Sijun Forums :: View topic - Industrial reference photo Mega-Post!

waylon · Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2000 6:18 pm

Ok, folks. As promised, here are a bunch of photos of the old abandoned industrial compound near where I live. I'll post two of my favorites here (just for the sake of getting a few images into this thread), but click this link to see the full collection (about 50.) http://fear.incarnate.net/~vlad/photos/

A little background, for those who are interested: This compound is located in the south-eastern part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about a half mile from the shore of Lake Michigan. (Milwaukee's about 2 hours north of Chicago, for all who don't know) This compound was, as far as I can tell, primarily involved with making large metal things. There are furnaces in most of the buildings, mixed in with other tools for lathing and finishing parts. Raised high above the compound are a network of conveyor belts for moving coal from building to building.

While THIS compound is condemned, it's surrounded by some of the largest of Milwaukee's functioning factories - you can hear the sounds of grinding metal, steam valves venting, and trucks carrying raw materials from pretty much anywhere in the area. Not to mention the ever-pervasive smell of iron casting (which, belive me, is not very nice.) Still the old buildings, decommissioned some time in the fifties, hold a strange feeling of piece - like nothing has moved in a long, long time.

I would encourage anybody else with interesting photos to post them in this thread - whether they fit with the industrial theme or not. Also, it would be really neat to see what art you guys can come up with using these photos as reference or inspiration. If you have any further questions or comments about these pictures, let me know!

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[email protected]

SporQ · Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2000 8:23 pm

*SporQ is now eternally in your debt.

[Shizo] · member Member # Joined: 22 Oct 1999 Posts: 3938

duuude! Each of those is an artwork! Those are great. When i look at them i think "wow, i wonder who thought of building this thing in there" or "i wonder who was the last one to go to OVERLOAD +4 with that two-wheeler thing"

amazing.. i'm still observing them hehe, GREAT!

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Nothing really matters to me

Ben Barker · Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2000 9:09 pm

Awesome

Thanks a lot.
Throw any rocks through any windows?

[This message has been edited by Ben Barker (edited December 16, 2000).]

TheMilkMan · Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2000 9:23 pm

Man that place would be a jackpot for textures ..why dont they have anything like that around here..errrrrrrrr

ex · Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2000 10:30 pm

nice pics

what kinda cam do you use?

daz199 · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 12:36 am

wow
awesome pics

waylon · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 1:23 am

Shizo: Thanks! It's really an incredible place to wander around in. There's just something about a setting that's been mostly untouched for fifty or more years... kind of a feeling of reverence, mixed with "Holy shit, is that building going to fall over onto me?!"

Ben: Nope, I tried to disturb it as little as possible. Half from the aforementioned reverence, half from fear of inadvertently hurting myself.

MilkMan: Actually, I HAVE taken a bunch of pictures of this place that I'm using as textures. I just didn't put any of them online. (I'm being greedy, and using them all at work. Muhahahahahha!)

ex: Fujifilm MX-700 digital camera. I'm not very happy with it though. The battery always dies before I'm anywhere near done taking pictures, and it doesn't handle low-light situations very well at all. But then again, considering how anal I am about image quality, I probably wouldn't be happy with even an $800 camera.

Shaded · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 1:49 am

Jesus, I am MOST grateful to you...

SporQ · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 2:08 am

yeah, thanks Jesus.

SporQ

[s]layer · Guest Member #

lol .... I guess most of you pplz don't have things like this in your home town ... here are lots and lots of places like this ... and it's true .... it's chalenging to try and draw these places ... or just try to create the rusty textures or the bricks ... "I can see .... it's alive .. alive I tell ya"

btw .. nice pics waylon ..

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MUTATED Gfx �

Kjetil Nystuen · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 4:27 am

Hello Waylon.

This is very nice work indeed. The pictures are kind of sad. You can almost feel an atmosphere that was there 50 years ago, but is not anymore. It is funny to see how nature takes things back, and it goes very fast too.
You have good skills in photography, do you have any schools or background in it?

I bet if we all looked around in our neighbourhoods, we'd all have some really interesting places around us...

Your pictures will be great inspiration, I've bookmarked your site

Keep up the good work!

-Kjetil

waylon · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 3:02 pm

Hi. No, I don't have any formal photography education. I just use the compositional skills I learned doing drawing/painting. Not to mention this is just the best 50 pictures out of a good 400 I've taken in this area. But I suppose professional photographers do the same thing, so I don't feel too guilty.

Nex · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 3:24 pm

played with your photos a bit:

thats the result of 4 photos from your post, a few layer effects(spank me for it) and a lot of good old wacom drawing:

your photos are really frickin' great. thanks for posting them

Cya

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- Nex

http://on.to/nex

[This message has been edited by Nex (edited December 17, 2000).]

waylon · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 4:36 pm

Hey, that's pretty spiffy! Which pictures did you use, incidentally? I stared at it for a few minutes, but I couldn't recognize anything in specific.

Nex · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 4:46 pm

demolition_interior, entrance01, and compound02 I think.. I am not sure any more (layers already flattened)

rdgraffix · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 5:09 pm

Wow! Thanks Waylon!
you da man

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- rowan dodds
RD Graffix

Sergenth · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 10:18 pm

Wow.... when I was a kid in the 80's, I had these wierd feelings that the whole world would end up like this. I still get that feeling when I listen to 80's pop music and when I see these pics.

The image with the cart in the snow-covered floor inside is excellent. I'm going to show my dad these pics; he has an interest in photographing old farm houses.

(I also get the same feeling playing some of the levels in Unreal Tournament as well

endrigan · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2000 10:27 pm

YOUR THE MAN...THANKS .
Ive been trying to find this exact type of refrence for months .

merry christmas

A · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2000 4:54 am

Wow, now any artist worth his salt can see that this is a VALUABLE resource. And, of course, that makes the poster a true champion for sharing it with the rest of us.

I especially love the snow photos. Where I come from, it never snows......

Cheers, A.

Spitfire · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2000 5:01 am

That is so fucking awesome. Can i have those in 300dpi if i blow you for it?

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The Couch Pleasures Me!!!

waylon · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2000 2:12 pm

lol, spitfire... Unfortunately, all of the pics are posted at full resolution. This place is such a pain in the ass to get into, I usually set up the camera to take 80 640x460 pics, instead of 20 1280x1024's. As nice as it would be to have higher quality pics, in this case, quantity is more important to me.

Spitfire · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2000 3:34 pm

I understand. you have an entirely different purpose for them than i do

Besides... i was talking more in the area of 4000x4000 pixels anyway. Arghhhh gotta get me a new analog camera.

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The Couch Pleasures Me!!!