Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: PhillyPhotographer on August 20, 2008, 10:57:41 am

Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: PhillyPhotographer on August 20, 2008, 10:57:41 am
These concourse tunnels stretch for over 5 miles under the streets of Philadelphia. Even in a city of 1.4 million people these tunnels are abandoned most of the day.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2697626308_15ffb38416.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3001/2699758061_bc3d188d1b.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/2691524322_6057965714.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/2668602416_76f146c121.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/2660022458_776a3a35ef.jpg)
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: PhillyPhotographer on August 20, 2008, 11:00:15 am
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2277/2529182281_f65e13b0c6.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2703521947_5ba136b733.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3152/2732793310_9581df18da.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/2653928220_41b8cc0d1d.jpg)
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: BFoto on August 20, 2008, 04:16:38 pm
Reminds me a lot of some nice work a friend mine has done in the UK, but mainly in color.

title - Anatomy of an Island

http://www.trickym.demon.co.uk/ (http://www.trickym.demon.co.uk/)
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: lbalbinot on August 20, 2008, 04:47:30 pm
Wow, that's an incredible location! Great photographs. Not many people down there I think, that's good.

Luis
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: Tim Gray on August 20, 2008, 06:10:31 pm
I like these - a wealth of opportunity down there...
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: BernardLanguillier on August 20, 2008, 07:17:24 pm
Quote
These concourse tunnels stretch for over 5 miles under the streets of Philadelphia. Even in a city of 1.4 million people these tunnels are abandoned most of the day.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=216242\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Nice work, thanks for sharing.

Care to share how you achieved these B&W tones?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: PhillyPhotographer on August 20, 2008, 07:46:38 pm
Quote
Nice work, thanks for sharing.

Care to share how you achieved these B&W tones?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Bernard
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=216333\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

A whole lot of exposure bracketing, some HDR work, endless work with curves and then toned with Photokit.

The lighting down there is horrendous, there's a mix of fluorescent, tungsten and incandescent.
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: BernardLanguillier on August 20, 2008, 07:54:14 pm
Quote
A whole lot of exposure bracketing, some HDR work, endless work with curves and then toned with Photokit.

The lighting down there is horrendous, there's a mix of fluorescent, tungsten and incandescent.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=216336\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks!

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: robackja on August 20, 2008, 09:03:55 pm
Wow, these are really incredible. Excellent work. Nice tones and lighting is just soo nice.
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: Robert Roaldi on August 21, 2008, 07:47:06 am
Beautiful work.

This is off-topic but I am intrigued by your comment about the tunnels being empty during the day. That's a depressing thought. I don't know Philadelphia, is that because they don't lead to anywhere useful anymore or is it because people are afraid to use them? What a waste of infrastructure, either way.

I grew up in Montreal and lived for 25 in Toronto and both those cities have a fantastic underground system of subways, public areas, malls, etc. With our Canadian winters, it is maybe not surprising that people use these places a lot, but why don't they in Philly?
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: DarkPenguin on August 21, 2008, 09:05:04 am
Nice work.  How often are you stabbed down there?
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: PhillyPhotographer on August 21, 2008, 01:44:41 pm
Quote
Nice work.  How often are you stabbed down there?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=216442\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

LOL

There would have to be people down there for that to happen. During rush hour it can get busy but that might be too strong of a word for it. People are scared to death of this place and in the early 90's they had a right to be but now it's abandoned for most of the day, I can go a couple of hours before seeing another human being. During the winter it becomes a shelter for a couple hundred homeless and the stench is overbearing. The largest section of this tunnel is a football field wide and  a half a mile long, it's an amazing waste of space and makes you feel like you survived a nuclear holocaust. The tunnels branch off in several directions and several elevations, There are signs and entrances to buildings that have changed names or no longer exist, there are long stretches of tunnels that have been bricked up and long forgotten. at one point you walk behind a waterfall located at city hall, there are several fully stocked fallout shelters that haven't seen the light of day in decades. Besides taking photos of it I use it on rainy days to get to the other side of downtown without getting wet.
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: Robert Roaldi on August 21, 2008, 01:57:40 pm
I wonder how many more places there are like that? "Modern Catacombs", be a great book.

Man, how did we let this happen?
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: PhillyPhotographer on August 21, 2008, 02:05:56 pm
More info

One of the bomb shelters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr71ZY0lA0o (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr71ZY0lA0o)

map of most of the tunnels
http://osric.com/chris/subway/concourse1000x1000.gif (http://osric.com/chris/subway/concourse1000x1000.gif)
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: DarkPenguin on August 21, 2008, 02:56:20 pm
Quote
LOL

There would have to be people down there for that to happen. During rush hour it can get busy but that might be too strong of a word for it. People are scared to death of this place and in the early 90's they had a right to be but now it's abandoned for most of the day, I can go a couple of hours before seeing another human being. During the winter it becomes a shelter for a couple hundred homeless and the stench is overbearing. The largest section of this tunnel is a football field wide and  a half a mile long, it's an amazing waste of space and makes you feel like you survived a nuclear holocaust. The tunnels branch off in several directions and several elevations, There are signs and entrances to buildings that have changed names or no longer exist, there are long stretches of tunnels that have been bricked up and long forgotten. at one point you walk behind a waterfall located at city hall, there are several fully stocked fallout shelters that haven't seen the light of day in decades. Besides taking photos of it I use it on rainy days to get to the other side of downtown without getting wet.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=216506\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Very cool.  My only visits to philly have been to the airport and the penn museum.

So far as I know we had no fallout shelters deeper than the basement of an elementary school.  In the case of nuclear war we would be expected to die as there would be no reason to live a capitalist existence with all the stores leveled.
Title: Subway Concourse
Post by: Kagetsu on August 24, 2008, 11:13:40 pm
The turngates and the final image (corridor) are really nice images to me. They site well. I particularly appreciate the slope in the floor too, which is represented nicely in the photo.