August 15, 2020
The Great Starry Way continues with my dark sky park number 10, Bryce Canyon National Park. Much like Cedar Breaks the previous night, this park also boasts a high altitude and pure deep, unadulterated darkness. Though I was skeptical that a sky could come close to last night’s, Bryce Canyon Read more…
August 11, 2020
After a long day of exploring Long Island’s largest decaying state asylum, we headed to the Island’s end with hopes to catch some kind of meteor shower activity. The night was an exploration of light–first from the beautiful Montauk Lighthouse. But a haze of cloud cover thwarted our plans initially… Read more…
August 3, 2020
Getting ready for a ton of amazing views on my upcoming trip, I wanted to try out my landscape lens during the Golden Hour, the time right before sunset (or right after sunrise) when the light illuminates beautifully with a softer reddish hue, as well as the Blue Hour–the time Read more…
August 2, 2020
Because it looks like rain a-coming for the actual full moon, I happened to catch it in the phase of Almost. To follow, a random collection of moonspiration I had building up, along with the shots from my telephoto lens. This is the best I can do with my equipment… Read more…
July 24, 2020
My trip to Virginia’s dark sky parks was a good effort, but cloud cover was a big issue. In the brief sliver of time when the clouds opened up at James River State Park, I did mange some shots. Then the rain came again, bringing me back to my tent Read more…
July 23, 2020
Though most of the old Western State Hospital, whose history I summarized here in my DeJarnette post, has been repurposed or is in some phase of construction to be repurposed, there are still some parts to explore. Like the old steam plant–available for sale! And it looks very much like Read more…
Of course I had a couple of abandoned spots on my recent itinerary, starting on day one as I drove through Baltimore. Though I devoted a good amount of my morning trying to access Forest Haven Asylum, all my efforts were in vain. It was actually quite humorous as I Read more…
July 21, 2020
If the weather cooperates in the evening, I will shoot at all of Virginia’s dark sky parks by the end of my trip. But that’s a big “if.” The mountains are tempestuous, already thwarting my first evening of camping. Though I am not proud of being in this motel room Read more…
July 19, 2020
I have several dark sky adventures planned given the new moon and my rental car. Firstly, a trip to Long Island’s Custer Observatory, a public observatory within the dark skies of Southold. Their Saturday program includes the opportunity of utilizing the observatory’s equipment, like the tremendous telescope housed in the Read more…
July 18, 2020
Like a lot of New Yorkers, I picked up a rental car today. My secret for an affordable price is to rent on my neighbor, Staten Island. While I was there, multitasking as usual, I planned to hit up a Caribbean eatery that offers a vegan dish. So I had Read more…
July 13, 2020
Last time I was on the Creedmoor State Hospital grounds, State Troopers had me delete all my photos. So this time I was ready to read all the signs carefully, use multiple memory cards and hopefully capture some of what I had to delete back in January. I arrived by Read more…
July 1, 2020
Where once my couch housed my behind for a good portion of the week, today brought an old cemetery, an abandoned asylum and, in the evening, an astroshoot. Now if only of my vegan food leads would be successful (Damn Corona!), the day might have been the perfect combination of Read more…
June 20, 2020
Sleighton Farm School in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania was once a reformatory school for delinquent girls. It was also other things since the 1826–including a House of Refuge and a co-ed reform school. But its life from 1931 to 1975, when it was an all-girls school for unruly 12-18 year olds… Read more…
A destination for lovebirds since the sixties, the heart-shaped jacuzzis, circular beds, mirrored ceilings and wedding bell-shaped pool at Penn Hills Resort in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania have been decaying since its closure in 2009. Though I have stalked from the fence in 2017, today’s photo mission in Pennsylvania Read more…
May 30, 2020
With some errands on Long Island, I would of course make the most of my trip. A quick return to the grounds of the Nassau County Sanitorium in Plainview first. I explored the grounds 5 years ago and had many folks comment on the post–family of staff, family of patients. Read more…
May 28, 2020
This second haul of pictures wraps up a jam-packed day of exploring Connecticut’s abandoned places–a trip that took me four days to sort through the pictures. Since I wrote all about Norwich State Hospital’s history in my previous post, please enjoy these images without my chatter. Soon these structures will Read more…
And with this visit to the remains of Norwich State Hospital, I’ve visited all of Connecticut’s state psychiatric facilities, the other two being Fairfield State Hospital and Connecticut Valley State Hospital. Norwich’s story is much like other state-run psychiatric hospitals… bucolic location, sprawling rural campus, self sufficiency, eventual overcrowding, expansion Read more…
May 27, 2020
A small psychiatric hospital in Portland, Connecticut lay in ruins awaiting its new life, a mixed use retail and residential space called Brainerd Place (Ooh! Another Starbucks!) But before you can order your complicated coffee beverage using some multisyllabic nonsense words–a walk through the Elmcrest Hospital campus, which, like many Read more…
May 25, 2020
With a packed Connecticut itinerary, a stop at Middletown’s Connecticut Valley State Hospital, formerly the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane. Though the campus contains a still-functioning psychiatric hospital, many of the old buildings sit unused on the well-manicured property. But these derelict parts are sufficiently boarded up with no easy Read more…
May 16, 2020
Though I found myself again at Staten Island’s most dynamic photo stop, The New York Farm Colony, first a visit to the barely accessible remains of the infamous Willowbrook State School. Since 1993, many of the former buildings of this disgraced state school for the physically and mentally disabled are Read more…
With such a hefty toll to cross into Staten Island, I like to make ‘er pay up–justify the antenna money grab with an enriching stop even if the Island is not my final destination. Such was the case when my friend and I embarked upon a road trip to several Read more…
May 3, 2020
Facing the active parking lot for the walking paths the runs through Letchworth Village is an administrative building with no roof. A victim of arson years ago, the building is barely fenced and, upon our arrival, explorers walk freely within the crumbled walls that remain. In fact, people wandered through the Read more…
I had to consult this map of Letchworth Village to figure out what this building was, a wide open space that my wide angle lens just loved to shoot. It is named Attendants Building, but appeared to be a kind of communal gathering space. There was the usual raunchy graffiti, Read more…
The Hospital of a Farm Colony is always the saddest structure. Particularly at Letchworth Village‘s grounds, the birthplace of the human trial. Except the human trials performed at Letchworth were without consent. Inhumane a tremendous understatement, doctors–who classified patients as either “idiot,” “imbecile,” or “moron”–were reported to collect brains from Read more…
Jewish patients were able to worship on the premises of Letchworth Village after 1977, when Congregation B’nai Israel was built. The temple has been abandoned since the hospital closed in 1996. This was a favorite location to photograph for many reasons although it is just a single room. For one, Read more…
After my first visit to Letchworth Village in February, I knew that I would soon return. The expansive cluster of accessible remnants to the asylum for the physically and mentally disabled that was established over 100 years ago seems destined for eventual demolition… like in your next step through its Read more…