Having visited West Park around 15 times over an 18 month period, I was fairly used to seeing artefacts laying about, toys in the children's ward, beds and chairs etc. However it's shocking to see that documents and logs with patients names still left in place. Some a little disturbing making the casual visitor realise [...]
This week has been an interesting one for me. I did my first 'photo presentation' at a local camera club. This was around HDR and urbex, more focussing on the urbex side of things and hopefully dispelling the myth that all HDR is bad. It was a very fulfilling couple of hours that I really [...]
I'm getting towards the end of this set from West Park I think. I need a little break from relentless processing to start afresh. with renewed vigour. Its not helping that my 550D is in the repair shop after being dropped at some point. Where and when, I'm, not sure. but the pentamirror is out [...]
Another nice simple shot in my series of simple shots together with a simple post! I loved the peeling pain on this switch and the almost monochrome paint colour a lot, the rust breaking through and the shine of the brass switch itself. Click the image for a larger version and full gallery
Another quick post this evening. Here's an image from one of the bathrooms at the asylum. I'm trying to move away from my normal style taking some different images and angles. Its actually very difficult. I'm now really comfortable doing what I do well, so I have to change and try to push myself in [...]
Although West Park has been mostly cleared of trinkets and other such ornaments there is still the odd thing to be found before the demo teams continue their assault on sturdy Victorian architecture. Here is a knife and spoon, unfortunately the fork was no where to be found. Seeing these made me wonder whose hands [...]
I was surprised to come across the showers in this area of the asylum. Having been there many times before I don't think I've been in this area before. It has what can only be described as paint dripping from the walls. It's probably the most impressive sheeting of emulsion that I've ever seen, the [...]
Here's an image that I've processed slightly differently to my usual manner. I'm trying to add a little more colour to this one. I've used the cross processing filter in Nik to get a more antique look along with a couple of texture overlays to get the dreamy and slightly sleepy eyed look to the [...]
Here's a typical view of the architecture and decay in the manor house - somewhat crusty, but not yet falling apart (too much). You can also see the scaffold that has been put in place to bolster / facilitate restoration through the arch. As with all of these images time was of the essence, so [...]
Here's a close-up of the awesome old skool craftsmanship in the manor house library. This shot was enhanced by the lovely morning light coming in through the windows. I was really taken with the contrast between the light outside and the way it was falling on the pretty metal work. Goes to show that in [...]
This image is typical of the rooms in The Manor - tidy and swept. Ready for the contractors to come in and get busy. Interestingly there were a couple of paintings on the window, probably set up by a previous visitor. Not an overly interesting subject, but easy to process using Photomatix and Nik filters, [...]
Right at the top of the house were a couple of rooms that were still left with 'things' in them. This was the only one with a bed though. The setting indicated that this was probably servants quarters at one point. There was even a bell above the door outside. The room looked as if [...]
Another quick post as its Friday and I have to have a quick turn around. I've seen many great pictures of staircases, but never been anywhere that I've been able to grab great images myself. Consequently in this location I went into staircase overdrive. Here's the view looking up from the ground floor. Click the [...]
Those were the days eh! Three years rent £13! This was on top of a pile of papers left in the Great Hall (which I have now found out was a library). Thing like this I hope are kept, it shows a good deal of history about the place, there were many other artefacts laying [...]
Just a really fast post this evening as I'm heading out! Click the image for the full gallery.
I'ts funny that I often complain on here about not having any inspiration to process images. The advice from others - GO SHOOT. Recently I've been in good processing health and for some reason I've managed to rattle through these images really quickly - I have about 10 in the bank all ready to go.I [...]
Not sure why I chose the title for the image, possibly as my dinner was ready after I'd finished processing. I don’t know about any of the other photographers, but when I get home I cant wait to get my shots onto the PC and look at them full size, rather like a child on [...]
My urbex colleague and I had been planning this one for a couple of weeks. We had originally thought about doing a south coast industrial location, however he wanted to go somewhere totally different as he's a fan of 'old places' . An early start was planned - 4am kick off for the 2 hour [...]
The front of the housing block looked pretty bleak, all doors and windows shuttered and welded closed. The estate was deserted except for a few people passing through as a short cut. Yet the London traffic was always present. I'd really like to go and shoot some more here, but felt more unsafe than I [...]
I though that I would finish off the Heygate images this evening. As the area is somewhat 'dodgy', with lots of under under and overpasses and covering quite a large area I didn't really hang around and only took about 6 or seven sets of brackets.My apprehension wasn't helped by a medic on a motorbike [...]
Another bath I'm afraid - I took this one on the previous visit but from another angle - HERE. Again I have used focal point from OnOne to blur the windows and wall to the right. I have little more to say about this image at the moment - its late and I am feeling [...]
This is a more processed image than my normal work and done with a bit more of a lighter hand. I think it shows that a little more time has been taken over this one compared to the darker images. As the UE specialists will attest - asylums and baths seem to go well together. [...]
This lift has been like this since the start of my visitations at Hellingly - boarded up and with two floors down. I liked the symmetry and know that with decent processing I would be able to bring out the darkness inside the shaft. This is in one of the blocks still standing and likely [...]
A Change from the emotional stuff this evening. Viveca an I went and had a look in the only building that is left untouched at Hellingly. I'm not sure what this was originally, I've done a little research but cant see that anyone else has taken images from here. Whilst the main asylum was still [...]
This is quite literally the end of Hellingly - the floor finishes here. As the diggers move in I have no doubt that this is now rubble. I'm going back tomorrow for what will most likely be the last time. I think I have documented the asylum almost enough and have pretty much all of [...]
After processing the monster pano in the last post doing single images seems somewhat dull! However I liked this one quite a bit. This was taken shot was take shortly after smashing the back screen protection on my 550D. I placed the tripod on a piece of wood board (in the foreground) and stepped on [...]
After creating the previous panorama and seeing comments I decided to have another go. I wasn’t particularly happy with the way the top and bottom halves lined up and really wanted to add the ceiling decorations. I wasn’t able to do this on the image before. One of the comments on the previous image was [...]
The hall at Hellingly is the main attraction - huge and decorated with ornate ceiling roses. I'd been wanting to do a pano of this location for a while and actually forgot to do it the last time I went, this time it was in my mind from the outset. This has been one of [...]
Another trip to the partially demolished asylum for what may be my (second) penultimate visit, still a little more to see ;-) Destruction is happening at a fair speed with less there this of the building left this week than last. There's still plenty to see though. Most of the rooms are stripped - so [...]
One of the few items actaully left in the asylum are the baths. Being old and iron or steel they must be heavy and cumbersome for the contractors to remove so are no doubt left for the wrecking ball to deal with. This was a small bathroom off of one of the wards, like all [...]
