There was this thread going on on Reddit, and I just had to ask the Fstoppers community. The question had me thinking back to about ten years ago, when a group of friends and I went to "investigate" signs of paranormal activity in a derelict castle in Belgium. What is the craziest place you've been and got kicked out of for trespassing while taking (or trying to) take a photo?
Our car was absolutely loaded with photo and video equipment. If you've ever seen an episode of "Ghost Hunters," then I'm sure you know what those guys bring to an investigation. After traveling all day, we wondered where that castle was located exactly. It was a different time then. Street View wouldn't launch until a year later, and navigating was done with dedicated GPS devices. It's stunning how technology can creep up on you. So, we were going in circles around a rural Belgian town. It was supposed to contain this huge castle as well, being used before as an asylum (of course), a primary school, and some sort of hospital. But ten years ago, it was about to be torn down due to dereliction. It had not been in active use since the time man first went to the moon and Bryan Adams bought his first real six string. Aside from its supposed haunting, the castle would surely be a great urbex location, but we'd have to find it first.
Tired of searching, we drove to the town center and looked for something to eat. Then, it appeared, looming from over a couple of medieval-aged homes. The Castle of Mesen stood slap-bang in the middle of the town. With gothic features like stained glass windows, archways, and a caved-in roof, it did look like a proper place for ghosts to be holed up in. A less gothic feature, however, was a gigantic fence that circled the premises. But that didn't stop us from entering.
The Belgian security guard did. One or two of us had entered the fence when he grabbed my jacket. We luckily got away with a warning, but not much photo or video footage, apart from one short video in which, according to the same "Ghost Hunters," a "residual haunting" could be seen in the form of an orb (speck of dust). Your turn.
Image of the Castle of Mesen by Flickr user Niek Beck.
We were photographing a video of Peter Hurley and we used his porch of his condo in Manhattan to jump down onto the building next door that was under construction. We filmed for a few minutes when some builders came up to the roof with the most shocked look on their face like "how in the hell did you get up here". It was a total failure and we had to scrap the footage.
Too bad the footage was not worth it in the end. It reminds me a lot of this movie I saw the other day, titled "Begin Again". Nice visual story as well. :)
I lived in a town with a whole bunch of abandoned grain silos and some surrounding barn-like buildings. We thought the interior would make for a sweet location and decided the break in. Well, there was no breaking to be done. The doors were unlocked, or open. We explored around, making our way to the top floors when we stumbled upon 5-6 tents set up on the 4th floor. Suddenly college student came crawling out of a tent wondering about our noise. He told us to leave and to not tell anyone. Considering this was their makeshift home, and very much a secret, we left without shooting anything.
Bumping into people who made it their home is never cool. For them it's like breaking and entering, while for you it's more like "This is an abandoned building, right?". Good to hear it panned out ok. :)
lmao the only place I've been kicked out was a burned down, abandoned hotel. it was off limits to the public, so we had to hike some rocky cliffs to get in the back way. my friend and I were so excited to do a fine art fashion shoot there. however, once we got there, this crazy guy who apparently moved in there, chased us out.
Sounds like a crazy scary experience. Thanks!
I was kicked out of a public park in Kuala Lumpur where I live for using a reflector. Guard came over, admitted that photography is allowed, but that the reflector was "not allowed" and hence I had to leave. On another occasion, they kicked me out of the very same park (no reflector this time) but because the dress of the model "looked too much like a wedding dress" (wedding photography in the park is not allowed)
Great! Thanks for sharing. Wedding dresses go as far and wide as medieval armor these days, so the guard was probably right... >_<
Lol.
The laundromat of a Chinese hotel.
Haha! Great story. :D I love the detail.
But seriously. What were you doing there? :)
It's ridiculous how many times I've been kicked out... of places that I didn't get inside here in Greece.
We've got security guards and the police telling us that we can't take photos of this and that or there even when the law says we have every right to do so.
We have to carry prints of the law so we can ( sometimes can't despite that! ) convince them that we have the right to do so and that they were wrong.
Also in Belgium, not kicked out but we got a 'serious' warning. I live closely to a shooting field for the army, but in the 10years i'd come there, i never ever saw somebody. The first time i ever took my gear with me was to take some pictures of rusted halftraks, we got spotted by the local forester, who worked for the army. We explained everything, he wasn't to happy about it and told me i got off with warning, but wasn't going to be so lucky next time.
Not exactly URBEX but Starbucks on West Sahara in Las Vegas. The barista told me to leave because photography is not allowed due to the 'original' artwork hanging on the walls. Huh? It was just a few selfies for Facebook.