ghost towns and abandoned houses

Ike615

A couple weeks ago I did a shoot with Jillian, a model from ModelMayhem.com. We headed out on HW 30 in Oregon about an hour out to find the ghost town of Mayger. The internet told me the town had a C classification which means there's a bunch of abandoned buildings and the only person still around is a care taker. When we got there all we found left of the ghost town was the old fishing dock. Apparently the internet lies. After being somewhat discouraged we headed back to Portland in search of something else to shoot. We settled on going out to Hillsboro, a country town about a half hour from Portland, and seeing what we could find out there.

I'd have to say we found some pretty cool locations out there. We ended up at a abandoned rundown house out in Forest Grove that we found by way of one of Jillian's friends. The house looked like it was on verge of collapsing with parts of the second story already collapsing on the first. Overall, I think I took some of the best shots so far in my portfolio. Jillian was a great model to work with, very professional and good kept me good company for a days worth of shooting and driving.

I rented the 35mm F/1.4 L lens from Pro Photo for the shoot and definitely fell in love with that lens. That will be the next lens I purchase.

Here's just a taste from the shoot:


(the house)












And here's a shot of us after our wrap (I got a little dirty on the shoot)

schmoo

Beautiful set. She really did wear the perfect color dresses for these locations. Fabulous job - and I love your PP.

Chrissiebeez_NL

i'm really liking these photos and the overall set is great! the contrast between the setting and the model combined with good compositions makes for brilliant photos.

i was surprised however that some of the photos were not as sharp as you would expect, especially around the eyes. Not to take down your work but IMO it takes away from the impact. the model looks at the viewer but in my case doesnt make contact because of the OOF eyes. maybe it is purposefully done?

overall great set, i would be proud to have shot it

Agnieszka

Oh my holy camera! I LOVE this set! very creative & inspiring!!

NeilL

Your model has a face and body that create drama just by being there. And in the eyes is an intelligence which makes the drama authentic. I hope she is "discovered"!

I'm not convinced by the location. Yes, something derelict, but grander and more architectural (not so much of a refuse dump). If you had gotten down that road in the last two pics a bit further, and had her interacting with the drama of all those gesticulating struts I think something would have happened.

She is just too powerful in the frame to be matched by trash. (I would have got the greenery out of the hair.)

I agree there is too much softness in the images (DOF inexperience with the 1.4f lens?), but I think the exposure, contrast, color are splendid.

I really envy you access to this talented girl

Neil

joshhuntnm

I really like these.

The one thing that is not perfect to me is her facial expression is more or less the same in all of them. I'd like to see some varity in that.

Ike615

schmoo wrote:

Beautiful set. She really did wear the perfect color dresses for these locations. Fabulous job - and I love your PP.

Thank you. I was very excited when I found that house. You should have seen the look on my face, haha.

Chrissiebeez_NLoverall wrote:

great set, i would be proud to have shot it

Thanks Chris. That means a lot. And look below about the OOF eyes issue. Bugged the hell out of me.

NeilL wrote:

I agree there is too much softness in the images (DOF inexperience with the 1.4f lens?)

Yes, I'm aware of the softness of the images. All the images that I shot with the 35 were like that which made it pretty obvious that something was wrong with the lens and not me or my camera. I also shot with the 85 1.2 that day and that one was tack sharp so it had to be the lens. Nether the less I was very disappointed when I uploaded the photos on my computer and found that they were all like that . I've heard though that the 35 1.4 is usually tack sharp so I'm still going to purchase one and if it's not I'll return it and get a new one.

NeilL wrote:

She is just too powerful in the frame to be matched by trash. (I would have got the greenery out of the hair.)

I can see where you're coming from but I think run down buildings are gorgeous in photos. I was looking for the great contrast and clash between her and her surroundings. If I had put her in front of a great architecture there wouldn't have been that contrast.

Thank you for your comments Neil! they mean a lot. You should check out ModelMayhem.com if you're looking for some talented models. There's a lot of bad models on there but I also find a lot of good ones and for the most part that's where I get my models from for stock and editorial photography.

Agnieszka wrote:

Oh my holy camera! I LOVE this set! very creative & inspiring!!

Thank you,

joshhuntnm wrote:

I really like these.

The one thing that is not perfect to me is her facial expression is more or less the same in all of them. I'd like to see some varity in that.

I agree with you on that. That's something I'm going to work with her more on in our next shoot. And also something in general I need to pay more attention to on a shoot.

Again, thank you all. your critiques mean a lot!

Agnieszka

NeilL wrote:

Your model has a face and body that create drama just by being there. And in the eyes is an intelligence which makes the drama authentic. I hope she is "discovered"!

I'm not convinced by the location. Yes, something derelict, but grander and more architectural (not so much of a refuse dump). If you had gotten down that road in the last two pics a bit further, and had her interacting with the drama of all those gesticulating struts I think something would have happened.

She is just too powerful in the frame to be matched by trash. (I would have got the greenery out of the hair.)

I agree there is too much softness in the images (DOF inexperience with the 1.4f lens?), but I think the exposure, contrast, color are splendid.

I really envy you access to this talented girl

Neil

I don't quite agree. I think the location works great in those shots, I think it's a great contrast.

I just took photos of a run down, industrial part in Boston. The aged, rusty metal doors & feeling colors look wonderful. I am a big fan of this look!

I love all your colors and the mood your photos put one in! I do agree that she had the same facial expression in all the shots, but I didn't even realize until Josh mentioned it.

Haha, love the last one too!