Sarajevo (Part 2)

  If there's lots to see in Sarajevo for the ordinary traveler, so will there be for the one who's interested in urban exploration as well. The city and surroundings are full of cool abandoned places. I had the possibility to visit a couple, and I can tell that there's so much more to see, but the clock is always ticking and when traveling with others who are not so much into urban decay and abandoned buildings, you know time is just limited for fulfilling your dreams.
  When I search for places of interest I rely heavily on internet. Google the city name combined with "urbex" or "urban exploration" and most likely you'll find at least some place where to go. In my case mt. Trebević came up, and most probably if you ever visit Sarajevo or did it already, and you are into forgotten and ruined stuff, you'll end or ended up there at some point. Mt. Trebević is the place where the winter Olympics were held in 1984. So a must see thing would be the abandoned bobsleigh track. While there you could also walk to the Bistrik kula or as it's called too, Čolina kapa observatory. It's just a couple of minutes walk from the bobsleigh track. Two interesting towers, one from the Austro-Hungarian period and one a bit newer, both which have been used as observatories. Cool abandoned buildings and the view down to Sarajevo is amazing. On the way up, by the road there was this abandoned hotel, so I stopped my car there, entered the building and made a few images in there as well.
  An other tool I frequently use is Google Earth. Scrolling over a city with a help of a satellite map can reveal some interesting spots. Of course it's not always guaranteed that you'll have the access inside the building when you finally arrive to the location. In my case there were two spots I was interested of. In the satellite map they seemed just perfect, but in the real world they both where some kind of military related places and guarded by soldiers. Both places where a mess, I definitely would have loved to get inside, but as I'm happy with the holes I'm born with, I thought better not get any extra  from a gun, so I decided to vanish from these places quite fast. So no images from these places.
  A third method for me to find places of interest is to keep my eyes and ears open. When driving here and there you see possible places where you could go. Sometimes when speaking with locals they may know some good spots. While driving one day a former resident of Sarajevo who was travelling with us showed an abandoned complex on the other side of the road. He told that it had been build just before the war, but now it's completely desolated. For me it meant a place of interest, and after two disappointments with the "military bases", this was a perfect spot. No guards, easy to enter and so I went there.
  Then just one more thing! There's lots of abandoned warehouses and larger buildings in Sarajevo, but just don't overlook the smaller houses. They used to be someones homes, places for families wanting to live in peace with their neighbors. Today they are a sad reminder how fast everything can change.

Sarajevo (Part 1)

  Last week I had the opportunity to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The schedule was pretty tight and then I caught flu, so the photography part was quite minimal, but I tried to do my best to make at least a few images and to visit a couple places of interest. I'll divide this post in two. This first with some cityscapes and details from the city, and the second post with some urbex and images of urban decay.
  First I'd like to tell my impression of the city. I loved the variety of old and new. Lots of modern glass covered buildings and then many old houses with that beautiful 19th century architecture. Mosques here and there, and specially those minarets made me feel a bit like being in some Middle-east country even if I were in Europe. Visited the old town only once. Lots of tourists around and then the place was crowded with shops selling the same souvenir  stuff shop after an other, so even if it was in someways interesting I didn't find it very authentic, but maybe someone else finds this Bazaar kind of a place very attractive. As a starting point for the WW 1, a must see place is the spot where Gavrilo Princip killed the archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Latin Bridge isn't large, it's built in Roman style, so the architecture is pretty, as an added bonus because of what happened there, you definitely can feel the history alive. There's also lots of small alleys which can be nice for immagination and inspiration. And then there is always the sad reminders of the Bosnian war. Everywhere in the city you can see bullet holes in the building walls, and some bombarded houses here and there. Sad reminders of what people can do to each other. There's much more to see in Sarajevo, I feel I just touched the surface but as sad it is this time I didn't have time for more, maybe next time. Here's a few images...   

Then a couple of landscapaes from the beautiful countryside not very far from Sarajevo...

Empty and abandoned

  "Abandoned" is in my vocabulary synonymous to "interesting". To enter a building to explore it is almost always a thrilling experience. During the last couple of weeks I've visited two locations from which the first one I've been in a couple times before and the access is very easy,  just walk in. It's an old coal mining factory building in quite a few floors. There's lots of holes in the ground so you just have to watch where you step. Like the case is so often the machines and equipment have been removed long a go, but the space is amazing with some pretty nice light if come there at the right time.
  The second place was also an abandoned factory, and as well pretty stripped of all machines and props. Unlike the other factory I visited, this wasn't so easy to enter in. First, the building is located quite near the center of the town and that means there's always people around, and as you will be trespassing, you don't want too many people around watching. As a second a bit annoying thing is that the main doors are closed and locked and the only quite easy point to enter is a broken window on the facade side, so the before mentioned risk of being seen by others is pretty high. Even if it was struggle to get in, it was still worth it. Here's some images from the both facilities...

With natural and artificial light

  Wondering around and keeping your eyes open at the same time is important. When I'm going to places I always try to look for potential new scenes for a photo shoot. Even if you maybe can't make the shoot immediately you can always return at some other time maybe more prepared. This time our shoot was in an old abandoned chapel. I had visited the location before a couple of times, and even shot the interior, but always without a model. So on Friday we packed our gear and props and headed to this location. As usually we didn't have too much of time so we were in quite a hurry. My model, my lovely and beautiful wife had scheduled something else for the evening, so we had less than an hour time for the shoot. When we arrived we found out that the doors had been locked, so my first thought was, that's it, no shoot for today. Well, when the windows are open, use what you have, so we climbed in through them. Just love this old building, with its half wrecked altar, and the beautiful light streaming in from the small windows. I could have shot with natural light only, but just to play safe I decided to use a gridded softbox to add some punch. Usually I opt for as low ISO as possible, but this time I thought it's just easier to use ISO 800. Then we used some props, one lantern with a lit candle, a mask, and a dome in which we placed a speedlight to give some additional effect. Then it was time to shoot. In about 25 minutes we were done and out from the building. Here's some images.