Photos Urban Exploration

Discussion in 'Photography, Art & Design' started by dragon2309, 11 Jul 2008.

  1. dragon2309

    dragon2309 techie

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    So, me and three friends are quite heavily into Urbex (or urban exploration for those who dont know) which is basically gaining access to restricted sites/buildings/places in order to obtain that perfect shot.

    Here are a few of mine that you may like to see, opinions and comments welcome!


    This is my most recent explore, in maidstone, this was a fairly small (7 story) development, that we scaled and camped on the roof for photos...

    [​IMG]

    This is roof mounted crane on top of that building, stood about 25-30m high off the top...

    [​IMG]

    ----

    This goes back a few weeks, it was one of our major explores. This was the Dockside Quay's Twin Tower development in dockside in chatham, two towers side by side standing 17 floors high (not including the roof or the basement, we were on the roof). Awesomely high up, incredible views.

    This is the view out across the river medway, in particular, chatham maritime marina

    [​IMG]

    This is from the same spot, but looking the other direction, this is zoomed in a fair amount so doesnt make it seem that high up as the angle is a lot smaller. This looks out onto St Mary's Island, very nice place

    [​IMG]

    And this last one here is the 2nd tower (view from the 1st) its identical to the one im standing on top of. I can't explain the awesomeness of this when you're up there.

    [​IMG]

    This explore took the most preperation we'd ever done for an urbex outing, we visited the site in the daytime on two seperate days before the night we actually did it, in order to figure out their security setup. All security cameras were property of other people (such as dockside, not the development), after end of work each day, their was a one man security patrol every 45 minutes, accompanied by 3 mean looking guard dogs. 45mins, on the dot, thats quite a large timeframe to get in and sufficiently far enough up the tower for no one to notice we're there. Access was gained by shimmying down the side walls of the river to get alongside their outer boundary, swing round the boundary, hop up over the inner walls and get down inside the absement as quick as possible to find cover...

    I wont tell you anymore, i'll have the police after me soon

    More info and more pics are on my flickr

    :)
     
  2. Aericon

    Aericon Hyperbol!!!!

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    Hey those are pretty neat.:D And i wont tell the cops. :p
     
  3. Cyprio

    Cyprio G5 Supermodder

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    What a great idea! I love the colours in the crane shot.

    Cyp.
     
  4. dragon2309

    dragon2309 techie

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    Haha, thanks and thanks, it's a lot of fun, big adrenaline rushes

    Thanks man, and yeh, its a decent way to burn time and you get to hang out in some freakin cool places for the evening. Still on the lookout for our next location, theres a disused power station about 15 miles up the road, could be worth a visit.
     
  5. Cabe

    Cabe What's a Dremel?

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    Friend of mine in Aus is into this, he particularly likes old navy bases and such like.
     
  6. ChromeX

    ChromeX Minimodder

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    Awww man I used to love explorating around manchester, me, my cousin and a friend of ours used to go mooching around old warehouses and underground and what not. Seems like we dont have the time anymore between work and life, but we still reminisce about past fun we used to have. Maybe one day we'll dust off our old head lamps and have one last adventure...

    Also, im loving the pics. 1,3 and 5 are awesome. Nice work!
     
  7. dragon2309

    dragon2309 techie

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    Oh yeh, that sounds great, we havent done any bases or anything, would be cool, we've done a large system of underground tunnels used as a plane factory in WorldWar2, that was awesome, those shots are all on my flickr in the "Shorts Tunnels" set.

    Thanks mate!
     
  8. CraZy

    CraZy Cöstom úser tætel

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    Those are great man, it's a fun hobby :)
    I do this too, around these parts there are mostly deserted farm houses and factories though.
    You can check my flickr if you want too see some of my ue work.
     
  9. OleJ

    OleJ Me!

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    I love that crane shot. That little blue patch of sky in the lower left really makes it pop. Nice!
     
  10. Whelan_999

    Whelan_999 What's a Dremel?

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    I wish the city I was in had awesome urban areas like that, nothing here is really restricted. Cool shots!
    -aaron
     
  11. Cthippo

    Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

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    Sweet shots, man! Wish I had the balls for that.

    I know this sounds cliche, but there is an abandoned mental hospital near here I'm working on (legal) access to.

    Hope you pull off the power station gig, love to see the pics from that!
     
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