Urbex

For awhile the subject of ruins photography ("ruin porn") - the photography of the deterioration of man-made environments - has held a certain fascination for me, and I've taken numerous photos of abandoned and decaying buildings - homes, businesses, factories.  A type of photography I haven't explored until recently is urban exploration - or Urbex as it's widely known.  This type of activity goes a step further - instead of taking photos of a subject and moving on, you enter the building and explore, at your own risk and often in a manner that would be considered trespassing.  These activities go beyond the exterior "rust and dust" shots and probe deeper, often into areas not seen by man for quite some time.

Although I haven't taken that step of blatant trespassing into old factories and other structures, I have started to poke my head through windows and set foot in a few small buildings in a few ghost towns - with my head always on a swivel and my eyes wide open.

It's when you look inside, peer through a window, step foot through a door, that you get the real sense of silence, feeling of emptiness, loss, and abandoned dreams...

Sometimes it feels like you're telling a story through pictures even though you have to fill in the details in your imagination...

You come across scenes of a life abandoned...

And dreams lost, "progress" taking its toll on small town America...

Looking out towards the morning sun, this view used to frame the promise the day held... 

Sometimes I feel like a voyeur of broken dreams...

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 16-85 DX VR (first two, last two photos), Nikkor 10-24 DX (third photo)

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Black and White - When and Why

The first memories I have of looking at and admiring photography are of flipping through copies of National Geographic - which I ended up subscribing to for a number of years - or sitting in a library, looking at an oversized coffee table book of the work of Ansel Adams.  Years later, whenever I look at a black and white photo of a dramatic landscape, I still think of Adams and his magnificent work both behind the camera and in the darkroom.  

As I've spent more time getting out and taking photos, then processing them in the digital darkroom, I've started to develop a liking for giving some photos a black and white treatment, in particular those which contain a lot of "drama" in the sky.  I know that doing so can border on the cliche - "oh, who does he think he is, the next Ansel Adams?" - but when it comes to photography, I tend to go with a "I like what I like" philosophy.  What follows are several examples of when I decided that the combination of drama in the sky and a black and white look would be the most effective way to convey what I was feeling or thinking in the moment.

This photo was taken last March at the Quarai Ruins in the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in New Mexico.  We were walking the short trail that winds around the grounds when I saw this tree, its bare branches reaching towards the sky like a skeletal hand.  As I was walking around the tree the sky started to blacken and look threatening, and when I processed the photo I went with a treatment which emphasized the interplay between the stormy sky and the silhouette of the tree...

Last June a thunderstorm quickly rolled across the desert toward Santa Fe, and I grabbed my camera to take a few shots from the upstairs balcony of my house.  There was a lot of drama in the sky, a spectacular show...  

In July we were headed back to Santa Fe from visiting family in Kansas when I decided to take a small detour and visit Monument Rocks National Natural Landmark in Gove County, Kansas.  The clouds had a "wispy" quality to them, and I cropped the photo square to give equal weight to rocks in the foreground and the clouds...   

Later in July we were driving the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway in northern New Mexico when we arrived at the Peace and Brotherhood Chapel at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park near Angel Fire.  This is a favorite place of mine to photograph, it's sweeping, angular lines offering a variety of compositional opportunities.  As I was walking back towards the parking lot I saw these clouds rising up in the sky behind the chapel.  The chapel itself, having been painted white, lends itself to a black and white treatment and with the cloud bank behind it, doing so was a natural choice... 

Last November I was driving along Highway 50 near Strong City in Eastern Kansas, a grey, cloudy, dreary, winter day, nondescript in every way.  Nearly lost in the monotony of the drive, I looked over and saw this tree, its white trunk standing out against the grey of the day.  In this instance I went with a monochrome look to emphasize the look of the white tree trunk against the dull grey sky - the opposite of drama, but the feel I was going for...     

