Urbex and fire

As a child I loved playing with fire, I even have a nice scar on the back of my right hand from when hot plastic dripped on it while playing with fire with a friend at the age of about 10. I told my mum I had fell over, she didn't believe me considering I smelt like cooked meat and my skin had clearly been badly burnt. I actually forget the scar is there and now as I approach 30 years old it is barely visible.

You already know that I like exploring abandoned buildings.

Why not combine fire and urbex.

And by that I don't mean ive started a career as an arsonist.

No, I mean playing with fire artistically and then checking that all the sparks and molten pieces of metal have been extinguished before leaving the site. Before starting we also did a recce of the area and made sure there was nothing around that was at risk.

It was a great experience and some great shots have come from this night with my friend Stuart.

For this shoot I used a Canon 5Dmkiii and 24-70 lens. All shots were taken between f/13 and f/18 and were 30 second exposures at ISO 200.

Stuart and I have already said that we now need to find the next location for urbex and (a little bit of controlled) fire.

 

 

Visiting a hotel but not staying because its cold, damp and abandoned

I love exploring, I love urban exploring, I love urbex.

So, I wont say where this place is because I don't wish for it to be ruined anymore than it already has.

This building is big, loads of bedrooms and loads of public rooms, such as a ball room, bars and dining rooms. There's stair cases, long corridors and dark basements. Smashed windows cause doors to bang and wind to blow through gaps, water flows randomly through pipes and somewhere a toilet flushes when we're the 'only' ones there.

This place is really starting to have seen better days, its sliding in to disrepair extremely fast now. Water has leaked and has rotted through floor ceilings and floor boards. I would hate to think how much it would cost to do up if it was to be modernised and re-opened.

Ive visited 3 times now with different people; the 1st with Laura, I really can't believe I got her to have an explore. The 2nd was with Stuart and the 3rd was Josh and Abi, I wont mention who enjoyed this the most out of the two of them.

The 1st time I visited I was armed with my 5D and Sigma 17-35mm, the lens is old and like the majority of lenses, even expensive ones, is flawed but for a cheep bit of full frame wide angle it does the job. I should really get a more expensive lens but until ive used this lens more than the 3 times ive used it now I wont bother, plus for the price I paid ill soon get my money back. Plus I think its a case of finding the optimum focal length and aperture and so far ive not put the effort in with it.

The shots below are all form my 1st visit, ill post shots from the 2nd visit in my next post.

I didn't

Manicure time

Now that's what gone off milk looks like

If Carlsberg made door knobs

Keep on exploring.

A night at the church

I visited a church with Kings Lynn Photography Group last Tuesday night, something different, something a little frustrating and something a little.....lens flare....damn it!

The church itself is big; St Margaret's on the Tuesday Market Place has been standing since around 1101 but has undergone various rebuilds since and was renamed Kings Lynn Minster in 2011, for more history visit http://www.stmargaretskingslynn.org.uk/history/.

I decided to go wide angle that night on my Canon and there lies my frustration, lens flare like mad that I didn't notice until a couple of days ago when I started to look at my photos on Lightroom. If I knew at the time I would of put my hand over the lens at the point the flare was creeping in. Oh well never mind!

Ive got a real 'thing' for my Fuji camera's at the moment, this 'thing' has lasted since I bought my 1st (ok 2nd, my first 'proper camera' was a Fujifilm Bridge camera) Fuji in Spring 2014. However it is good to dust off the 5D every now and then.

Armed with a tripod (I hate using tripods) I walked around the church trying to get a different shot, although im sure everyone's different shots are much the same.

Im going through a dark phase at the moment, I want everything to be dark and gloomy. I want strong blacks, harsh whites, texture and grain. Im sure ill look back at my photos in years to come and wonder who turned the colour off.

Ok so the first shots were taken with my X-Pro 1 and 18mm lens as I couldn't leave it at home.

Im into shooting from low angles at the moment.

Shots taken on my Canon.

Looking up.

ah!, the dreaded lens flare, I took a while to compose this shot too; trying to get absolutely parallel to the pew.

 

Exploring on the way home

On the way home from Bishops Stortford, I pulled into a driveway of a place Ive noticed before in Thorney near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

 

2 houses, 1 bungalow and loads of farm buildings all empty.

 

I had a quick run around the different buildings and took a couple of snaps and so I need to go back and go inside for a proper tour.

Hangman's noose?

This building really is derelict, it looks like lens distortion but the place is in terrible condition.

 

I continue to use my X-Pro 1 and 18mm lens combo and im loving it, its a great camera with plenty of potential.

The 18mm lens, I find to be a really useful lens, when multiplying 18mm by the X-Pro 1's 1.5 crop factor you have a focal length of 27mm; if you want wide angle then step back, if you want zoom then step forward. 

A different look at the bridge

Today it snowed and so the sky has been a mixture of blue sky and black storm clouds all leading to a very dramatic sunset over Sunny Bridge.

I had my Fuji X Pro 1 in the car, so I put it to use, most days im really itching for photography so the sky was a good reason too.

What's a picture of the sky worth without a subject in the foreground, the most obvious foreground subject in my village is the bridge itself. To make the sky look as dramatic as it did in real life and possibly that little bit more special and to test out the camera I exposed for the sky to retain highlight detail and Ive bought detail out in the shadows in Lightroom.

The shadows are a little grainy I agree but for a grab shot it has the desired effect; just look at that sky.

Im always drawn to the red phone box next to the bridge, Id love to be able to get both the phone box and the bridge in one shot but unfortunately there's a load of other crap in between them that just ruins the shot. However up until now I had never thought of shooting the bridge from inside the phone box.

A cold Sunday in Norwich is good for business

I made another trip to Norwich on Sunday for 3 reasons; 1st to get a new battery fitted to my phone, 2nd to have a look at a camera and 3rd to chat Wedding photography with potential clients.

It was a very successful day;
New battery.
New Camera
Another wedding booked.

As im sure you've read before and usually it takes place in Norwich, I love street photography, Mostly because its an excuse to carry my camera around.

Sorry, I already bought it

 

A missus putting up with her photographer fella

Locked

The beauty of walking around built up places is finding odd things like random clothing in random places. I was just waiting for a streaker to run by.

Biddys; the tea shop I met Fiona and Tom to talk weddings, a cool looking tea shop and a nice couple, Tom had the biggest slice of cake ive ever seen...........seriously it was massive

Keeping an eye on things

and pay silly prices for someone else's junk

A wall of windows

I wonder if they got wet painting that?

Ive been urbexing recently with a good friend so ill begin to post the shots from that soon, there are loads as the location is BIG!

Im beginning to look forward to 2015, should be a great year for photography.

I hope you, reading this, like what I do and take the time to look at my other posts.

Ive had over 11,000 hits now to this blog, so my photography is getting around.

Thanks for looking.