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An abandoned body shop....

mkrishnan

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
An abandoned body shop about a mile from my apartment. I wanted to capture the reds of the paint and the rust in the setting sun.... I found some other interesting things nearby, for which I will have to return.

Oddly, the dog did not trouble during my visit. :eek: ;)

IMG_0418.jpg


IMG_0417.jpg


IMG_0423.jpg


IMG_0412.jpg
 
I really like the last one, it's got some really great grey/green contrast happening there. I'm not sure if that's the right term, I don't know much about photography other than what I like. BTW, what's a 'body shop'?
 
Mohan

Good start!

Please convert these to B&W, especially the first image.

Pump the high ends down: the contrast between the red and white wall are difficult; also, the sky got kind of blown out.

With static subjects, it's cool to take several spot meter readings, average it out, then shoot in manual mode.

The funny thing is that the Olympus OM 4 did this TWENTY years ago. Average spot metering: I was spoiled by it...
 
Thanks everyone for the comments! :)

Mad Jew, a body shop as in automotive repair. :) And thanks for the compliment on the last shot. That was a nice segment of wall, I thought. :D

Balin, thanks for all the suggestions! I will play around with some B/W and some Sepia tones, and if anything good comes up, I will post. :) I think that first picture is definitely blown out. :( It was the best of the bunch I took, but I did not get adequate differentiation between the building and the sky. I think I need to possibly go back a tad closer to dusk (to get even more red light :D) and also maybe go full manual and crank down the exposure time. As far as spot metering...hmm...the sky is what blew everything out. So I guess if I metered on the sky, then it might have been better. Hmm.....

Lee, thanks for the website! I think it's really interesting how much of this stuff is just sitting around. I grew up in Detroit, and there this was very visible... there was such a weird assembly of very new buildings and bombed out ones, because until recently, there was very little effort to get rid of abandoned buildings (devil's night aside). :rolleyes:

Thanks again, guys! :)
 
I like the 2-point perspective on the first one. If or when you do go back, try to get some close up shots of the texture of the building. That may be interesting.
 
tech4all said:
I like the 2-point perspective on the first one. If or when you do go back, try to get some close up shots of the texture of the building. That may be interesting.
Click to expand...

Thanks! :) I haven't thought much about wide-angle shots in the past, so I am trying to learn this perspective slowly!

Some of the textures did seem interesting, although the red paint was coated so thickly that it obscured most of the brick texture. There is actually another building that I did not photograph at all yet, because it was on a busier corner, and there was too much interfering traffic. It has the same style but it is a stereo store, I think. Oddness. Anyway, I'm definitely going back.

Here is an alternate take on the main building, both in color and in sepia. I tried noise for this but wasn't very happy with the results, although the noise function in PS is somewhat new to me, since usually I'm trying to get rid of it! :D

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20050506-Sepia.jpg
 
leekohler said:
Very cool! I love abandoned places like this. You should check out:

www.midnightsociety.com
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That site has some pretty crazy stuff on it. I was reading about that Gravity Hills place in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Anyone from that area ever tried going to that place, I would be curious to know.

jon
 
here is my quick and dirty take of the first photo in B&W
 

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mad jew said:
I really like the last one, it's got some really great grey/green contrast happening there. I'm not sure if that's the right term, I don't know much about photography other than what I like. BTW, what's a 'body shop'?
Click to expand...

A body shop is a place that repairs cars damaged in an accident. Mainly they focus on exterior damage: dents, scratches, etc. They also do painting. Just curious, do you call this kind of place something different?

Which term do Australians use:
truck or lorry?
flashlight or torch
elevator or lift
trunk or bonnet
or completely different words?
 
skubish said:
A body shop is a place that repairs cars damaged in an accident. Mainly they focus on exterior damage: dents, scratches, etc. They also do painting. Just curious, do you call this kind of place something different?

Which term do Australians use:
truck or lorry?
flashlight or torch
elevator or lift
trunk or bonnet
or completely different words?
Click to expand...


Thanks for that mkrishnan and skubish. I probably should have worked out the body shop one though, just had a mental blank. :(

From where I'm from:
truck or lorry?
flashlight or torch
elevator or lift
trunk or bonnet

BTW mkrishnan, I hope you don't mind if I use your grey wall as a desktop for a while. I really love it's colours.
 
mkrishnan said:
Of course! I will PM you a link to a bigger version or something! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I've only got a 12-inch iBook at the moment, so the one in the thread looks awesome as is. The iMac's in the mail, I can't wait for some real screen space.
 
Very nice pictures mkrishnan. ;) I think that I prefer the original color one's the most.
 
iJon said:
That site has some pretty crazy stuff on it. I was reading about that Gravity Hills place in Franklin Lakes, NJ. Anyone from that area ever tried going to that place, I would be curious to know.

jon
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I've been to Gravity Hill in Franklin Lakes. It truly is weird. It is an exit off a Rt. 208, a 4 lane highway. When you get off it you feel like you are going downhill, quite a bit actually. At the bottom it levels off a bit, but your car will roll back up the hill. I'm not talking about a little rolling either. It rolls quite easily and quickly. I haven't really looked into it much, but I vote for optical illusion over ghosts and electromagnetic fields. :p
 
There were a lot of great photos floating around of the Detroit Train Depot when it (it is in a bad state) was first chosen as a potential new site for the Detroit Police HQ. Hmmm...fie on me for getting an SLR after I left the city. :( I need to spend some time on Jacksonville, at least.

Here are a few more pics from the same neighborhood, that I didn't get around to capturing the first time. Two more of the walls (for Mad Jew :)) and two more of the other building.

I noticed in hindsight how different the coloring of the first is from the others -- my apologies! :rolleyes:

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Mr. Anderson said:
wow, that's pretty damn cool stuff - I want to know where that boat yard is....

D
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Somewhere in New York . One of the pictures shows a boat that says on the side "New York State Bridge Authority". You could email the guy to find the exact location.
 
The rock on the wall with barbed wire has to be my favorite. There is a threatening look to the rock as if to say imminent doom. Nice shots!
 
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