spookiest place you have ever taken pictures

[william_livingston]

for me, it was at shiloh national battleground in southern tennesse. the battleground is located on the tenn river at a

place called pittsburg landing. a 2 day battle was fought there with much carnage. to stand on the edge of "bloody

pond" where many wounded and dying soldiers had crawled attempting to get some water was an extremely weird

feeling. i was there late in day with no one else around and i could almost feel the battle. it was afeeling i have never

had before.

[Lou_Meluso]

While on assigment for the Getty Conservation Institute, I photographed the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the old city of Jerusalem, in it's own small chapel. Being in that tiny room, alone, was an experience I'll never forget. I could feel "something" in there. A cross between religious cartharsis and the willies.

[j_anon]

Waverly Sanitarium, Louisville KY. One of the most haunted places in the US, as seen on Discovery channel. It will scare the you-know-what out of you, especially the death tunnel, where they took all the dead bodies from the hospital to the morgue.

[SCL]

A small cave with bats hanging everywhere and bugs crawling all over the walls. Yech!

[gordon_lukesh1]

I have taken visitors to the Taos Pueblo. Taos Mountain sits above it. Everyone comes away saying "I felt so comfortable!" Taos Mountain (and the surrounding land) is sacred and non-natives are almost never allowed up there. Richard Nixon returned about 100,000 acres to the Pueblo so his picture is featured in nearly every house.

 

I have also visited the American Cemetery in Normandy where almost 10,000 soldier are buried. Highly moving.

 

But for really spooky? At the end of June we went to Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The city lies on the Yenesei River, one of the longest in the world (the river rises in Mongolia and flows north to the Arctic. We sailed on a ship, the Aleksandr Matrosov, north to about 61N Lat. There we got out and saw the small town of Vorogovo (City of Exiles). In late June the wildflowers and corn were high but every home had 10-15 cords of wood already stacked. I think they start fires in early September and don't stop until late May. We didn't go as far as Dudenkin because it requires special papers and the tributaries to the north still were flowing ice into the Yenesei.

[GlennS]

Caves and crypts rate high on my spooky scale. I posted a series of cave photos that attempt to convey discovering an underground crystal cavern.... I'm not a serious caver and this place gave a chill down my spine.

Photos are here on Photo.net .... http://www.photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00IDFY

 

Louis, would love to see that photo. Shots like that get burnt into ones memory. My spooky crypt photo was from many years ago while visiting India for the first time. Was doing the tourist thing at the Taj Mahal and got to view one of the crypts below the main structure. This wasn't the main crypt where Shah Jahan and Mumtaz are buried but another chamber meant for other members of the royal family. I was the last one down the narrow stairway so also the last one out. While others crowded the stairs leaving I waited until alone then took the photo. Had to make do with slow asa 64 Ektachrome that was loaded for outside. Still remember the details, 1/4" @ f/3.4 with M4 with 21mm Super Angulon.

Here's a link to the shot... http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/data/500/TajCrypt.jpg

[randrew1]

Dunmore Cave north of Kilkenny Ireland has been known for centuries as the darkest place in all Ireland.

There have long been legends that the women and children hid from Viking invaders in this cave in the

9th century. In recent years, they have found evidence of the slaughtered remains of women and

children along with a few buttons and other artifacts typical of Viking warriors of the day.<div></div>

[Matt Laur]

Well, I did take a shot in the parking lot at the Motor Vehical Administration, once. Talk about getting a cold sweat.

<br><br>

But seriously... I'm just one of those people that doesn't usually succumb to feelings of atmospheric dread or history-

minded empathetic shivers. That doesn't stop me from understanding and appreciating what has happened

someplace (incidentally, I did experience a variation on what you mentioned - spending some time in Gettysburg,

and deliberately putting yourself at the top of a low hill where hundreds of people died to prevent someone else from

coming up that hill ... it's sobering).

<br><br>

I do recall, though, being Mr. Happy Go Lucky Landscape Photographer Guy in Nova Scotia late on a lovely October

afternoon on Cape Breton. There is nothing like hearing <i>very</i> large, heavy footsteps crunching invisibly through

the foliage on the other side of some tall, thick cover. A cranky bull moose? A black bear? Some very primitive, low-

level neurological things happen. Adrenaline full alert. Your hackles go up. You imagine all sorts of possible

misadventures, and wonder just how well you can whack a large land mammal with a tripod before it

stomps/mauls/eats you.

<br><br>

Did I mention my wife was with me? When we got back to our campsite, she said, "That's the last time we go

someplace beautiful without a gun, mister."

<br><br>

For the record, it <i>was</i> a big cow moose, upwind of us, just walking (loudly!) through a gully. But I remember

the full-body electric tingles like it happened yesterday. I've been around a lot of critters, but that particular event

really stayed with me, and has altered how I approach and feel about being in some more remote and wild areas with

a camera. Funny how suddenly having to contemplate the possibility of actual personal peril can stay with you

through your life, just like some smells do, or certain bits of music. I'm sure that some street photographers have

similar recollections that echo back occasionally.

[crabseye]

William, I had a similar feeling as you describe once at Antietam, at Bloody Lane. I could almost see the bodies strewn across the sunken path.

 

A similar feeling of unease at the Bloody Tower, Tower of London.

 

Wonder if it's the names that create the anticipatory creepies?

