Urban Exploration, Anyone?
 

Someone tried it? If so how was it?

bump bump

Urban exploration sounds like walking around the city to me.

If you live in NYC, this would be called "life".

My entire life is urban exploration.
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Check out my mates:
http://www.dsankt.org
http://www.siologen.net/pbase/

mmmmm, urbex.
Just last night, I was getting chased by dogs and security..


http://quantum-x.ice.org/photos/Abov...-transit-3.jpg
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cool stuff

Great stuff I did a little of that when I was younger been a long time though

This one is awesome. What lens/body did you use?

I'm an armchair urban explorer. I don't have the balls to blatantly trespass, so I look at websites instead. :winkwink:

Canon 1V-HS with a 15mm 2.8 FishEye on that one.

Arm Chair exploring is great, but actually getting mud up to your.. oh wait.

Nah, it's definately a kick. You should moe to Scottland, they don't have trespass laws :D

I LOVE your pictures quantum-x :thumbsup
where did you take them?

Ah, what film did you use?

I had my gear stolen recently (including a 300D and 33V), so I'm tossing up whether to go "all digital" with a higher end model such as a 20D, or go with a 350D and 33V combo again.

Slide film is expensive and time consuming... but unless I get myself a 1Ds there's no way I'll be able to use the full potential of a wide angle lens. Nothing else in the Canon digital range does full frame. I already have a Sigma 12-24mm - or DID have before it was stolen - so I'm hooked on super wide angles. :upsidedow

Hey. Sounds like you know your cameras.
Having that much gear stolen is heartbreaking, nothing short of it.
I know your pain of the 'all digital' or not- I can't live without my wideangle, but shelling out $6k for a body is hard to justify- not in camera terms, but it Other Things You Could Do With That Money terms.

I was shooting on Fuji Superia there. I like it. It has a good all round response. I like Reala, too. Velvia etc are lovely, but slide film just shit me completely.

12mm? That's insane :) I want :) I have a 17-40 L, which I spend my life shooting on..

Are you a pro at ____, or is shooting a hobby?


Paparazzi- In order-
Copper Smelter, South of Sydney, Australia
Cranes, Brisbane, Australia
Cranes, Brisbane, Australia
Storey Bridge, Brisbane, Australia
Old Power Tunnels, Brisbane, Australia
Bunker, Jebel Ali, Dubai, UEA
Underground Cavern / Drain, Manchester, UK
Drain, Brisbane Australia
(ex) Rail Bridge, Manchester UK
Melbourne Power Station, Melbourne, Australia

those are some nice pics man.. I'm a armchair explorer too. I don't do crazy stuff like that but I'll look around if I get the chance :winkwink:

Yeah, exactly. I tend to think that Urbex is a lot about attitude, also.
It's about opening your eyes, knowing that you don't have to do what everyone else does.. maintaining that childhood curiosity of 'what's behind / under / over that'

YARGH! Awesome picky pics! If I be a photo I'd hit one of yours.

amazing and beautiful pics

Damn, reading this thread is making me itch! The insurance assessor is coming tomorrow and I'm already researching new lenses before I'm even sure that I'll get back the full replacement value of my nicked equipment. :winkwink:

I was tossing up getting a 1Ds and/or a new car a few months ago, but then we found out that my wife is pregnant... so she's the one who gets the new car now, and I get my hand slapped if I spend too much on anything.

The Sigma 12-24mm is my favourite lens. It's a good daily use lens on the 300D (1.6X crop) but there's definitely a wow factor when you stick it on a full frame body. Just have to be careful not to overdo it with the perspective, check out this distortion when you angle the lens upwards to include some sky:

http://www.drebtips.com/digital-rebe...distortion.jpg

BTW, I'm not a pro, although I have been claiming some expenses for tax purposes as I do plan to sell prints in the future. It occurred to me that the insurance co may try to get out of paying by claiming I'm using the equipment for commercial purposes. My response? I haven't made one fucking cent from it. :winkwink:

whoa, those cityscape shots are awesome.

mm.. lovely.
Wideangle is dope. Check out what PerfectGonzo do - they're shooting on fisheye for smut, and the surfers love it.

You're right tho - it's very easy to overuse wideangle..

a 1ds would be sweet.. a 1dsMII would be amazing.. lol

What part of oz are you in? Congrats on your wife, too, btw.

http://media.sensationcontent.com/rowan/boystoys.jpg

This is about as far as I've gone with urbex... they're building a freeway bypass nearby and nothing was signed, or fenced off. :Graucho

I stuffed up the framing on that shot slightly, I returned a few times after that but there was never the perfect line up of construction vehicles again.

Great photos, I love city shots like that.

Do you mena www.dsankt.com ?

very cool site

yup! its very cool..

in college we used to explore the tunnels under it, didn't know there was a term of it until a few years ago.


also, I hear in paris there are some incredible tunnels

Paris is an exception.
Most (excluding about 5) arrondissements in Paris have cavities underneath them.
Back in the day when Paris was growing and expanding, people found hte perfect source of their limestone was beneath their feet, and heavily mined it.

Naturally, the obvious began to happen, and sections started to sink / cave in. It was so decreed that land owners had to make tunnels under their land, in an attempt to crisscross / swiss cheese the caverns, so the lattice effect would create a stronger reinforcement.

