Another shot from this past January’s UrbEx trip. This was one of the hallways from the Infirmary. All the windows were boarded up, so there was not one bit of light shining through this hallway. This scene was painted using our flashlights, and then the exposure bumped up even more in in Lightroom.
Again, I don’t normally do sepia tones, but something about this one almost reminded me of a “night vision” look (except it’s not green). It also helped save this severely under exposed image. Just appeared to me as though we were walking through a time capsule of items that haven’t been touched in years. I think the eery darkness may have added to that feeling though.
Not bad for not being able to see anything and painting the scene with flashlights!
I know I’ve been MIA for a while. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been working with Kate on our wedding photography business, OBrienPhoto.net. Things have been going great and I finally have some down time to post some images of my own.
In starting up this business, I’ve learned real quick how to use Lightroom. I have been a Photoshop user for years, so making the switch to something else was a huge learning curve. I’ve been rocking Lightroom for about 6 months now and all I can do is speak highly of it. I don’t know why I didn’t switch years ago! I love the cataloging and all the neat little tricks it offers to quickly edit the image. I was going through my Lightroom catalog from earlier this year and came across this image above. I decided to edit it in a way that I don’t normally edit images. But what the hell – why not!?
This is from a January 2011 UrbEx trip to the Belchertown School For The Feeble Minded. This place is just creepy. Every aspect of this campus is just dirty and creepy. It. Is. Awesome! The image above was taken as the sun was setting over the infirmary. I love the warmth the sun created as it sets over the cold snow and meek boarded up hospital. It’s a sort of an eery contrast.
With the ease of Lightroom I have edited a bunch more images that I’ll be sure to post in the near future!
by Pat on October 21, 2010
Being so close to New York City, I often have to head in to the city to take care of a few items for work. The train is a long and boring ride, so I usually end up taking a nap. Since I rarely have my camera with me for work, I miss all kinds of great shots. Being familiar with the commuter train, we decided to do a day trip to NYC and I brought my camera with me in hopes to catch some good city life.
I had my camera out and started to take photos of random things while waiting for the train. I usually do this just to get myself going with looking at things from different angles. While heading down to the city we sat adjacent to this gentleman on the train. As soon as he flipped open the newspaper and started reading, I knew I had to take a photo. In fact before I even turned my camera on, I knew it was going to be a classic black and white shot.
Since our day trip to NYC was so fast paced, I didn’t get very many shots. This photo ended up being one of the winners!
by Pat on October 6, 2010
I love London – it has to be one of my favorite cities I’ve been to. Not because it’s international to me, but because it’s a huge city and felt like a small town. Everything has that old world charm. In 2007 I spent about a month there working on an office relocation project for work. My original plans were to be there for 2 weeks, but as with all things I.T. related, nothing went as planned. The result? My plane tickets canceled with no return ticket until things started to sort out. I was surprisingly OK with this new plan! There was a lot of work, with long days, but we also had a lot of fun as well. The food was great, the city is beautiful and there’s tons to go do. I can’t wait to go back!
I had decided to venture out on my own on a couple occasions. I was feeling pretty comfortable with the layout of the city, and wanted to be adventurous. As I was wandering from my hotel to the River Thames, I came across this awesome alley. At the end was one of those famous London telephone booths. Every other telephone booth was swamped with tourists, so this was a welcome treat to have this one all to myself.
I’m glad I wandered this way. No crowds and this shot quickly became one of my favorite photos in my collection.
by Pat on September 15, 2010
I’m not very sure why, but I’ve always been very interested in WWII history – mostly of the European theater. In 2004 I decided to go on a WWII tour and actually see what I’ve been reading about. I booked a trip with Alpventures, and I couldn’t have picked a better tour group to travel with. Tony is the owner/operator and he specializes with small groups. Even though I was traveling solo (and the youngest on the tour by at least 20 years), it felt like I was with my good friends. I really would love to go on another tour with them when time and money allows!
The photo above is from the Auschwitz I camp. Auschwitz I was the prisoner working camp, it was Auschwitz II-Birkenau that was the death camp. The camp looked just as it did in the 1940s – not much has changed. The photo here shows the double layer electrified fence with a guard tower at the corner. Prisoners would be on the right side of this vantage point, whereas Nazi and civilian workers on the left. The pathway I was walking on would lead prisoners out of the camp from the right, and into the gas chamber which is just to my left. As I was walking on the path and passed through the fences, I saw this view and stopped in my tracks to capture this shot.
The museum was a very moving experience. There is so much to see, from the rooms filled with the confiscated luggage with names written in chalk, to the hair brushes, tooth brushes, shoe shining kits, wrist watches – you name it – it’s all original and a lot to take in. We didn’t talk very much on the tour and you could almost feel a presence in every room as you passed through – it was very somber. During our visit in the luggage room, the Auschwitz tour guide told us about a story about a visitor who went into the that room and saw their suitcase with their last name written on it. They hadn’t seen that luggage in over 60 years. What are the odds that a survivor would find their luggage on display with their handwriting on it!?
I would recommend going to Auschwitz and experience what I did. Even though it can be a somber trip, there’s something to be said about reading history in a book, and actually seeing – breathing – feeling that same history story. It’s a very powerful experience.
