This past weekend I had the chance to tour around an abandoned mental hospital. The place, closed in 1995, seemed to gain a life of its own after the closure.
Whenever I photograph an event I try to cath the emotion of the event, lots of facial expressions, people having fun, in action, the usually things you see in your daily newspaper. But how do you do that for things that don’t have emotions? Like a building?
Nikon D300 ~ AF-S Nikkor 17-55mm 1:2.8G DX
17mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/20″ ~ ISO-1600
You need to use your eyes, to be able to see a scene within the building that would induce emotion, often times, a trick in the post processing will help, the in above case, the chair looks like it’s trying to escape, the high-contrast black and white gives it a very harsh look. No surprise, this building housed people undergoing Electro Convulsive Therapy.
When you walk into a building, think about what it used to be, let that be your guide when looking for emotion. This was a mental hospital, within my own mind I thought of emotions of loss, isolation, fear, desire to escape. So while I was walking through the halls I looked for scenes that evoked that emotion within me.
Nikon D300 ~ AF-S Nikkor 17-55mm 1:2.8G DX
23mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/40″ ~ ISO-1600
Now, go out and start exploring your world, remember, there is a huge range of emotions that you can shoot into.
Tags: emotional shooting, Photography, ue, urban