Monday 28 April 2014

Burwash

Hi Everybody!

Remember this place?  I know, nothing at all in 2013... not a spectacular display of the blogger's art I'm afraid.  I recently got back from a weekend photography trip and I thought that I'd resurrect this old blog as a way of sharing a few of my photos.  I've been in the (bad) habit of only occasionally throwing a few photos up on Facebook and calling it a day, but I know that not everyone books faces, so this is probably a better way to reach more of you.  Also I think if you post a photo on Facebook they own every creative thought you have from that point forward.  I really should read those user agreements...

Anyway!  Like I said, I just got back from a trip that focused entirely on photography.  Those of you who know my good buddy Richard will know that his dad is quite the photographer, and he regularly puts together photography expeditions.  Brian was kind enough to invite my dad and I out to their 2nd annual trip to Burwash, a now-extinct town outside of Sudbury.  It was home to Camp Bison, a minimum security prison that shut down in the 70s.  There's no trace of the town, but the shell of the old prison still remains and makes for a very interesting subject.

I've just picked up a new camera, a Pentax K-5 II, and this trip was an amazing opportunity to start getting used to it.  I took quite a few shots, but I'll share a handful of my favourite ones with you here.  These are all shrunk down so that they don't take all night to upload, but I'm more than happy to provide full sized images if anyone happens to take a fancy to one.


The landscape is undeniably Northern Ontario.




Approach to the prison...


...which has seen better days.


The mattresses could use a bit of patching up.


Nothing even remotely creepy about this hallway.


Something to keep in mind if you're planning to visit this place - there are holes in the floor.  At this time of year everything in the (completely dark) basement was frozen over, though I'm not sure how deep these holes are, or how thick the ice is.  I almost went through one that was partially covered in plywood.


I didn't stop for a haircut.


As Richard so ably demonstrates, the floors of the lower levels were under varying amounts of water.  What you can't really tell is that there was a layer of ice under the water.  Our rubber boots kept us comfortable, but you always had to watch your step.


Some commie at the bar.


I liked the reflection I got with this shot.


I thought the moss reclaiming this table was cool.  Euphy informed me that I was wrong and that it is, in fact, gross.


We got a few breaks in the clouds, which was awesome.  Just the fact that we didn't get rained on was a fantastic stroke of luck for this time of year.


Not sure how many more winters this poor old building has left before the outer layer of bricks is completely stripped away.


I love the colour in this shot.


Richard, Dad, and I climbed up to a high point of land to get this great perspective of the prison.


Up on the second floor there was an old theater.  You can actually get up into what used to be the projection room and look down into this room.  There's still a bit of the old parquet flooring left.


Despite a 5km hike from a point that was already in the middle of nowhere the place was covered in graffiti.  Most of it poorly done.  I'm not sure what kind of person carries paint all that way just to spray a crude rendition of a penis onto a crumbling wall, but I have a number of disparaging opinions about their mental state.


I love the tenacity of these little trees.  Sadly, what we're likely looking at here is the death of this building.  I strongly suspect that these guys will eventually grow large enough to bring the roof down, and I don't image the rest of the building will last very long after that.


I appear to have forgotten about the building I was standing on.  That Northern landscape is too much to resist.  I very much want to return in the Fall to get the leaves when they're changing colour.


A couple of bricks appear to have fallen on this roof.  A testament to how well it was built.


It was pitch-black in the basement, but Richard held a flashlight for me so that I could attempt a few long-exposure shots.  I love this kind of thing.

So there you have it folks.  I hope you enjoyed my little show.  If anyone would like to see the whole collection I'd be happy to give a presentation.  I had a great time out there and would happily go up that way again.  I was fortunate enough to be travelling with a great group of guys who were more than willing to share their photos and their experience with me and it made for an amazing trip.  Also, my new camera rocks.

I won't pretend that I'm going to get back to the prolific writing that marked the peak of this blog's life, but I'll try to get a few more things up in the future.  Euphy has asked me to get some of our wedding photos up, so you can expect at least one more post in the near future.  For now, be well, and I hope to see you all again soon.