Architectural (decay)

I'm usually not a fan of posting multiple images (or viewing for that matter) but I spent some time yesterday poking around one of my favorite haunts. There's an abandoned agricutural research facility just down the road from my home. Getting past security isn't a problem as the guards are tolerant of me running my two golden retrievers on the grounds. So with a nod and show of my camera, they wave me by (of course, the stop for coffee and a box of Dunkin' Donuts never hurts).
It's a maze of dereict greenhouses with remarkably a bit of the glass still intact (what isn't is covering the nearly every horizontal surface in deadly shards. The day was unusually warm, which made for slippery ice, broken glass and water dripping everwhere.
I had a blast exploring.

Nikon D300 28-70mm f/2.8

Cool photos John Angulat... Really enjoyed it.. you might have explored in a sun set evening so that you might get contrasting lights in this atmosphere....

Hi Oli,
Thanks! I'll have to try that. I have been there during a "normal" mid-day sun and it was an exposure nightmare. Between the sun beating down on you to all the crazy reflections I thought I was hallucinating!

Interesting John. Sad that the place is allowed to fall into ruin.

Hi Ron,
Yes indeed, it's sad. The facility was once one of the best of it's kind and operated for many, many years.
It's been abandoned for some time now and is currently owned by the local Board of Education. It's been the subject of many battles as to it's future, everything from commercial use to low income housing. I doubt it will ever be put to good use again.

If you're interested here's a link to someone who has captured many images of this site:
http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/thompson/thompson.html

From that Hudson Valley Ruins page:

"There will be two hundred million people in this country pretty soon. It's going to be a question of bread, of primary food supply. That question is beyond politicians and sociologists. I think I will work out some institution to deal with plant physiology, to help protect the basic needs of the 200 million. Not an uplift foundation, but a scientific institution dealing with definite things, like germination, parasites, plant diseases, and plant potentialities."
-William Boyce Thompson, circa 1919

Click to expand...

To a large degree this site would seem to be a monument to agricultural technology accomplishment and, simultaneously, short-sightedness. This was basically a hobby for a fellow who made a vast fortune exploiting natural resources (mining) to fuel the industrial revolution. (Not to mention the Russian revolution.) He, like many of his peers of the day, believed that the human population would soon overrun the planet's food stocks. So he thought he'd get a piece of that action, too. Why not?

The northeastern and northern midwest sections of America are peppered with such artifacts of late 19th/early 20th century hubris, hope, philanthropy, failure, and extinction. I wonder what the artifacts of the late 20th/early 21st century will be? Mainly landfills, I expect.

Anyway, I digress.

Thank you for posting these snaps, John. It looks like a fascinating and rather creepy place. I looked at them several times and wondered why they became less interesting to me with each viewing. I concluded that it's chiefly due to flat light and a documentation-style camera position/lens angle. The second and third images are the most interesting; they could almost be passed-off as a time lapse.

If you return may I suggest that you:
1. Resist the urge to swallow so much with each gulp.
2. Visit later in the day or on a gloomy day. Use one or more remote flashes (fired with a Pocket Wizard) to place light in positions of more interest.

You're working with a structure that's essentially transparent but has endless details. Take better advantage of the possibilities.

Hi Ken,
Thanks so much for the response.
As always, you're spot-on with both your observations of the world around us and of my particular approach to imaging.
Admittedly, you do not often comment on my images, and when you do...well, let's say I've been a bit gun shy of late.
However, every observation, comment and critique you have offered invariably rang true. In the beginning, your responses left me wounded, later I felt angry, oftentimes I felt embarrassed.
Oddly enough (to me at least) I found myself revisiting your words time and time again. I began to realize that an incredibly talented individual was taking the time to look at my images and offer advice.

As the commercial says: "Priceless!".

So, here, once again you have managed to describe my personality to a "T" - I AM impuslive, I DO try to swallow too much in one gulp, and I have NOT learned to slow down and observe the world around me before I begin firing off images.
Hearing that said from someone I have a great respect for gives cause for memory.
Thank you for being a teacher.

How can I argue with you Ken! It's also a challenge to follow since you often hit the nail on the head. Still, it needs more than one stroke.

The pictures need to be shown smaller relative to a lot of white space so that we can fit them into our brains. These pictures all have the same hues and the brown may distract us from the form. So I'd examine this in various iterations of B&W.

You might crop pictures or use them as you first saw them. The challenge is to get the dead vines separate from the wooden framework.

We are missing a 3rd dimension, not just the 3D of the architecture rendered more real by careful lighting but also the lightbeams themselves as actors, penetrating the structure. After all, the greenhouse is all about the fundamental property of capturing light.

If one is super lucky, in the early morning, there may be a mist burning off and perhaps some light beams to catch. Maybe at sunset in the rain, (not with the 5D!)? Perhaps light a smoke candle or some other technique to show the lightbeams. Push comes to shove, then there's painting them in photoshop! Anyway, such subjects are worthy of photographing but it requires some thinking to get it to be dramatic and memorable.

Thanks for sharing. I'd see what you might find in possible versions in B&W where you might like the textures and form better...or not!

Asher

A young local (Chicago) photographer, Eric Holubow has made his chops photographing such decaying sites. His work might give you some ideas for photographing this site.

John

a juicy creative site for sure!
those doors alone excite me! it looks like an old green house of sorts
gonna be excited to see how you change the looks of this fortunate capture-

Charlotte-

Hi Asher,
Thanks very much for the insight. Between Ken's suggestions and your's I certainly have my work cut out for me.
Ken had pondered the merits of returning on a gloomy day and targeting specific areas with strobes. That got me thinking "maybe it can be shot at night?". The wheels have been turning in my brain as I imagine the set up.
Now, you come along and interject with thoughts of light beams and morning mist! Sensory overload! (just kidding, for sure).
If I can work a bit of rain into the equation...all the better! (we'll see how "water-resistant" the D300 really is).
Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to share your suggestions. It is always very much appreciated

Hi Charlotte,
Thanks very much! It certainly is an intriguing place. Hopefully I can take everyone's comments and return with far better images!

Ken Tanaka said:

A young local (Chicago) photographer, Eric Holubow has made his chops photographing such decaying sites. His work might give you some ideas for photographing this site.

Click to expand...

Hi Ken,
I took a quick look! There's some very good ideas there, for sure. Thanks for the link and I will delve deeper into the site when I have more time this evening!

Interesting how nature has exacted revenge from the ground up. Nice find.