14:20 Apr 11 2011
Times Read: 1,893
Sitting at my office and thinking about this weekend. Great time driving to WV with the Cat as company, singing, laughing, talking about whatever came to mind. All the while in the back of my head I was looking forward to standing inside the Lunatic Asylum. Part of history, dark history, would be all around me. I could not wait. So after finding the town was a let down as far as something to do on Saturday night, early to bed for me, leaving Cat to read a book.
The next morning it was foggy. Such a great start to the day. As we waited for the tour to start- I watched all the photographers take outside pictures, something I did the day before. Tripods, backpacks, and cups of coffee was all around us. I have to say- looking at the camera these people had started me thinking of how little my equipment is to theirs. Don’t get me wrong- I have spent money on my set. But there is equipment there that the cost of my whole set would not buy the camera alone that they had mounted on the tripods.
But hey- I do well. As this is just a hobby for me. Yes- I did put together a portfolio that my sister got me for Christmas last year…see how long that took… and I talk about showing it. Will I do it? I doubt it. But I have something to show to the people I ask about going into “old worn out buildings” they own, show what kind of pictures I take. My sister who helped me set up the portfolio said I was not very commercial as I seem only into dark, rust, rotten places. That is true. You go from flowers, to coffins in my portfolio. But then- that is me it seems. No people, no makeup shots, so maybe I will never show my portfolio. Who knows.
Anyway- back to this weekend. So the guy shows up to let us into the building and he is talking away about nothing, just going on and on, and I set up my tripod to take a picture of the stairway in the main building, a icon of this place, everyone gets this shot. No one else is but…hey- I paid to take pictures, not listen to this guy party news of last night. So I start as I always do- auto, no flash, to do a light test. That way I can lower or up the Fstop/ shutter speed from that auto setting. Yes- I take help from my camera, always have.
This one dude turns and tells me “I hope you don’t plan to use flash all day. I will not have my work ruined by it.” Excuse me? I stand stun, WTF? This other older lady step to me and said “She did not use a flash. And if she did- so what? She paid to take pictures just like you did.” He turns to her and said something along the lines of “Well- I will not have my 4 hours ruined by flash.” “4 hours? Well dude- I paid $50.00 more then you as I am here for 8 hours. And I did not use a flash.” I hit the remote again and the focus light flash to help the auto focus to find a point on the low light stairway, and it took the shot. The light was no more then a few seconds. Fucker. “See- she did not use a flash.” the lady said beside me and he turned away. She patted me on the back and asked if this was my first photo tour. It is. She said she did this for a living, and if I wanted to use a flash to go right ahead. “There is always those who think they are better, who know it all.” she said loud enough for the man in front of me to hear. I told her it was just a hobby for me, I have fun doing it. And she said to never let anyone take that away from me, to just enjoy what I do. We meet several times during the day, talking about what we had seen, how big the place was. Nice woman.
So the tour started, and I took my first dozen or so shots and notice they where just too light. I mean… it is a lunatic asylum. So I did start to play with the settings. On the small screen they looked good- but as I was playing with the settings I will not know till I download the 800 plus pictures to see what I got. I was going for spooky, kind of dark look. Who knows- I might have a total of 20 pictures I can save. But I had fun, it was a freaking great location.
