Photo of the day

Selectively desaturated image captured inside the abandoned Littlestown Brick Company Building - Littlestown, PA.

I was a bit ancy today.  I get that way often.  I'm never really comfy just sitting around, especially when the sun is shining.  I always need to be doing something.  Although, a lot of times, I don't know exactly what that something is.  So yesterday, after wiping down my rifles, taking inventory of my ammunition, straightening up the "bike room" and stacking wood by the stove I decided to just take off.  I grabbed my camera gear and set off for who-knows-where.  I wound up in Littlestown, PA, just south of Gettysburg.  I had passed by the abandoned Littlestown Brick Company buildings many times.  Once inside, it appeared to be used by the municipalities for storage. There wasn't a whole lot of interesting things inside, but there was one room (shown above) that appeared to have been set up by workers or local kids.  

Casing the joint

On the drive home from work today, I stopped to explore a medical complex that caught my interest while shooting a nearby water tower the other morning. As I drove down into the complex I got really excited at the site of the decrepit clump of old buildings right next door. Big beautiful buildings sat situated on a campus connected by sidewalks. Doors were boarded and locked and dense vines wrapped around the deteriorating porch beams and railings. My experience in these kind of places had me on the look out for a roving security guard so I parked, checked my camera settings and hustled into the complex and out of sight. While roaming around with my camera down at my side, playing the part of an innocent yet curious passerby (not a far stretch right?), I bumped into a young lady and her daughter coming from a nearby gym. I asked if she knew anything about the place and she gave me a great run down. It's known as the Springfield State Hospital and it closed in the mid 80's. Then she gave me some really good information and saved me a few hours of scouring urban decay message boards and Flickr discussions - thanks lady! While I was there I quickly snapped a few bracketed photos and created the HDR images you see in this blog entry. I'm busy the next weekend with a camping trip to Jim Thorpe, PA, but I'll work out the details of my visit to this place next week. Stay tuned...

Oh Henryton!

Today has been really dreary with small storm cells passing through the area all day. I kicked off my morning with a trip out to an old site where my friend Seinberg and I used to shoot urban decay photos all the time; Henryton State Hospital, which was once a tuberculosis sanatorium. The complex is made up of several buildings which served as treatment and housing for tubercular patients and later, the severely mentally handicapped. As cases of tuberculosis dwindled, so did the need for this facility and eventually in the fall of 1985 its doors were closed. Now, all that remains are the shells of buildings and just barely. Today was the first day I've been back to Henryton since February 28, 2009. When Seinberg and I used to crawl through this place in 2008 & 2009, there were always a few interesting scenes to capture depending on the weather. Sunny days at Henryton were always fruitful because of the great grid-work shadows the sun would cast through the broken windows and holes in the roofs. Brightly painted rooms always had fantastic murals of cracked and peeling paint. And as I walked through the halls, breathing sweatily through my asbestos mask I couldn't help but remember awesome times when my friend and I snapped away in amazement. It was such a rush back then. Turning the corner, or opening a door and exclaiming "Oh man!" as a dilapidated scene lay covered in dust, basking in sunlight and rife with irony. But, as it stands today, kids have gone crazy with spray paint inside, and apparently kicking down walls is all the craze. A couple of buildings have even been burned down. I ran into three teenage kids 30 minutes after I had arrived. Not one for small talk, I left the place frustrated and with only 12 exposures to my name. Of those 12 exposures, I created the 3 HDR images in this blog entry. Still, it was fun to walk the halls once again and though I won't return, it's stirred up thoughts about other sites I used to frequent.

Here is a gallery of images I took at Henryton back in 2008. It's not as nice now, as it was back then!

Fencing Company

I spent about an hour and a half today rooting around an abandoned fencing company here in Westminster. There wasn't a whole lot to see inside; the structure was mostly empty, but I did find a couple of scenes interesting. It was nice to be out with the D700 and I had fun with some long exposure shots. Now that I'm back in Maryland, I think I may have to revisit some of the old urban decay spots I used to explore.

Picture of the day

iPhone panorama from a trip to an abandoned theater several weeks ago.

The theater

Spent this morning rummaging about in an abandoned theater in Newark, NJ. New images are on my website here.

Picture of the day

Taken with Nikon D700 & Tamron 19 - 35mm lens - Exposed for 1/30 sec at f/8 .

Bath from the past

Rummaging through old urban decay files, I came across this image taken on September 14, 2008 at the DC Children's Center near our nation's capital. I remember crouching behind my tripod in a cramped , little, dilapidated bathroom, heavily laden with asbestos and broken tiles. I had just acquired my Tamron 19-35mm and was still frustrated that I couldn't quite fit everything I wanted into frame. In retrospect I'm quite happy with the image. On a fun side note, I also recall the huge wolf spider inching towards me as I feigned off squealing like a little girl and running out.

