Chapel inside the Administration Building at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey.
Greystone Psychiatric Hospital was constructed along the Kirkbride plan and admitted its first patient in 1877. The outer portions of the male and female wings were abandoned in the 1970's, but most of the remained in operation until 2008 before fully shutting down. Sadly, this massive, gorgeous hospital will be demolished later this year.
Administration Building at Hudson River State Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York.
This asylum was constructed along the Hudson River in 1871 following the Kirkbride plan. The facility closed in the early 2000's and experienced a major fire in the male wing in 2007, leaving most of that wing collapsed.
Dark interior, lit with Dorcy Metal Gear XL-M Flashlight.
Tunnel leading to the Antenna Terminal of the Beale 851-C Titan I Missile Base in California.
I recently received the Dorcy Metal Gear XL-M 618 lumen flashlight and since I've enjoyed shooting with the light over the last few weeks, I felt like it was time for a proper review.
Flashlight comes packaged with wrist strap
The Metal Gear XL-M flashlight is large, but remarkably light for it's size, especially compared to some of my smaller, less bright lights. It feels good in your hand and the textured body really helps me feel like I have a good grip on the light while navigating and light painting.
The on/off and brightness mode button is made of a neon yellow rubber material, which makes it easy to find in dimly lit or dark places since it's easy to feel around for.
As I mentioned above, the light is large, so it won't fit in my tiny pant pockets, but recently I have been shooting with a lens pouch on my belt, and it fits perfectly inside there, or in an exterior pocket on my camera bag.
This light also has a great bezel, with an anti-roll feature, so I often place it face down or on it's side while resetting my composition.
Polycarbonate lens
On/Off and brightness mode switch
Left to right: 4Sevens Quark AA tactical, Coast HP7, Nite Core MH25 Night Blade, Streamlight Stinger, Dorcy Metal Gear XL-M
Let's cut right to the chase, this flashlight is bright! It has 2 brightness modes, a high setting which is a 618 lumen output and a low setting which has a 173 lumen output. At the high setting it can throw up to 1,100 feet and run for approximately 5hrs. At the low setting, it still throws around 600 feet and can run to up to 25hrs! (In all my shooting over the last few weeks I have not had to replace the batteries yet.)
I have used both brightness modes while navigating through dark spaces and shooting and each one has its own perk. The low setting tends to work better for light painting because it's not too bright and the hot spot is less obvious. The high setting works better for trying to light up things in the distance or look for something to photograph.
High output setting
(Same camera settings as the low output image)
Low output setting
(Same camera setting as the high output image)
I am very fond of the color temperature of this light, because it's in between a cool LED and warm incandescent. (See image below comparing 3 lights) I tend to prefer my light painted images to be on the warmer side, but I also like the long run time and bulb sustainability of an LED, so I feel like this light accomplishes both of those things.
Left to Right: NiteCore MH25 Night Blade, Dorcy Metal Gear XL-M, Streamlight Stinger (incandescent)
Titan I Missile Base tunnel, pitch dark
13 seconds, f/9 @ ISO 1600 - Flashlight remained on, in a static position, for the duration of the exposure
Battery Godfrey, San Francisco
15 seconds, f/9 @ ISO 1000 - Flashlight remained on for the duration of the exposure.
Battery Godfrey, San Francisco
118 seconds, f/9 @ ISO 200 - Flashlight was used to 'light paint' the foreground for the duration of the exposure
Battery Godfrey, San Francisco
120 second, f/10 @ ISO 250 - Flashlight was used to 'light paint' the scene for the duration of the exposure
Battery Godfrey, San Francisco
15 seconds, f/8 @ ISO 1600 - Flashlight remained on for the duration of the exposure
Sutro Bath Ruins, San Francisco
20 seconds, f/8 @ ISO 1600 - Flashlight remained on for the duration of the exposure
Titan I Missile Base tunnel, pitch dark
2 seconds, f/7.1 @ ISO 800 - Flashlight (in my hand) remained on during the exposure
Titan I Missile Base tunnel, pitch dark
55 seconds, f/11 @ ISO 200 - Flashlight was used to 'light paint' tunnel for approximately 45 seconds.