[joseph_wisniewski]

Don't look at me. Our studio, MPW, is in a 108 year old four room schoolhouse building that is in both "Strange Michigan" and the Michigna registry of haunted places.

 

Everyone there has seen or felt the bell tower ghost.

[lex_jenkins]

I don't get spooked easily. But as a former journalist and safety inspector I've photographed some fairly unpleasant scenes, particularly after gruesome fatality accidents. It didn't invoke any feeling of fear, just an acute awareness of how fragile the human body can be.

 

I was kinda looking forward to being spooked by Savannah when I visited there a few years ago. Plenty of places with reputations for being haunted. But I just found the old cemeteries and supposedly haunted places rather beautiful and serene. Some of the people were kinda spooked, tho', especially since the G8 Summit was being held on nearby Sea Island.

[catherinevankempen]

There was an old hospital in Georgetown, KY that my husband and I got into one day. It was a beautiful sunny day outside but as soon as you got into the building ... The thing that gave me the willies the most was all the medical records that were just randomly strewn around the hallways. It would seem when the hospital closed they left paperwork behind and the floors were covered an inch or two thick with folders, notes, ... all about former patients. Very creepy.

 

We never did make it off the second floor, we got in through a fire escape. I went back a few months later with a photographer friend of mine but unfortunately they were tearing the building down at that point. The structure was still there but a lot of the junk and medical equipment had been removed. I did manage to salvage an incubator that sat in my studio for months until I gave it away to an artist friend who hopefully will do something incredibly creative with it.

 

There is just something very strange about a building in which there have been so many emotions. It's almost like they linger.

 

Catherine

[mrraz]

Never found a place I considered spooky.

[matthew_newton]

I rarely get spooked. Not at least photographing. From a childhood incident watching a movie about aliens when I was probably 6 or 7 years to young to be seeing the movie (I was 6 at the time) has kind of ruined me towards that sort of thing. So occasionally when in the middle of nowhere at night I can get a bit creeped out. However, I have never been in a place that actually creeped me out. I am with Matt that often times I have visted places like Gettysburg or Antietam and felt sobered by the history sorrounding the location and I have a profound respect for what the people went through and the conviction many of them felt, whether I agree with the conviction or not. I have a very developed sense of history, but I have never felt creeped out by the history of a location.

[aramat57]

Maybe never spooked, I have seen some ruins and dilapidation I would not want to go into for fear of various critters, rotting floors, etc. I like photographing cemeteries and have never felt fear. I have felt history bearing down in several places, the Civil War site in Jonesboro GA, and at Arlington. But while touring the submarine that is parked in San Francisco, (sorry, can't remember the name) I was hit full in the face with claustrophobia, a feeling I had never experienced before. We were more than halfway through the boat when everything just closed in on me. I was unable to even take a photo, all I wanted was to get out. Since then I have had a healthy respect and empathy for those who suffer from anxieties/phobias.

[www.philwinterphotography.]

First, and most recently, I photographed in a rambling, old plantation home in middle Georgia that dates to 1836, and

has been in my wife's extended family since the 1860's. And no, it doesn't look anything like Tara. Although no one

has lived there for several years, the interior looks like they still do, and that maybe they just ran to the store for a

gallon of milk. Decoration spans the era from the Victorian to the '50s. It still has rotary dial phones. Heavy drapes

on the windows make it oppressively dark, even on a bright day. Oh, and years ago, someone hanged themselves

in one of the bed rooms. Definitely spooky.<div></div>

[KenPapai]

Two places: Vicksburg on the Mississippi, the Civil War battleground. It got to me.

 

2nd -- Redwood National Park up in Humboldt County, all alone, in the backwoods, I kept "hearing" Bigfoot coming for me.<div></div>

[Mary Doo]

Not exactly shooting but, on the way to the camera club one night, a camera-club friend and I decided to go to a

wake. We got the address wrong and ended up driving through an entire cemetery in darkness. It was so creepy!

 

Mary

[chris_rowe1]

Well. The latest was when I got up very early way before sunrise and hiked to the top of a mountain in complete darkness. It wasn't while I was taking pictures, but when I was walking through the ingrown trail through the woods. I did have a massive flashlight with me (2 Million candle light) but it died about 20 minutes into the trail. It was just spooky thinking about all the different things that could go wrong. But the results I got that day I was proud of. Here's one shot:<div></div>

[gordon_lukesh1]

Eo Ken Papai:

 

Your shot evokes my memories of of the American Cemetery in Normandy. Such sadness and no side in the battles matters.

[evil ted]

Mine would have to be an old WWII hospital that was turned into an indian school. It is currently abandoned and has satanic symbols and graffiti everywhere. There isn't much light inside and the building makes noises; very spooky to look down a dark hallway and not be able to see whats making the noise.

[markci]

Okeefenokee swamp at night. Do yourself a favor if you're camping on one of the platforms there: don't shine your flashlight out into the swamp in the darkness. You'll spend the rest of the night thinking about all those glowing eyes looking back at you.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Just came back from a 3 day hiking and photo safari trip to Garner State Park in Texas. Texas is known for its caves, especially

bat caves. I got creeped out going into Garner State Park's White Rock and Crystal caves. I was more in fear of a cave-in than

anything else seeing all the fallen rocks the size of houses scattered throughout the park. See if these are spooky...<div></div>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

And a look from inside Crystal Cave.<div></div>