Definitely Sleeping in the Car Tonight.

Warning: I’m still in a spooky mood.

In a previous post I promised I would write on photography in illegal places, so here I am, keeping my word(s).

A little while ago, my family and I were driving somewhere and we pulled off to get coffee (well, they pulled off to let me get coffee, which was really nice of them), and while I waited in line they went out to the parking lot and saw a scary-looking building. Now, if you see a scary-looking building, you obviously find a way in, or you are no kind of adventurer. Or you are really safe. And safety does have its place. Just not here.

So they waited for me (nice family, right?) and we all went in together, quickly discovering it was an abandoned motel. Now, I didn’t have a pro camera with me, but my iPhone is pretty trusty, so here are the pictures I took. I’m calling this collection, “Which Room Is Mrs. Bates In?”

First, this is the hallway. One thing this hallway taught me: dark buildings are a lot scarier when it’s actually light outside:

Which room am I in, you ask? 215. The one with its door leaning against the wall. And the one with all the broken glass in the hallway outside. And the one with the bare mattress lying in the corner. But seriously, come in.

You have entered. An interesting choice. Please, take a seat in my overexposed photo.

It was actually insane how the whole thing felt like someone had just left. Taking nothing, leaving no notice. I really like this one though, the lonely artificial flower bouquet waiting for the next guest to come and be disappointed in its lack of smell:

*Knock, knock.* Umm… actually, this isn’t a good time!

Okay, so you came in anyway. Well, now that you’re here… T.V.? Sorry about the cushion situation.

As much as it did seem like someone just picked up and left, they must have had some sketchy experiences on the way out:

Favourite photo by far. Yes, folks, this is the official filming location of Psycho. Okay, not actually. It was the backup location. Hitchcock thought it might be too scary:

To end, I just really like this picture, not necessarily as part of the collection because you can’t really tell where it is, but on its own. Love it.

So! Spooky, right? I’m telling you, abandoned buildings are kind of the best. A lot of possibility. For anything.

Now tell me, what sorts of abandoned places have you explored? And what did you think of my collection? Both photographers and explorers welcome – encouraged – to comment!:)

RJ

Just Do What You Want (And Of Course, Photograph It)

Hi there:)

A photo I took, called “Shadows on the Wall:”

I took this picture last summer in the middle of the night behind a government building, with my family. It was awesome because we’re a super PG group of people, and we were just loving how our shadows looked on the fence – we were doing slow motion stage combat, shadow puppets, the classics. Too fun. Then suddenly this light shot out at us; it was a security guard with a really bright flashlight. He ran over, yelling, “Hey! What are you guys doing back there?” And we’re like… “Um… shadow puppets?” He just started to laugh, either because he thought it was obvious we were lying or because he thought we were exceptionally pathetic compared to the hooligans that usually hang out behind government buildings. Anyway, totally okay with it.

So, a general photography tip: embrace your PG-ness, and don’t hide it in your pictures. You don’t have to do anything crazy or performance-art-ish or illegal (though that can be awesome too – I’ll post about pictures in illegal places in the future, I promise) and you don’t have to give up on a subject just because someone else has done something weirder with it in the past. Just do what you want and take a picture of it.

RJ