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Tips for finding and shooting abandoned locations in an unknown city

While I lived in my hometown, I visited and photographed most of the abandoned buildings in it. I knew exactly where I could enter and how. Sometimes, you can just walk right in. Other times, there’s a guard you need to ask for permission and hope he’s in a good mood. And sometimes you need an official license if you want to shoot somewhere.

Unfortunately, when you go to a new city or country, all these things aren’t something you know from the start. I moved to another city last year, and I am learning and exploring anew. This is why I’d like to share some tips for all urbex enthusiasts who are planning a short or a long trip, or who are moving to another city. From my experience, I’ll share the best ways to find great locations, get inside and shoot without trouble.

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Photographer sneaks inside wrecked Costa Concordia to shoot these haunting photos of the ghost ship

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On January 13, 2012, Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia hit an underwater rock. The ship wrecked, taking 32 lives away. The disaster attracted a huge attention of the public, and one photographer was among them.

Two years after the disaster, Jonathan Danko Kielkowski managed to sneak inside Costa Concordia just before it got scraped. He brought his camera and small tripod with him and brought back the images of the ghost ship – one of the largest ones ever to be abandoned. He shared his images with DIYP, and they are beautiful, haunting and sad beyond words.

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Orphans of Time: Photographer travels the world for five years to capture the beauty of decaying places

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How do you feel when you pass a decaying old house? Is it just an ugly ruin or you see something more? Photographer Rebecca Lilith Bathory sees beauty in these objects most people just seem to pass by or even avoid. Sure, they are sad, ruined, chaotic and even scary – but Rebecca finds beauty and art precisely in these things.

In 2012, she stepped into an abandoned school and instantly fell in love with the beauty she found in decay. Five years and over 500 abandoned locations later, she brings a stunning photo series of truly wonderful abandoned locations in her project Orphans of Time.

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Photographer documents abandoned places in Fukushima in this devastating photo series

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The very thought of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster can bring tears to your eyes. It’s been more than six years since this event, and consequences still remain visible.

Many photographers have tried to explore this place and document the aftermath of the terrible accident. Very few of them have succeeded, and one of them is Rebecca Lilith Bathory. She managed to get the necessary licenses, and she was granted access to the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. In her series of images and a recently published book, she tells the moving story of Fukushima, where time stopped on March 11, 2011.

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From losing your gear to losing your life – how much would you risk for a shot?

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Recent stories of climbing the skyscrapers and dangling from them for the sake of a shot got me thinking. It’s been a while since we published these stories, and the question of safety during the shoot is still stuck in my head. I’d really love to hear your opinion on this topic, as well as your experiences.

The crazy photographer and model we wrote about made me think about safety in general, but about something else as well. I began thinking about my own behavior when taking photos, and about a dangerous situation that I witnessed a few years ago that I’d like to share with you.

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This urban explorer illegally climbs skyscrapers and bridges to take photos

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How far would you go to take the perfect shot? Would you climb the tallest buildings around the world to take photos? The 19-year-old German photographer Andrej Ciesielski does exactly this. Other than being unsafe, this is also illegal, so he puts a lot to risk to take the breathtaking cityscapes. But is it worth it?

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30 years later: Exploring Pripyat in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and shooting only with iPhone

I originally announced my plans to visit the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone on my private Facebook account. My friends know me and thus the reactions were anywhere from “you’re nuts” to “HaHa”. Maybe because I posted it on April, 1st?

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15 photos of abandoned bedrooms show their dusty remains

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The bedroom is one of the most personal spaces in a house, hotel or any other kind of building. It’s a place where my imagination can go wild. When I stand in an abandoned bedroom I’d like to think ‘what happened here?’. People used to sleep here, been intimate with each other, had discussions and laughter etc.

Sometimes even personal belongings have been left behind as you can see in the pictures, for whatever reason. Since the bedroom is such a personal space and the memories / history of that space is being consumed by nature, I decided to create a set of a couple I ran into while exploring.

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Decay Photos From A Town Abandoned 30 Years Ago Near Chernobyl

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I have some amazing news today! We are releasing not one, but two new back-plate packages in our decay archives. Those are not regular packages though. They were taken at Prypjat – a city only 4km away from the nuclear planet of Chernobyl. Sadly, the radiation never quite went away and the city was never re-inhabited. Nature completely took over.

Each package has 30 files: 80 megapixel, 8bit TIFF. gorgeous, right?

Ok, here are the links to get those gorgeous back plates:

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Local Landmark Shipwreck in California Burnt Out for Instagram Photo

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Perched on a sand bank in Tomales Bay, CA, the ship nicknamed the “S.S. Point Reyes” has sat for a great number of years, left to rot and decay naturally.  The exact number of years it’s been there is something of a local secret, adding to the mystery of the wreck, which has been a significant local tourist attraction.

Sitting in the bay, and not the Pacific Ocean is the reason why the wreck has remained around for so long, and has been of great interest to photographers visiting the area, which has a long history of shipwrecks.

On Sunday night, it became of particular interest to one unnamed Instagram user who thought it’d be a great idea to start spinning red hot wire wool behind the boat for a photo.  As one might expect, this caused a fire which went on to consume about half of the wreck, and was still being battled by local fire fighters into Monday morning.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

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