Polish Coal Mine

[etmpaar]

We started off in the training centre, which was the most complete, it seemed as if everyone just left all of their possesions behind, calendars were still on the walls, desks were still full of belongings etc. All the training manuals (boxes of them), clothes and hard hats were still there too.

Next came the archives building, all the mechanics bays, some store rooms and offices, a huge warehouse and then the buildings housing the mine shafts and machinery.

One of the most refreshing things about the site from my point of view being UK based was the total absence of grafitti. Great to be able to see something being left to decay rather than vandalised.

The rest of the photos can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54624056@N00/sets/72157624678553464/with/4870964637/

 

[stuck247]

Like the pics. Looks like they have decided to help nature along with the introduction of the potted plants.

 

[chris]

My potted plants are just like that

Good set of pictures - what did you do to the last three to give them an extra grimy appearance (or is it actually like that?)

 

[etmpaar]

The last 2 were straight from the camera, I did some HDR processing with the 3rd from last photo, a similar original for comparison is here

Straight from the Camera:

Procesed:

I still can't decide which version I prefer

 

[tommo]

dont get me wrong some HDR shots looks great and can really age a photo and bring it to life, and some can do it injustice, at the end of the day its your pics, u took the shot and u know what u want it to look like in the end

there are some fantastic pics there amd the place looks really good, the shot in question i think looks just as good if not better straight from the camera with no processing

is the mine capped do u know?

 

[etmpaar]

I like the straight from the camera and HDR versions for different reasons, the HDR version is more dramatic but a lot of the unimportant background stuff is more distracting, it looks more unreal, like a painting too. The original image captures more of the atmosphere of being there so that's the one I used on my website.

I'm not sure if the mine was capped, there were a lot of buldings around the underground bits and they were quite dark and we had no torches. We found the lift down into the mine but couldn't see much in that section as it was very dark and it wasn't something I'd thought of looking for. I'll know next time to look out for that.