Although I haven’t done any of it in a long time, Urban Exploration (google it, it’s pretty much what it sounds like) has led to some of my favorite images.

It’s gone now, but on the north end of town there used to be an abandoned oil refinery.  A couple friends and I explored it one night.  The part of town where it used to be is very strange.  It’s very industrial, but everything is spread out quite a bit.  There’s a sketchy car dealership about half a mile away, but no other businesses anywhere close.  A railroad runs along one side of the property and a highway along another.  At night, it’s a strange combination of remote emptiness and bustling traffic with the periodic train passing by.

We parked on a little-known, little-traveled gravel road that winds around the north side of the area before it just kind of ends.  We parked in a spot that’s relatively well obscured at night – a few trees and dirt piles were around.  We got our nighttime photo gear out of the car and started hiking.

It was like some strange surreal post-apocalyptic landscape.  There was virtually no foliage, though the ground appeared to be just dirt, with gravel paths cris-crossing the area.  One assumes there was just too much chemical pollution going on for grass to grow, but who knows for sure.  The facility was already in the middle of being torn down, which turned out to be a years-long process.  We came across a few big containment structures, one of which looked like a giant had just walked up to it, grabbed it by the top and ripped part of the wall away, which was lying in a heap a few yards away. I guess they really needed to get at whatever was in there.  So I set up the camera, opened the shutter, went inside and popped the flash a few times.  It almost looks like a cutaway diagram except for the odd colors inside, created by flashes and colored gels.

Here’s another angle on those three structures.  They were made of very different materials, of very different luminosities, as evidenced by the next photo. The center one was aluminum or some other kind of reflective metal, and the other two were matte painted and sludge-covered.  This photo is just available light – no flashes or anything else were used on that center structure.  This is just how the photo came out.

There was still one main structure standing at this facility, and as we approached it, we realized it was speaking.  Quietly at first, but louder the closer we got.  There was a bit of a breeze that night.  It pushed the clouds along very nicely for our photos, and it also caused the big metal structure to creak and groan.  Large aluminum panels were rusted and falling off in places, and they would swing and bang.  Chains would blow in the breeze and clang against pipes.  It was very surreal.

As we got closer to it, we actually got inside the main area, so that this structure was towering all around us, and the creaks, groans, clangs and bangs were coming from all around us.  Looking up at the structure from that point was really impressive.

We didn’t climb on it much as we weren’t sure how stable or safe it was.  We wanted good photos, but not badly enough to risk our health.

This place isn’t there any more.  I’m glad we got these shots when we did.