This was a sweeping success - and so the quarries were born.

In France, there's a massive difference between the Urban explorers and the 'cataphiles' - and in the past, their taste for exploration has ended up in battles, which is slightly amusing.

Anyhow - the point is, the Paris underground is vast. I've seen maps that cover an A3 page, with kilometers taking up just a few inches. A friend of mine spent 16 hours walking down there, and barely crossed any.

Because of the uniform nature of the tunnels, even with a map, it's super easy to get lost - people have died down there, and as such, the 'quarry police' - a special division of gerdame are assigned to stop people from entering. Despite the vastness of the quarries, there are only a handfull of accessible entry points.

Regardless, there a quite a few groups that enjoy being underground - it's not uncommon to walk through the quarries and come across various gatherings and parties - more often than not obvlivious of the other groups; During the war, the Allies and Nazis both had HQs in the quarries, and neither group was the wiser to their opponent's presence.

When I was over in Paris, a lot of shit went down about the quarries - if you read french-
http://kweks.brisurbex.com/mei/uploa...leparisian.jpg
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Anyhow. Some of the quarries join into the osseries (or in english, the catacombs), but it's wrong to think that the entirity of the Paris underground is a catacomb.

End of lecture ;)

Sure did.

I don;t know french, but I think I know what that article is about. a movie theater they found there with a full bar too..

Right.
200m^3 theatre, the latest Bose sound equipment, quality data projecters, 2 open bars, 5 phone lines, running water, toilets, security, the works.

Despite the police's kneejerk reaction (TERRORISTS!) - it wasn't / isn't - it was just how my friend had decked the place out to throw nice parties :D

that is the coolest shit ever

i'm flying to Paris at the end of August. how does one hook up into this sort of thing? sounds absolutely amazing.

This stuff is amazing. I never really knew this was a "thing".

Anyway, me and my friends did some of this stuff as teens. Went to "peabody's tomb" in glen ellyn, illinois & the "ovaltine factory" in villapark, illinois.

Both come up on google with little info, but they were pretty amazing places. Looking back I'm just surprised none of us fell through a rusted stairway or anything.

http://www.infiltration.org/ - Great site! I'm thinking of picking up a subscription!

Quantum those pics are breath taking, the quality is amazing. Fantastic stuff :)

I really like reading the adventures of these guys

http://www.actionsquad.org/

quantum is my hero, i would love to learn

try this guys blog, it's the best exploration site I've seen

http://www.detroitblog.blogspot.com

How did he manage to get all that connected secretly, and underground? :eek7 Tapped into buildings above?

Pretty much.
Getting utilities connected really isn't as hard as you think.
Street lights provide lovely power for the evenings (pop the covers, splice the wires into the trip) - and traffic lights provide great 24/7 power (those squat green boxes on the side of the road)
In Australia - the cylindrical 'cans' on the sides of the road are actually mini exchanges. Pop the lock w/ a pair of scissors, use a shifter to undo the bolt, and then connect to a spare rail, and you've got a phone line.
(You can also use this to tap into people's phones)
There are other ways to get free phone lines too, but anyhow.

Water is even easier, it's harder to trace.

RE: Getting underground in Paris - I can't hook you up sadly, it took me about 12 months to get contacts. If you hook up with local exploration groups, they might have contacts for you :)

For more links, check out -
http://www.sub-urban.com/

Just as an aside -
http://www.sub-urban.com/ballroom.htm has to be one of THE best locations and reads I've ever come across. Just check it out. Amazing.

It's amazing how many times you do things, then later learn more and go.. oh.. fuck.
I slipped over in a drain in high tide, lost all my gear, torch and spare clothes under water, got sucked in the current. Some panicky moments there.

Absieling from a bridge, and having to drop 2m to start the abseil - hoping like fuck your ropes are secure.

If you're into abseiling-
50m across, lip to lip.
12m internal diameter
100m down
Very, Very big rush. It was great.
I did it at 3AM also, on a freezing winter night. What a place.

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Those are some awsome pics :D

quantum-x is my new hero :)

i think this is going to be my new hobby. just about the coolest stuff i've seen in a looong time.

here is a cool article, they actually found a cinema down there:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/internatio...299444,00.html

After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.

Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.

Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.

im gonna bump this old thread cos its been bugging me since i first read it. sounds like the coolest thing in a while. what are the legal issues around it/ like is trespassing a fine or can this shit land you in jail? seems like itd be a pretty cool weekend warrior hobby for a poser like me :)

thanks for the bump lloyd

quantum-x:
What do you recommend to explore for beginners?

quantum-x - OUTSTANDING stuff...will deffy look more deep into this :)

Your posts made me want to buy a new better digital camera :D

no kidding, the only cameras i have are tiny garbage for taking pictures of titties at bars etc, nothing proper.

anyways i'm hopefully off now to go give this shit a shot, hopefully i'll have some cool pictures, even if they are only 1280x1024 ;)

I'd imagine you could be in some serious legal trouble if you were caught more than a couple of times. I'd be more concerned about safety issues myself: things like rotting floors, asbestos, stored waste products etc.

BTW quantum-x: I'm now seriously considering the leap to a 1DsII. And a better insurance policy, it's been 3 weeks and I still don't have a cheque!

quantum-x - how can i contact you m8?