, active, semi-active, abandoned locations...So if anything comes to your mind, please share!:)

Cheeries!
Gen

Fantastic work!

I've been interested in shooting these types of places. I'm just starting
to learn about this type of exploration.

Seems very secretive.

Keep up the awesome work.

Thanks again roadie. Yes that is indeed a very secretive hobby. There's a fine line between what you can and cannot say, the information you can and cannot share. Urban explorers are mostly a trust-based community that will share some locations if you do the same, they are very strict about certain issues (no vandalism, no theft, no b&e). Within the community you'll often find "sub-groups" such as drainers (ppl who are interested in drains and sewers), miners, people who only do industrial or residential, etc. There's a guy in Montreal who has been walking under the same interchange for years, documenting it, taking pictures, sharing thoughts. A friend of mine is a 50 year old professional flamenco dancer and pianist who gets her kick out of visiting drains and sewers throughout the world. All kinds of people! I know for a fact, there is an active UE community in Cali and I guess the best way to reach them is to use the website you mentioned.

As far as photography goes, since you typically will be visiting dark places, you need a great source of light (headlamps are great because both of your hands are free), a back-up light (better be safe than sorry) and gloves (basic equipment). I mostly use light painting techniques (no colouring yet, I'm still a rookie) with a tripod but you can also use a strong flash and make the shot look better or softer with PS or another software. I only discovered PS recently so now I think my older pics suck:) I just began to use Redynamix (a feature that can be added to PS) which simulates HDR without the hassle of having to take 2-3 pics with the same exact frame. I'm not a professional photographer nor do I want to become one. The technical aspect bores me to tears. I just want to document locations (history, vocation, situation in space, how things work, etc.) and find beauty in details, in decay...if I can add an artsy twist to it, it can only get better!;-)

To me it's all about curiosity and getting out there to learn about my environment...and having fun of course! I know of a very few other hobbies that involve or might involve that many aspects: history, culture, architecture, photography, climbing, hiking, urbanism, speleology, research, caving, diving, fine dining, fireworks watching, dancing (raves in abandoned buildings/tunnels), swimming, rafting, movie projections (don't ask me how they managed to get power!:), sociology, the art of squeezing in a tight spot, social ''engineering'', etc. For a great preview, I suggest you buy or rent the movie Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness by Melody Gilbert. You can watch the first two minutes here.

Many years ago, far more than I care to admit to at any rate, I took some courses in photojournalism and your discussion of your own photographic exploits reminded me of the two major principles that were hammered home time and again.

(1) Compose, edit, etc. in the camera. Sure you can take the film back to the darkroom and crop, dodge, burn in (this was decades before Photoshop®), but the image is captured at the time you release the shutter and that's where 99% of your effort should go. We were forced to do this by working in the medium of black and white slides where the film that went through the camera went directly to the mount and projector with no manipulation in between. Gen, your work shows an incredible eye. Please don't get enamored of image processing after the fact to the detriment of that.

(2) It's easy to take pretty pictures of pretty things, the trick is to learn to take compelling pictures of what would normally be passed by as ugly. Has anyone ever taken a bad picture of the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls? Well, probably, but such items would be rare. To capture the images you do of the places you do is a tribute again to your eye and artistic sensibility. In class, we would be given specific but vague assignments, such as to tell a story in 4 successive frames so that you could simply make a contact print of those frames, mount it, and have something very similar to a cartoon strip. Or to go to a landfill and shoot 'symmetry'. I forget what the assignment was for the image I got the most kudos for, but the picture was of a dead cat by the side of a road shot by the light from my car's headlights. (No, I did not run over the cat, just found it.)

Anyway, the point of these ramblings is that to become a photographer of the caliber of Gen does not require fancy equipment or extensive alterations to images after they are taken, but rather practice, thought, and as Gen says - curiosity. I realize this harkens back to my film days, but if I get 1 image in 36 or so that I'm truly happy with, I feel I'm doing a good job. For me the beauty of digital photography is not that it makes 'enhancing' my pictures easier, but that it lets me take hundreds of pictures and work on making each one better.

AZBuck

Thanks for these pearls of widsom Buck.:-) I never was what you might call a "visual" person. Photography and urbex helped me with that but I still have lots of work to do. Are you still practicing photojournalism?

I took those courses while I was floundering around looking for a career after flunking out of college. The only time I actually practiced photojournalism, I managed to get myself 'detained' by the British Army in Northern Ireland during the Troubles for taking pictures of things I shouldn't have. Actually that worked out well, because in order to keep an eye on me for a while, they insisted (by retaining my passport) that I accompany their troops through the streets of Belfast. Got some great pictures, but the bug to be a photojournalist or even a photographer full time never really took hold. Still, I learned to recognize good art and to strive to make my own 'holiday snaps' better.

AZBuck

Hi Gen,

I just had to say, I am blown away by your pictures and how well you have captured them, brilliant !

Dave.

Thanks for the tips Gen. I put "Urban Explorers" in my Netflix queue, but
they don't have it available immediately.

Your friend has some great photos too.

It's interesting exploration for sure.

@Buck : your story reminded me of one of my friends who took pictures of the MI6, not knowing what it was. With their cameras they saw her poking down manholes and, of course, they thought she was a terrorist. She was interrogated for many hours and they even went to her hotel a few days after that to ask her a few more questions.:-)

I thought about you this weekend: we spent 2 days in Maine. We stayed in York in a very nice bed & breakfast, walked on the beach by ways of Marginal Way, had great food and wine (Union Bluff, Blue Sky, Napoli), took a few pictures of Nubble Light, etc. Now I'm back in the snow and the cold:P

@Dave : thanks for the comments.

@Roadie : You might have trouble finding it as it is now a "commercial movie", it is more like a documentary that'll never reach a broad audience.

And such a unique hobby! You do have a great eye.

And moving to AZ for a short time? Very cool. We may have to work out a meet-up somewhere, eh?

@Judy : yep, we definitely should! Do you have any plans to come to the SW? Unfortunately, I won't be able to go on long road trips as I'll most likely be working full time and I couldn't afford it as I'm a starving student, but I could probably squeeze in a few shorter road trips up north. I could try to convince some other RTA fellows from AZ to come along!

Since many of you expressed their interest in seeing some more urbex pictures, here are a few more I took during the last weeks in various locations.

Oh, and if you know of any interesting place in your hometown/State, please share.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3561/...9cf3cbed08.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/...637962641a.jpg
Cute window graffiti

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3560/...8d785e4444.jpg
Silky waters

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3457/...fa41da0293.jpg
Fellow explorers

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3473/...8574112823.jpg
These are among the few, if not the only terra cotta silos left in Canada

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/...360b6fcd00.jpg
Soaking vats

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3582/...018b653100.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3569/...3abcb94faf.jpg
Storm draining on a sunny day

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3563/...489055930d.jpg
Natural light

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3554/...29ec703145.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3435/...0c641fc9f5.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3453/...7f3676ebcc.jpg
Chest waders = not flattering for the silhouette:P

I really enjoy your photo's Gen.

I look at each one in detail and then have to scroll up and look again, fascinating work.

[scrolling back up !]