When I first started taking photos in March of 2002, I was drawn to low-light and long exposure photography. I was always trying to capture the late night, middle of nowhere mood. I scoped out an abandoned barn, large cities at night, a dilapidated farm house, and the occasional county fair. In the years since I've seemed to bounce from one type of photography to another. After the late night photos came black & white film, to include really fast [6400 iso] stuff. Candid shots followed, with seemingly pointless odyssies across the US, camera in hand. I've messed with infra-red a bit. I've tried snapping photos of wildlife, sunsets, star trails, friends, firearms, and friends with firearms. There's also been a little pro bono work in a makeshift studio. It's just a hobby. I've had a few photos displayed in a lobby of a government building, and I've sold a few prints here and there, too. That's not the part that I enjoy, though.
Snapping a photo of something that most folks rarely see is the kick. Now, I'm by no means some National Geographic photographer who travels far and wide, from Angkor Wat to Techugigalpa. Let's clear that up from the get-go. I'm just a guy that's willing to drive a few thousand miles to see something on purpose that other folks would only see by chance. I'm also the guy that will stop and stare at what most folks zoom past every day.
Way back in June of 2002, only a few months after I first got my hands on a 35mm camera, I swung into the parking lot next to the Enchanted Forest in Ellicot City, Maryland. It was a Friday morning, probably a little past midnight. I was snapping some photos of the carousel, which was situated outside the iron gates of the now abandoned theme park. There's a shopping mall in the same parking lot, but a car drove past them and pulled up near where my tripod was set up. Now, I wasn't trespassing or anything of that nature, but I can imagine how it looks... someone with a backpack wandering around a fenced in area in the middle of the night...
A gal who was obviously going through the "how many piercings can one person possibly get" stage nervously stood next to her car. She was thinking the exact same thing that I was: Who is that, and what are they doing here? In fact, her words were "...What are the odds that two strangers (who work probably only 15 minutes from each other but under any other circumstance would have never met) both happened to stop at the run down, closed for years "Enchanted Forest" around 3 in the morning on an ordinary Friday, both with the unusual plans of taking pictures?"
She thanked me for not being a psycho killer, looney rapist, or Jehovah's Witness. We traded e-mail addresses, and stayed in touch over the years. Every six months or so one of us would pop off a "Merry Christmas" or "How's it going?" e-mail. I moved out to Alaska in early 2005 and lost touch for a while. She tracked me down this past summer, and we've done a much better job at staying in touch.
Even though none of the photos from that night came out well enough to merit scanning and posting them here, I'd say the trip to the Enchanted Forrest was one of my favorite photographic journeys. You never know who you're going to meet while wandering outside an abandoned amusement park at 3am on an ordinary Friday.
Happy Valentine's Day, Angie!
For some really good photos from inside the fence, check out here and here. Some background on the Enchanted Forrest can be found here and here.
Photos of Angie, shamelessly swiped...