I ran into several of the professional photographer. One was taking forever to get a picture of the isolation rooms. Just a small hallway, five or six rooms, the heavy metal doors open. She kept moving the doors, checking her camera, used her remote to snap a picture. Then more moving of the door, move her tripod, snap a picture, check it on the screen. I know that is how the pros do it but … come on. I must be doing something wrong as I snap a photo and move on, Very few do I check, reposition, check, take the picture, change settings, take, move the images about, reset, change the settings, take a picture, then repeat. Guess that is why I will never be a pro. I mean- I can see doing a few but there was a freaking line. Others gave up but I was not coming back up those stair. I was done on this floor- and she should not hog the spot. I think she took the hint when I would not leave, staring a hole thru her. She moved back, I took a few shots, looking at only the first one, change a setting, took three more. No more then 2 minutes. She gave me a glare but hell- some of us are just happy with a OK shot. If I had to do that to each shot I took- I would not do it. I am sure she had some wonderful shots- more power to her. But that looked way to much like work for me to have fun at it. Thus- the difference between a professional and me. ;)
Then the one guy who I walked pass in a bathroom. He is set up to take a picture of a sink. Now I like buildings, I like the details, and old plumbing is cool to me. But the sink is the same plastic knobs that my mom has in her bathroom. But whatever floats you boat. So I end up at the end of the hallway and I turned to take the hall shot as I love halls, windows, doorways. To me they always make me think of people. The window they looked out of, the doors they walked thru, the halls that lead them places. And I see then, in a strange way, of a way to step back into their time, a time warp to share what they did. Anyway, so I am playing with my cheap little tripod, trying to get my camera to level up, when the guy steps out of the bathroom. Kind of shocked me as he must have been in there for 15 minutes. How many different pictures can you take of a sink? So he walks past me and said “Sorry if you was open, ruin you shot.” I smiles, not know what the hell he is talking about and he walks on out of the ward. I have this look on my face of “What the hell was that about.” LOL It took me a while to realized he was talking about if I had the shutter open for a long expose. Dang … they even have their own logo/ language. I might have to try that whole locking the shuttle open thing- not really tried it yet. Hmm.. another thing to learn. :D
Being old and slow, and stairs on a bad knee, and still getting use to a tripod ( as you can tell I was so out of my league on this photo tour) I was the last one in the main building taking photos. So I stand at the end of a long hallway, the doors open to the weak sunlight as the fog is still on, alone. That is when it hits you. When I had to just stand, thinking of all the people who had walked this hallway. Locked into the rooms, never to be free again from this place. It was wonderful. The main building is the 2nd largest hand cut hand-cut stone masonry building in North America, and is purportedly the second largest in the world, next to the Kremlin. It was a maze of hallways, turns and rooms. I freaking LOVED IT.
It is also 2 ½ miles of walking, 4 floors. Then it was on to 6 other buildings that total to 16 floors of stairs, a large area of land to walk to reach the building, walking around the buildings, and only having one break of 20 minutes or so to eat lunch with Cat. So total of 20 floors, dark damp locations, in the upper 80’s by the end of the day, and the bottom of my feet are sore as hell. My knees hate me, even after a pain killer before bed last night. Thank gods I got finished by 3:00 pm, getting us started on the 5 hour trip home two hours early. I know I could of waited around, went back in to the large main building as the light would of changed from 8:00 am that morning…but my poor feet, knees could not do another flight of stairs.
Did I see any ghost? No. Did I hear anything? No. Did it have a creepy feeling? Only the medical building, but I think I did that to myself…seeing the morgue and all. Would it be different in the dark? Oh hell yeah. The place would freaking ass rock at night, the ghost tour would so be worth it. Just to be in the building at night. Too many broken windows, tracks of small animals, animal waste seen by me to ever take any ‘noise’ as paranormal, but the location at night alone would be worth it.
Ok- time to get some work done. Can’t wait to get home tonight, load up the pictures, see if any came out. And did I have fun? Yes. And at the end of my days of taking photos- that is all that matters to me. :)
COMMENTS
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Morrigon
20:11 Apr 30 2011
I looooove good skin.
>.>
Creepy comment.
LadyDarkRayne
20:15 Apr 30 2011
Can't wait to see some of this pics =}
PandorasBx
20:35 Apr 30 2011
Reading Morrigons comment thoughts of Hannibal entered my mind lol.....
Vampirewitch39
20:51 Apr 30 2011
Remember the movie where the girl is in the pit, the guy had a thing about wearing skin? "It will apply the lotion. It will put the lotion on."
LOL
Ok- got to get back to these before my eyes give out.