3,698 Comments Posted by Motts

Not a stupid question at all - when a photo is taken at a long exposure (these were taken with the shutter open for a few minutes) the color of the sky starts to emerge in the visible spectrum, which is blue due to Rayleigh scattering.

"In locations with little light pollution, the moonlit night sky is also blue, for the same reasons that the sky is blue during the day (moonlight is reflected sunlight, with a slightly lower color temperature due to the brownish color of the moon). We do not perceive the moonlit sky as blue because at low light levels, human vision comes mainly from rod cells that do not produce any color perception."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.or...lue_color_of_the_sky

Most of the colors in the above photo were not visible when I took them, simply because it was too dark to see them. If there were a bright light shining on the building, the sky would appear black as in this photo (a 10 second or so exposure): http://www.opacity.us/...158_quarter_moon.htm

In this set, the sky is also sometimes takes on orange and violet hues due to light pollution from New York City.

Ugh these old galleries are quite sloppy, my apologies. This is looking at 42, the central kitchen - however I am unsure of which group the photo was taken from. I assume it was from 43.

No - I might kick a beer can or something out of the way if I think about it, but it doesn't happen very often. Sometimes I wish I moved something while I was there, like the plastic jug on this floor for example: http://www.opacity.us/image7413_central.htm

I had the timer on to avoid a camera shake problem at the time.

There were a few milk glass fixtures from the old days, however most of the lighting was replaced with fluorescent fixtures. Many of these may have been salvaged for replacements in other buildings.

They were covers for the cast iron radiators, so residents wouldn't burn themselves.

Some believe that these numbers were used so that families would not have to bear the negative stigma of having a family member committed in an institution.

Yes there was some soot in this ward from a small fire that seemed to have been set a long time ago.

Just thinking that it could have been from a store of civil defense supplies, as these basements and tunnels were all fallout shelters...

They were a bit rusty but fairly clean.

I haven't found a precise date of closing for this particular building, although I would guess it was close to when the main building was half-decommissioned, in 1988.

Yes they were adult sized, and in pretty good condition.

Thanks; I think you are mistaking shine for the outer layer of the boot peeling away from the toe... all my boots turn into shitkickers pretty fast!

Either the photo was underexposed / very contrasty, and the noise came out when I processed them on the computer, or I had the ISO cranked on my camera because I didn't want to pull out my tripod for some reason.

Both possible causes weren't intentional, I just wasn't using the equipment properly to reduce digital noise :-)

Aside from getting work, exploring always comes first, as these places often disappear pretty fast - if I become unable to explore anymore due to an accident or health problem, I figure I might be able to spend more time processing photos then.