Red Hook Grain Terminal (again)

New York City was a soggy place yesterday though I kept dry, inside of the Red Hook Grain Terminal in Brooklyn. I've visited this site twice before although, this time I focused on the duct work and what little ventilation-blower components remain. Using my 19mm lens I was able to frame the twists and turns in the ducts as they snake their way throughout the structure.

Red Hook Part Deaux

One more from a visit to the Red Hook Grain Terminal in Brooklyn this past weekend. Haven't been there since December.

Nostalgia

I'm a very nostalgic person. The truck pictured below is a source of very happy memories for me. In the winter of 1994, my friend and I spent the night in this truck. At that time, we were camping out almost every other day in the small plot of woods behind the grocery store in my home town of Sherrill, NY. In the winter, we often built snow shelters and slept in them. On one particular night we snowshoed back into the woods and decided to pack the truck full of snow and use it as our shelter for the night. Last week, I stopped my home town, while traveling on business. On a whim, I pulled behind the grocery store and took a walk back into the woods. My heart raced when I saw the truck, buried in dense thicket and seemingly untouched since I last saw it.
view the entire set of truck photos here.

Loblaws - Erie, PA

I spent this past week about 1.5 hours south of Buffalo, NY at Lake Chataugua. I was only about 20 minutes away from Lake Erie, so I took a drive down and checked it out. Turns out there isn't a whole lot going on in Erie. I did find a closed down strip mall which was pretty interesting. The entire parking lot was covered with moss. There was an easy way inside of the grocery store, but I opted not to go in - I didn't have my asbestos mask or tripod with me.

Barreling

Captured with 24mm prime, 2.5 sec @ f/5.0 ISO 1600 at the Henryton Center

Evening light

I usually enter abandoned sites early in the morning. However, I dilly-dallied today and didn't get out of the house until mid afternoon. Electing not to be weighed down by my cumbersome tripod I took only a flashlight and my 24mm & 50mm prime lenses.


I was standing inside of the Glenwood Power Plant by 3:00 and was taken aback by the difference in the lighting. The evening light reflected off of the Hudson River and shimmered on the walls, beams and ceiling about which I meandered with my camera.


The familiar plant had taken on an entirely new air and I quickly found myself transfixed in “the zone” as my friend and I call it - satisfyingly engorged in photographic concentration.


I moved about as though I were a camera myself... adjusting for exposure, angle, depth of field and composition nearly everywhere my eyes focused. Here are a few images from this evening's venture into one forgotten land of beautiful decay.

Glenwood

This morning I took the Metro North local train to the Glenwood Power Plant. I haven't been to this site with my new camera yet and was eager to get inside and enjoy myself. Here are a few images from today.

Global

I took these photos last weekend in Baltimore, at the Rosewood Psychiatric Center. (1 sec @ f/8 for the image at left and 2 sec @ f/7.1 for the one below; both shot with a 24mm lens)

I named these images "global I" and "global II". The coloration and condition of this room reminds me of a globe that I had as a kid; it's paper covering, tattered and faded; resembling the land and sea tones in these images. When I entered this room I sensed an intimate familiarity. I could not put my finger on exactly why I was feeling so comfortable; I just leaned back against a wall, sunk down to the floor and released the shutter a few times.

Nikon D700

Here's the first image I'll post on the web, taken with my new Nikon D700. My wirey friend here lives in the Rosewood Psychiatric Center in Owings Mills, MD.

I hopped on a bus, Friday after work and cruised down to Baltimore to embark on another photo venture with my dear friend Mr.Seinberg. We spent last night catching up on life over a couple ales and the installation of a new 320GB hard drive in my lap top. (and toying with our new machines - Mr. S got himself the new Canon 5D Mark II)

This morning we were up and at em' and inside the Rosewood facility shooting away. This is the first time I've had my new Nikon at an abandoned site and I could not get over the improvements the camera has as compared to my previous machine (Nikon D80). The light sensitivity of this new camera is unbelievable! I was shooting at ISO settings around 3200 - 6400 with no problems! Although the picture posted above was shot on tripod at ISO 100.

