Noel Kerns
Vertical Decomposition
The stairs to the 2nd floor / attic and the back door at the abandoned house in Poetry, Texas.
A somewhat startling event occured as I was preparing to make the first attempt at this shot. Upon arriving at the house, this was the first shot of the night, so while I had already been in the house previously on a different night of shooting and was familiar with the entire place, both upstairs and down, I leaned my head around the corner of the stairs here and looked up just to make sure nothing new was in the way there, since, once I opened the shutter for this shot, I would be climbing the stairs by feel, in pitch blackness.
This stairwell is tiny by the way. I can't step onto the first step without ducking, and once you get inside it, you have about two inches of clearance on either side of your shoulders. As you can see, it turns left at the very beginning, then it goes up, and it turns back right again at the very top...a strange and creepy little staircase if ever there was one.
So anyway, when I shined my flashlight up the stairs to check it out, all looked fine, so I killed the flashlight and opened the shutter. I then felt my way over to the stairs and started up, and as I reached the point near the top where the steps turn back right to the top landing, I began to hear an incredible loud racket coming from the floor just feet above me and away from me. It was SO loud and SO frantic, that I was convinced there was either a startled person or large animal of some kind up there, freaking out about someone sneaking up the stairs, and I imagined that if it was an animal, it would most likely bolt for the exit....the very stairs where I was standing!
Well, I raced down those stairs in total darkness faster than I could have done it even in daylight with less motivation. I got out of the way of the back door too, thinking that if an animal was right behind me, that'd be how he'd try to get out. I hurridly turned on a flashlight, but no noise followed me down the stairs, so I closed the shutter and waited to see if any more noise was forthcoming from the 2nd floor. After about 5 minutes of no further activity, I decided to check it out, so I crept up the stairs, flashlight on, to the top landing...and no noise, no animal...and no more panic!
I still have no idea for sure what was up there; it sounded HUGE, generating in my estimation far too much noise for it to have been a bird of prey of some sort, but there was an open window up there, and no animal to be found! I continued with my shoot, and two exposures later, produced this shot. Interestingly, an associate of mine recently experienced the exact same phenomena when he was night-shooting there as well.
UPDATE: Sadly, as of October 2009, this house has reportedly burned down, evidently a victim of arson.
Night, totally dark house, natural Maglite, natural strobe, and yellow-gelled strobe.
Vertical Decomposition
The stairs to the 2nd floor / attic and the back door at the abandoned house in Poetry, Texas.
A somewhat startling event occured as I was preparing to make the first attempt at this shot. Upon arriving at the house, this was the first shot of the night, so while I had already been in the house previously on a different night of shooting and was familiar with the entire place, both upstairs and down, I leaned my head around the corner of the stairs here and looked up just to make sure nothing new was in the way there, since, once I opened the shutter for this shot, I would be climbing the stairs by feel, in pitch blackness.
This stairwell is tiny by the way. I can't step onto the first step without ducking, and once you get inside it, you have about two inches of clearance on either side of your shoulders. As you can see, it turns left at the very beginning, then it goes up, and it turns back right again at the very top...a strange and creepy little staircase if ever there was one.
So anyway, when I shined my flashlight up the stairs to check it out, all looked fine, so I killed the flashlight and opened the shutter. I then felt my way over to the stairs and started up, and as I reached the point near the top where the steps turn back right to the top landing, I began to hear an incredible loud racket coming from the floor just feet above me and away from me. It was SO loud and SO frantic, that I was convinced there was either a startled person or large animal of some kind up there, freaking out about someone sneaking up the stairs, and I imagined that if it was an animal, it would most likely bolt for the exit....the very stairs where I was standing!
Well, I raced down those stairs in total darkness faster than I could have done it even in daylight with less motivation. I got out of the way of the back door too, thinking that if an animal was right behind me, that'd be how he'd try to get out. I hurridly turned on a flashlight, but no noise followed me down the stairs, so I closed the shutter and waited to see if any more noise was forthcoming from the 2nd floor. After about 5 minutes of no further activity, I decided to check it out, so I crept up the stairs, flashlight on, to the top landing...and no noise, no animal...and no more panic!
I still have no idea for sure what was up there; it sounded HUGE, generating in my estimation far too much noise for it to have been a bird of prey of some sort, but there was an open window up there, and no animal to be found! I continued with my shoot, and two exposures later, produced this shot. Interestingly, an associate of mine recently experienced the exact same phenomena when he was night-shooting there as well.
UPDATE: Sadly, as of October 2009, this house has reportedly burned down, evidently a victim of arson.
Night, totally dark house, natural Maglite, natural strobe, and yellow-gelled strobe.