# My 1st Report - West Park Asylum, Epsom and to say Hi



## SONAR (Oct 7, 2009)

Hello Everybody,

I thought I would say Hi

I have been looking at reports on Derelict Places for about a month but never set up an account and also never had a camera worthy of getting into it all!

After saving I bought a Nikon D60 and with West Park Asylum very near me it would have been rude not to start here! I have been using the camera for just under 2 months. I can honestly say I'm hooked! 

West Park brief history : 

West Park Asylum was a large psychiatric hospital in Epsom, Surrey. Designed by William C. Clifford-Smith, this building was started in 1906 and took seventeen years to complete. When the hospital was ‘live’ it could cater for around 2,000 patients of mixed class. The hospital was slowly run down from the mid 1990s, and by 2003 most of the hospital was closed and derelict. A few outer ward buildings and villas remain open today and are still used for psychiatric treatment.

Visited with monkeyboy over 4 visits : 



































































'Hoover Rape' created by Myself, Monkeyboy and Fly MY Pretties




















I have tried to capture the mood of West Park in the photos, I hope you like them?

For the rest of the set please have a look at my Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/nickwild/sets/72157622523059100/


Thanks for looking


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## clebby (Oct 7, 2009)

This is the kind of HDR I like, very subtle, but IMO they could be slightly subtler 

Nice one.


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## sj9966 (Oct 7, 2009)

Great pictures.

I see that quite a lot of stuff has been removed from the clothes room.


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## Winchester (Oct 7, 2009)

It didn't quite take 17 years to complete, it was used as a war hospital by the Canadians and was opened as a mental hospital in 1924. The closure process started in the mid sixties, but didn't really gather speed until the mid eighties. 

Nice pics, I see you found the maps.


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## Daydreamer (Oct 7, 2009)

Nice write up and pictures, well done and welcome.


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## UrbanX (Oct 7, 2009)

Good first report! They're great images, although I'm pretty 'anti-hdr' I'd love to see the original of rh architectural plan. You should be well proud of that set.


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## mookster (Oct 8, 2009)

I saw the room with all the plans in it when I went with UKM and co at the end of September but when I went back on the 2nd someone had removed all of them

hope they were saved by someone who would look after them....


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## klempner69 (Oct 8, 2009)

Some of these are actually very good,and I too would like to see how they looked originally.Well done.


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## SONAR (Oct 8, 2009)

Thanks for all your comments guys, I feel very welcome indeed  I have only just started out with A: Ubexing and B: Photography so I hope to bring something new soon. I may well put the orignal map image up at some point!

Again thank you.


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## klempner69 (Oct 8, 2009)

You have certainly done well in a short time..I know little about HDR but have played with some of my pics using Picassa..its simples like me a bit,and I have found that by applying a little exageration with colour etc,some pics can come to life a little more..this is one I upped the saturation a tad and I liked the way the colours came out.All part of the fun I guess.


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## SONAR (Oct 8, 2009)

@klempner69 Cool photo man, do you know I haven't got a long shot of that! May grab a shot on my next visit....I think the big smash starts in a week or two :-(

Few more..I even remember using this type of paint at school! 





I bet they still work!










The standard cell shot!


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## SONAR (Oct 13, 2009)

Just been back for my last visit to West Park yesterday. Tried out some new stuff, photos to follow soon. 

Ps .... I hope you all like the new fire extinguishers set up!!


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## Ralphie (Oct 15, 2009)

Very nice pics. I really want explore this place but so far I do not have with someone :-(


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## bayzer (Oct 18, 2009)

SONAR said:


> @klempner69 Cool photo man, do you know I haven't got a long shot of that! May grab a shot on my next visit....I think the big smash starts in a week or two :-(
> 
> Few more..I even remember using this type of paint at school!
> 
> ...




Love this picture it capture everything this room was used for,,,excellent,,


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## SONAR (Oct 18, 2009)

^^ Thanks mate


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## lost (Oct 21, 2009)

Nice one, I've always wanted to see West Park in virtual reality eye-burning vision.


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## Tinkx (Oct 22, 2009)

Nice images, I can't wait to go there: D did you use the standard lens?
I have a D40 looking to upgrade to a D60 or D5000 but also want new lenses it’s a hard choice.


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## small_ant (Oct 22, 2009)

Great place, wonderful photos I realy like this kind of HDR


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## iwaniwan (Oct 22, 2009)

Tinkx said:


> Nice images, I can't wait to go there: D did you use the standard lens?
> I have a D40 looking to upgrade to a D60 or D5000 but also want new lenses it’s a hard choice.



keep the body buy lenses.


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## SONAR (Oct 22, 2009)

iwaniwan said:


> keep the body buy lenses.



 I was using 18-55 on this day yes! Thanks for the comments guys


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## Tinkx (Oct 23, 2009)

Also how did you get the images to have that colour... or feel I don't know the right word for it... They look Photoshoped but knowing me they probably aren’t, I keep coming back to this thread trying to work out how to do it lol.


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## Allstar#500 (Oct 24, 2009)

It's called an HDR image. Sorry if thise makes no sense im a bit drunk but you ge an under exposed, a normal image and an over exposed image and then with the magic of photoshop you end up with an HDR image


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## Tinkx (Oct 25, 2009)

Allstar#500 said:


> It's called an HDR image. Sorry if thise makes no sense im a bit drunk but you ge an under exposed, a normal image and an over exposed image and then with the magic of photoshop you end up with an HDR image



I googled HDR  They are a lot of effort but they look cool. Got to have a try. Thanks for replying.


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