All photos: Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-55 DX (first photo), Nikkor 16-85 DX VR (all others)

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Chasing The Light

Every hour, every minute, of every day is different than that of the day before it, or the day that will come after… 

After you spend some time immersing yourself in the world of photography you start seeing the same things repeated, over and over, like rules set in stone, not to be questioned.  One of those is that the only good landscape photographs come during the “golden hour,” that time around sunrise and sunset when the land comes alive from the first golden rays of the morning sun or is bathed in the waning light of the evening.  To a certain extent this is true, but I think there are a number of reasons to keep shooting throughout the day - the details explored, the personal moments unique to you and that place and time captured on the camera’s sensor, the look that a striking blue sky can have when set against a unique landscape...

I thought about this the other day as I looked through a set of photos, and one thought led to another, thoughts bouncing from one lobe of the brain to the other and back, until these thoughts coalesced and formed a single theme, shared below...

On the morning of October 20, 2014, I woke in Moab, Utah, early, and headed out to Arches National Park, hoping to get some shooting in.  Dawn that morning was at 7:06, with sunrise at 7:33.  I drove up and into the park and drove until I came to Skyline Arch, thinking I would walk up to it and get some shots of the arch with the soft morning sunlight coming from the right.  I arrived at 7:28, and this was the view that greeted me.

Grey.  Overcast, dull skies.  I knew the sun was rising to the right of the arch, but looking around I could see no hint of the coming sunrise.  I could stay and see what happened, or I could try and chase the light.  I jumped back in my rental car and drove back the way I came.  

After about a 15 minute drive I pulled into the parking area for the hiking trails to Broken Arch and Sand Dune Arch.  I swapped out lenses on my camera, thinking a wide angle would be a good start, and started walked towards Broken Arch.  I stopped and took a few shots of the sun rising over the ridge in the distance, including this one (taken at 7:53).

I soon arrived at Broken Arch, and enjoyed that - with a quick exception or two - I had the place to myself.  I worked the scene for awhile, climbed around, then switched out lenses to my fisheye, which allowed me to get this shot (taken at 8:15) looking up through the arch while keeping the entire arch within the field of view.  

After some time I headed back to the parking lot and decided to take the side trail up to Sand Dune Arch.  Walking into a wide section of rock with high walls, I could see that the sun hadn't risen high enough on the horizon to penetrate the area, leaving much of it cloaked in shadow.  I got to Sand Dune Arch and walked through it and up the rock wall on the other side as far as I could, then took this shot (at 8:41) using my wide angle lens because I didn't want the "warped" perspective that the fisheye lens can lend to a scene.

Next stop, after a short drive, was the area where I could check out the North Window and Double Arch (which was number one on my list of things to see while in Moab).  The parking lot was full - including several tour buses - and the area below Double Arch was crawling with people, so I decided to walk up toward the North Window first.  After checking out Turret Arch and taking my time, letting the people thin out a bit, I headed up to the North Window.  The light was starting to get a little more "harsh" as the sun rose higher in the sky, but after walking around a bit I could see that, at the right angle, the sun would peek out behind the arch.  I put my fisheye lens on, thinking that I would stop it down to f22 and try to get a nice sunburst, and slowly moved forward and back and forth until I got the composition I wanted, with the sun just peeking around the bend of the arch.  This was taken at 9:37.

After a little more exploring, I headed down, over the parking areas, and up to Double Arch.  I slowly worked my way up towards the arch, trying to get past as many people as possible, stopping to take photos now and then, going higher until I got to a spot that I liked.  Since it was a clear, almost cloudless day, I decided to use the arches as a natural frame for the sky.  Again I used the fisheye lens, this time knowing that, since the lens would be tilted up a bit, it would help emphasize the curvature of the arch.  This was taken at 10:24.

After this I headed back to Moab for lunch and drove off in a different direction...

And now that I've laid all of this out on "paper," the one thought that really seems important is the one mentioned at the beginning - shoot the personal moments unique to you and that place and time.  Capture what's important to you.

All shots taken with a Nikon D7000, and Nikkor lens (16-85 DX VR, 10-24 DX, 10.5 Fisheye)

You can view my online portfolio here