And here’s another shot from Mayday Hills. I do have other photos asides from ones taken at this location, you know. Just check out my portfolio!
This place really gave me the creeps. Nowhere else on the tour did as much as this location. I guess partly because there was a bed down there, all set up, and it looked like it had been slept in recently. One of my big fears when exploring places like this, is meeting someone inside, when you don’t know they’re there.
A few years ago I worked with a girl who, with her friends, would sneak into Hobson’s Park, a nearby mental hospital on the outskirts of town. She’d often tell of there being fresh folded linen lying around (almost half a decade after it was shut down by the shire), as well as animals inside (stray dogs and sheep) indicating that there were people living there, and that it wasn’t as fenced off as it seemed. While that sounded neat, the people living there were often former patients who weren’t “crazy” enough to move to the psych ward at the hospital, but not sane enough to go on with life, so they just found their way in and lived there.
In all honesty, the people I’ve met inside abandoned places seem to be alright. An abandoned school I visited a few weeks ago had people living in it. The school had been half torn down and turned into housing. The other half still stood for whatever reason, and one group of people lived in what seemed to be renovated toilet blocks. They’d walk out the door and literally be surrounded by graffiti, broken glass, discarded sheet metal and weeds. They were about 2-3 meters away from a classroom, so they bought a padlock and used that area to store bikes, paint and other things they hadn’t moved yet. I was on the second floor when I heard “..yeah, and he’s got a tripod, just wandering around. Yeah man, I dunno”. I promptly went down the steps and introduced myself, said that I was only there to shoot graffiti, classrooms and other abandoned stuff, and that I’d be gone shortly after. They were initially skeptical, but believed me. I rushed around, took my shots and went back to the car.
Reasons like that, are why I love abandoned places, but get the creeps when I go in. Couldn’t care about having the cops show up, I’m just more worried about getting my head kicked in while exploring!
For those of you who love the technical details of photos, this shot was four-exposures combined in Photomatix, then edited in Lightroom using, you guessed it, John and Marcus Salvation. I love that preset so much, because it’s just the right kind of faded and creepy.
On another note, I’ve signed up for a local night market that is due to take place in late June. It’s been a good while since I last attended a craft market to sell my goods, so this should be interesting.