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BeautyInDarkness

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Jan, 2015

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Where is this? It's amazing! Love the composition and that you didn't cut the foreground points of the rugs, it just draws me through to the hallways under the arches. So cool!

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Thanks! It's the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, TX. The place was absolutely amazing to explore!

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Quietly she waits at the window of the attic. Daring you to come closer as the smoke swirls around her.

Dress by Parasite Eve Designs

A couple beautiful butterflies I spotted on some flowers at Lost Maples Park in TX, with a slight revision to the colors.

Playing with some light painting at an abandoned lime kiln.
This was done with a long exposure at night using a colored gel over my flash to create t

The Gothic Jail (AKA Hanging Jail) in DeRidder, LA was built in 1914 in the Gothic Revival architecture style and was absolutely amazing to explore!

An awesome little car I found rusting away on the side of the road somewhere in LA. I was amazed that the hood ornament was still so shiny with the ch

This tree was THE place to be for the vultures as dusk rolled in. By the time the sun set there was over a dozen of them perched on the branches.

She's flown in ready to take abandoned souls into the night.

Dress by Parasite Eve Designs

Some light painting fun in the hallway of an abandoned hotel which was undergoing renovations.

All colors were achieved with a gel over my flash an

By the time the sun set there were about two dozen vultures in this tree it was pretty amazing! Turkey Vultures sitting in a tree in Big Bend National

Looking out over the Rio Grande river at sunset in Big Bend National Park. The right side of the river is TX and the left is Mexico. It was an amazing

The amazing grand entrance of The Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, TX. It is actually quite remarkable that the chandeliers are still in place after almo

The back stairs of a hotel which has sat abandoned since 1971.

Night photography with light painting (colors NOT done in Photoshop) at an abandoned historic recreation town.

A butterfly hanging out on a flower in Lost Maples Park. I tweaked the colors on it a bit because purple is the best!

Somewhat creepy graffiti I came upon in an abandoned post office in Indiana.

Behind The Lens

Location

This is the grand entrance of the once ornate and beautiful Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, TX. The hotel was built during the height of the Mineral Springs craze in 1929 and served as a destination spot for the rich and famous from across the US. At 14 stories, it was the very first skyscraper built outside a major metropolitan area and had the second ever outdoor Olympic sized swimming pool. In addition to the architectural feats, it provided full AC and ice water to all rooms when it opened (In 1929!!). Sadly, when the popularity of mineral springs as a cure-all faded the hotel began to suffer financial woes and finally closed it's doors for good in 1971. Since then it has sat as a slowly decaying monolith over the town of Mineral Wells. Although it's been abandoned for 45 years, it's not hard to see the opulence that it once was throughout the entire hotel. On the plus side, it looks like renovations will begin on this beauty in a relatively short timeframe as investors have almost secured all of the $56M needed for renovations.

Time

Honestly, I kind of lost track of the day as I was exploring the building. It was like being lost in a time capsule. I believe it was early afternoon when I took this photo.

Lighting

There is very little natural light in this place. The windows and doors along the ground level are completely boarded up and the arched windows that line the ceiling (which were behind me) have thick white curtains which cover most of the window.

Equipment

My trusty Canon t1i on a tripod with a Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. No flash was used, it was taken at ISO 400 f/0 for 1/5 second exposure.

Inspiration

I was struck by the beauty of the entryway that still remained even though it was falling to pieces. It was easy to envision how resplendent it once was and how awed the guests must have been as they arrived.

Editing

A little bit in Photoshop - I dropped the saturation back on the photo and added a vignette to give it a little bit more of an "old-timey" feel.

In my camera bag

My main lens is my Sigma 18-200mm, but I also carry a Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. I enjoy doing light painting, so I carry around a couple different flashlights of varying intensity, a Yongnuo YN450-II Speedlight and a pack of 22 different colored gels. My final piece of equipment is an asbestos rated respirator since I'm usually crawling around in very moldy, dusty and very-likely asbestos filled buildings.

Feedback

Play around with angles! It's amazing how different a composition can be by slightly changing the height you're shooting from. Most importantly, if you're in low light take the time to put the camera on your tripod. When I first started out taking photos I didn't use my tripod very often and as a result I got many slightly blurry photos, which is more frustrating than really blurry photos because they look totally fine when you preview them in the LCD screen, but they're just not crisp enough to truly capture everything and display your Vision.

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BeautyInDarkness

BeautyInDarkness

grandEntrance

Behind The Lens

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