Ok so you know the deal with me pretty much, abandoned places, night time, lots of coloured lighting, the following is from a couple of weeks back. Had a call from my mate Nocturne, who's based Cheshire way, was I interested in shooting?

HELL YES, I hadnt shot at night since my trip to Budapest. We decided to revisit some old spots that still had scope for more shots. When we arrived I was desperate to get going and we quickly discussed ideas. I really cant tell you a lot more about the site, save for the fact that it used to be owned by a former quarry magnate and have been able to find out little else. Previously we have only taken exterior shots here, (Jim's Garage / Green Meanie) so it was nice to get in and have a mooch about.

I hadn't expected us to dive straight in a the deep end like this. After numerous test and set up shots (and lots of cursing) we managed to get 8 images that we were happy with for this composite of 8 images.


In Rainbows
Base Image, lit with Chrome Orange, multiple bursts from behind and to right of camera. Each subsequent image with colour portion lit initially with the orange gel, then the colour gel work. Sofa and shelves lit with infra-red trigger fired gelled flash. Door image lit by Nocturne, standing in the dark, dank cellar, down one flight of stairs (poor lad!) For those with more conservative tastes, here's a plainly lit shot


Walking on Shaky Ground
139sec / F5.6 / ISO100 / 10mm


Fireside
F5.6 / 89secs / ISO100 / 10mm
Some of you may have seen this on the people shots thread. But no harm in seeing it again, I luckily shouted out the idea before my shooting buddy did, to include someone in the shot after we had succesfully tried the flash gun out in the fire. Lit multiple times, from behind camera with blue / green gelled flash by me. Fire place lit with infa-red remote fired red gelled flash, carefully concealed behind bricks and rubble - done by Nocturne.


Perfect Comibination
F5.6 / 129secs / ISO100 / 11mm
Yet more joint light painting, which was indeed great fun and due to the nature of the building absolutely crucial for safety reasons. Most of these shots couldn't have been achieved by either of us on our own, especially since its not an option to go waving you torch around to see where you are going mid exposure!

Interior of room lit with natural flash by Nocturne, who then inched his way very bravely across the landing, which was not only narrow but banister-less. I then lit the stair way with green gelled flash, stood at the foot of the stairs, which again was with out banister and full of debris. The landing was then lit with purple gelled flash and I repeated the green down below to make sure it wasn't washed out by Nocturnes's purple. He then once again then made his way across the landing to end the exposures on our cameras. All the while I was at the foot of the stairs in the cold, quite darkness. Why Perfect Combination? Because the green and the purple work SO well together!

Ok so now we are completely comfortable with where we are, thinking about more crazy ideas that are possible in this place and all of a sudden a HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK! A car horn sounds and scares the sh*t out of us! Now this place isnt exactly on a main road, so not looking for trouble and concerned about the car, we make out way out to see what all the "bloody fracar" is about. When we get to the car no ones there?! Then headlights appear at SPEED! Turns out the farmer from across the field is more than a little concerned about what we are doing, so much so that when he reappears he rags his 4x4 up the track towards us, looks like he's coming right for us! EEEEEEEEK. He stops just short! After explaining what we were doing and convincing he we are not crack toting scallys, he calms down and agrees to let us come back another time, as long as we get in touch. Weird thing is we have been here dozens of times and not had a problem, oh well.

There was just time for a couple more stop off's, before I caught the last train home, the first is not worth mentioning and totally trashed beyond recognition. The other is another abandoned house, can get enough of them at the moment so watch this space, cos there will be more soon...


Hangmans House
So an interesting nights shooting ended here at this spooky old house. Apparently the former owner hanged themselves here about 10 years ago. The house is all but a shell now, with all the roof timbers either exposed or collapsed into the body of the house.

Composite of two images, the first of the interior lit with natural flash. Second with the exterior lit with green gelled flash, multiple bursts by myself.

More haunted houses to come shortly...