Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I was wondering if any of you out there could help me out. I am looking for some abandoned locations to go and shoot at, in and around the GTA. Can anyone suggest any cool places to go and shoot? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Walshy

first rule of urban exploration...... do not talk about urban exploration. There are websites that you can google which give information about UE locations in the GTA.

http://www.ontarioabandonedplaces.com/ and http://uer.ca/ are good resources, start there.

I'm just curious.. why not talk about ue?

I don't think there's anything wrong with helping people find resources like the ones I mentioned above. It's general knowledge that the OP should have found through google.

Talking about actual locations and points of entry is extremely frowned upon for a number of reasons. There's always people who are interested in UE. If I listed a location and it's point of entry, within the next week or two, it would be swarmed by every tom dick and harry who has access to this forum; they would potentially get caught, and the point of entry would be closed off or boarded up. Then, the location is no longer accessible, because of a bunch of newbies stumbling around. Some forums are also monitored by various security services, probably not this one, but definitely ones like UER.ca, mentioning a location by name or mentioning a point of entry could cause it to be boarded or closed up pretty quickly. Vandals and taggers are also an issue, I've seen locations completely destroyed by vandals within months of being advertised.

What I've learned in my time urban exploring is that actually having to go through the trouble of investigating a location; figuring out if it's still accessible, scouting it out, figuring out how to get in; makes you appreciate the the sensetivity of the location and the value of the information you've gathered. This is how it's done, and this method allows you and other explorers enjoy the location on more than just one trip.

good info to have, thanks bart!

Well said Bart.... UE resources can easily be googled.

Well said Bart. And it all makes sense. Even to me.

Here's a prime example from last night, a 20 year old guy and girl decide to go urban exploring at night, neither of them had the foresight to bring a flashlight.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120411/NEWS01/120411063/Man-seriously-injured-in-fall-at-vacant-Michigan-Central-Station?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Doh!

I did like how the DFP photographer took 32 pictures

These guys are serious:

http://www.uer.ca/

Washington Times video producer Drew Geraci created this amazing time-lapse video of an asylum that was abandoned decades ago.

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/04/12/dark-time-lapse-journey-into-an-abandoned-asylum-created-with-35000-photos/

That video is soooo awesome!

Not to mention it's trespassing and therefore would be talking about doing illegal activities.

And if local land owners know they've had trespassers and associate this site with endorsing local photographers to visit it, who knows the hassles that could result from it. Let's leave it off here, and use existing websites found from Googling key words.

I'm bumping up this old thread as I've started looking into some locations to do some "urbex" shooting and was curious about the photographic side of it. I've surfed around UER and it looks like a lot of users are more about access and getting in rather than the photography, whereas my interest is the opposite. I've looked at some of Bart and qualdoth's work and I'm wondering what gear you guys are bringing along to get your shots? Obviously a UWA lens, but are you setting up some extra lights too? speedlights? stands? tripods? modifiers? I can't imagine it would be easy to bring that much gear into some of these remote locations... but yet you've got some really awesome shots in these locations that probably don't have a lot of natural light.

I'd enjoy hearing more about your shots and how they were done, rather than the location and how you got in!

You're right, most of the UER crowd is more about exploring. The space of folks who are primarily photographers first is much smaller.

I'll provide some of the basic information you're asking below. If you've got more interest, we can always chat over a beer (Bart has never turned down an excuse to go for a beer). In particular if you've got any questions regarding any shots. Everything I'll say regarding gear basically holds true for both Bart as well as myself, we shoot similarly gear wise. We basically always shoot with natural light, even when there's very little of it -- there are techniques for dealing with that.

95% of the time we use the following:
- full frame body with a 24-70 zoom as well as a UWA
- solid/stable tripod
- remote release/trigger

We do not in fact use any additional lighting or lighting modifiers. As you're suggesting, it's just not practical, so in cases where it's a big issue we'll do multiple exposures and do some blending. On a few occasions, we may have used a flashlight to do a little bit of lightpainting. Other than that, the only other shooting gear we might bring are (depending on location):
- filters (polarizer, ND)
- 50mm prime lens

Besides the camera/lenses and tripods, we don't bring anything else that would slow us down too much. I've brought a speed light with me on multiple locations and never used it, it's just impractical really. Worst case scenario as Qualdoth said would be painting the room/location with a flashlight during a long exposure, but happens extremely infrequently. Money not being a factor, I would say the ideal setup would be an extremely sturdy, tall but light tripod; a camera with a great dynamic range; A 16-35/17-40 and a 24mm Tilt Shift or it's cropped frame equivalents (10-20 and 17mm TS).

Of all the locations we've been to; my extremely rough guestimate would be that the average shutter speed would be between 1/10 and 10 seconds (At F8-11). It's not that often that we're shooting 20+ second exposures. The tricky part is how contrasting the exposure can be in a particular scene. If the only light in the location is coming from a few windows, those windows and surrounding area can be easily overexposed during a 5+ second exposure. This is where most people fall down the HDR hole and just HDR a bunch of exposures together. Personally I take two exposures and use layer masks to blend certain aspects (usually around the windows etc) of the scene together using both shots. Pretty sure this is what Qualdoth would do if need be as well.

Here's a great tutorial on the subject:
http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp? ... adid=49601

That being said, I can't speak for Qualdoth; but any of the photos I've taken could be done with any crop camera and a 10-20mm lens. The only benefits I'm gaining with my set up is more megapixels and greater dynamic range so I only have to blend two frames together instead of 3. With the D800 It's not uncommon that I don't have to use multiple exposures at all. A tilt shift lens would allow you to correct the perspective on site instead of doing it in photoshop after. While this isn't a big deal, if you print your photos, you're going to want to avoid doing it in PS and losing pixels cropping it down. So spending the cash on a full frame setup with expensive lenses has it's benefits, but they're extremely incremental and only benefit you in particular instances.

As Qualdoth said, we're pretty open, so feel free to ask away, even if you want particular details about certain shots.

The only time I ever do longer than 10s is when I want to emphasize motion blur (eg, night time cityscapes, daylight with clouds moving, etc)



Yup, do the same, I'm just not nearly as good at it :p



Bart is absolutely right regarding the use of a crop camera and an appropriate UWA for that. I wasn't implying that a full frame is necessary, merely just that I happen to use one. Having shot with a tilt-shift on my last trip to Europe, I will likely be looking to add one to my gear bag.

Take them up on the offer...and let me know when the meetup is and I'll split their beer cost with you! What they taught me was indispensable; #1 about how to keep safe, laws, etc!

My experiences, shooting on a crop, is the same. 1/10th to 10 seconds usually. Think about shooting in your house, day or night, will no electricity...but I've also taken a lot of 30 second exposures in complete darkness that turned out interesting...

Take your time. Nothing sucks as much as getting home and realizing the bird poop on your boots is better than the photos...and/or that you really should have taken the other shot.

If you are interested in lighting. I saved this blog post to read later on my iphone...seemed impressive..

http://www.photographyblogger.net/neglected-beauty-photos-of-abandoned-buildings-by-carey-primeau/

Hahaha no need to tempt us with free beer Scott, plus with me it might be an expensive proposition . Always glad to meet up for a drink or coffee. If we do it again, we'll definitely have to find a quieter locale.

Do you guys think we have enough interest to do another discussion/meetup like this?

As long as you guys will be showing some of your cool photos I'd be up to joining. Hell I'd go just for a beer!

J.

Awesome!!!

Cool, I'll talk to the guys and try to set something up in the next couple of weeks.

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