If you're interested in purchasing this light, visit - http://www.dorcy.com/p-438-41-0435-metal-gear-xl-m-extreme-618-lumen-led-flashlight.aspx
(Thank you to Dorcy for providing the flashlight.)
Light seeps into Level III, the 'Launch and Checkout Room,' of the equipment terminal at the Beale 851-C Titan I Missile Base.
The equipment terminal contained 4 floors, accessed by personnel elevators and ladders connecting the levels. The walls were 18" thick and suspended in such a way that they would not be damaged if there was an explosion in the nearby silo.
Looking into the no. 2 launch silo inside the Beale 851-C Titan I Missile Base
During the base's operation (1962-1965), the 165 foot deep launch silo would have contained a crib structure to support the 52 foot tall Titan I missile.
Construction on the Hartsville Nuclear Plant came to a halt midway through the process, leaving the plant looking other-worldly. It's full of abstract shapes, rebar poking out from cement, steps leading to incomplete floors and some beautiful patterns around the lower ring of the unfinished cooling tower. This particular tower had been completed and stood a few hundred feet tall, looking down on the disarray below.
Elevator at a former Northern California Navy fuel depot in use from 1941 through 1995.
Inside the Administration Building at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
Many modifications have occurred in this building since it was completed in the 1890's, such as drop ceilings, lighting, heat, blinds and new layers of paint.
Karl the Fog creeps in over downtown San Francisco on a March evening.
The California Hospital for the Chronic Insane at Agnews was constructed following the Kirkbride plan and opened in Santa Clara, California in 1888. It was the third mental health facility in the state of California at the time. Sadly, a short 21 years later, most of the hospital was damaged during the 1906 earthquake, which wound up killing 101 patients and 11 employees.
Dr. Stocking was superintendent at the time and he helped develop a new plan for the hospital, following the cottage plan. Buildings 3 and 4 were constructed in 1908 and designed as wards for men (Bldg 3) and women (Bldg 4). Both these buildings connect to Building 30, the clock tower building, was also known as the "Treatment" building. The building contained three drug laboratories and 2 dispensaries, an electro-theraputic treatment room, hydrotherapy room, photography lab, large solarium, nurses' rooms, massage room, dental ward and operating room. Naturally, the basement of this building also contained a morgue.
By the 1940's, Agnews suffered overcrowding, as did many mental health hospitals in the country, and three new wards of a Spanish Colonial Revival style were constructed to accommodate the influx of patients. The hospital began to grow well into the 1960's when much of the campus was repurposed to treat mentally retarded patients and by 1971 that was the primary function of the hospital.
In 1995, Agnews was scheduled for closure and the hospital now site abandoned and for sale.
Main entrance of the 1870's era Administration Building at the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
Why yes, yes it is Raven.
I'm really looking forward to my weekend shooting plans. I have a few new toys to play with (lights and camera stuff, although I suppose when I say toys, one might assume I mean dinosaurs) and exciting plans to go shoot something historic.
Cheers to the weekend!
During my last trip to Oregon, I shot my first landscape pano with a 17mm tilt shift. The conditions were right for filters to be unnecessary, the only downside of this lens is the inability to use filters, so I snapped a horizontal image and shifted the lens upward to capture the second image. Stitching was done in Photoshop, using a single click. I then brought the image back into Lightroom for final editing.
(Buy - http://smu.gs/Ox8pcG )
These operating room lights were found inside a former military barrack, known as Truett Hall, at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, but they clearly don't belong here as there wasn't even an operating room inside this building.
It makes me curious how they ended up in Room # 204.
(Buy a print - http://smu.gs/1iHBUSp )