Here is the original file (~5MB in size)

Boat Graveyard

I spent today photographing a boat graveyard on Staten Island. I navigated slowly and carefully through a maze of rotting wooden docks and decks, avoiding rusty spikes, hulls and cables while I made my way to solid resting points. Just a couple of weeks ago while crawling through the Red Hook Grain Terminal, I thought I had finally been to the most dangerous site of all. Wrong; today was worse. Each step had to be carefully tested before applying the whole weight of my body. The creaks, groans and debris falling into the water below me was absolutely unnerving. (all part of the fun)

It was quite a journey to get to Arthur Kill on Staten Island. I left my house taking the 1 Train at 6:45am. I got to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal an hour later and caught the 8:30 ferry across the NY Harbor arriving on Staten Island at 8:45. I had to wait for the SIR Train to come at 9:30 and I took it all the way south to Huguenot. From here I rode my bike across the island (10 minute ride) and I ended up at the site at 10:15.

After walking up and down Arthur Kill road, I could not find a way in. With all the traffic and locals out and about, I wasn't about to climb over the fence around the scrap yard that hid the boats. There was a house adjacent to the scrap yard which had back yard access to the boats but the owner had posted signs warning me not to trespass. I decided to give it a shot and just knock on the door. An old man with a funny look on his face told me he was so delighted that I actually asked for his permission that it would be his pleasure to allow me access! Sweet.

Broken Glass

Today was chuck full o' art. I kicked it off by attending a symposium regarding universal concerns of museums today. My wife spoke to the need for artist access to work in museum collections and the hoops an artist must jump through just to apply to copy work in a museum (ridiculous). I listened to about fifteen speeches given by grad students from City College of NY, & NYU ranging from community involvement in museum exhibitions to complexities of interaction between children and museum staff to the possibility of the MLK Jr Center being sold to very government which spied on him. Many interesting points were discussed and an open panel lent itself to questions from the audience.

After the symposium, I made my way over to the Broken Glass exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York in East Harlem. This exhibition is up until March 8th and I highly recommend visiting.

I was fortunate enough to speak at length with Ray Mortenson about his work: I wish I were there in the South Bronx in 1982. (Although I was only four years old at the time) Ray took about 8000 photographs of the desolate, abandoned buildings in this area over the course of two years. The buildings had been vacated by their owners during a big middle class suburban manifestation, after which a rash of insurance fires took place, totaling at one point 30 fires per day. Ray would take the 5 Train to the south Bronx and with his 35mm camera and normal (50mm) lens to photograph the remains, shooting anywhere from two to ten rolls of film a day. He initially took only exterior captures of the buildings from street corners and from a pretty much, straight on angle.

Later, when he felt more comfortable entering the buildings, he began spending much more time inside of them and brought his 4X5 camera and tripod shooting five to ten minute exposures. I asked Ray what he was doing for work at the time and he told me that he was an electrician and construction worker. He spent as much time as he could in the South Bronx and any other spare time he had was spent developing his prints. He also added that he had actually printed the five large (4' X 5') prints in this show back in 1984. They still look amazing.

These days Ray is shooting a lot of nature photography and has begun taking architectural photos in Manhattan; shooting film of course. His work is on display at the Janet Borden Gallery. When asked if he is shooting digital at all these days, he laughed and said he's never been interested in digital and doesn't even own a computer. Ha!

I bought a catalog of his work in the exhibition, got his autograph and made my way to the 2 Train feeling quite inspired (again). I love this city.

Red Hook Grain Terminal

Saturday I spent a few hours in the Red Hook Grain Terminal in Brooklyn. It was chilly, but worth braving the cold for a chance to walk around in this amazing structure. The terminal hasn't held any grain in over 40 years and was still in remarkable shape, save for the small canal-side huts which have had the bottoms drop out from them. (I made my entrance into the terminal through this missing floor area while the early morning tide was out)

To describe the terminal, lets work our way up from the bottom. The ground floor is compiled of several pillars and in the ceiling are the bottoms of the numerous silos where unloading of the silage took place. The funnel shape of these "silo bottoms" reminded me of chameleon eyes - the center of them, like a pupil, pitch black with infinite depth. Peering up through the bottom of these silos, you're able to make out day light at the loading holes 10 stories above. Carefully walking up 10 stories on a rusty metal staircase will bring you to the next floor. On this floor there are holes, roughly 3' wide EVERYWHERE. To fall into these would mean certain death. A few grain carts are scattered here and there on a track system. It's clear that the grain was carted over to the silo of choice and then dumped. Taking another rusty metal stair case brings you to the main loading area. Here, there are two or three additional silos with pivoting troughs made for distributing grain into the grain carts on the floor below.

A frigid wind from the waterfront rattled corrugated tin and clanged swinging doors and piping. I only spent a few hours at this site. I had a great time being there and experiencing the atmosphere and left when I felt I'd sampled enough. I'm sure I'll go back again.

Here is a 3 minute video I put together from yesterday's venture:

• Red Hook Grain Terminal Video - 26.8 MB (right click, "save link as")