Trip to Romania

I got back a couple of weeks ago from a week in Romania shooting forgotten and abandoned buildings; everything from spas to mausoleums, stately homes and castles. Dracula wasn’t at home but we had a look at his castle. All the images were taken on shift lenses – the Laomi 15mm and the Samyang 24mm. The Samyang also has a tilt function but I’ve yet to find a use for it.

The shift process involves taking 5 pictures at 3 different lens positions, so 15 images in all per picture. This gives a wider angle of view than would normally be seen, and the improved dynamic range brings out the colour often hidden in the darkness. Because of the lack of light a tripod was essential.

An upshot of this style of photography is that you have no idea what the final image looks like until you get home and let Lightroom work its stitching magic. If they’re hopeless there’s no going back for a retake!

The pictures immediately below were taken in an abandoned spa which is well past its prime. I was pleased to find the old therapy chair with the red graffiti on the walls redolent of a horror movie.

These pictures were taken in old stately home, under protection but in a very bad way. There was virtually no light so the exposures were pretty long. No visible noise, surprisingly.

These images show an ancient church falling into disrepair. Again, the light was very poor. The colours in the ceiling are wonderful and the broken parts of the ceiling seemed to fit the artwork.

The shot below in an old mausoleum shows the value of a 15mm shift lens. I was up against the rear wall and the lens only just captured the width of the scene.

This is another derelict spa. Corridors painted in different colours led from a main entrance to the various treatment areas. The blue and orange paintwork, although clearly peeling, looked amazing.

Finally, what could be better than a disused power plant with a green analogue control room?

The trip was led by James Kerwin who did a brilliant job of organising and leading the workshop.