We went back to the beautiful MCS Sunday and got some carefully planned out and targeted photographs. I took mostly High Dynamic Range (HDR) images which combine a series of differently-exposed shots into one picture with a huge dynamic range. They look sort of dreamy and ethereal. The HDR shots are at the end of this post and many more are on Flickr. Alisa was in from Chicago and went along, although I think our extended adventure froze her so solidly that she'll never go with us again.
We found the old passenger subway tunnel that led from the concourse to the trains underneath the tracks. Long ago, a series of stairways led up to the tracks above, but those are all welded shut. This tunnel is very hard to find now, it's buried deep in the dark maze under the tracks and it is very dark inside. The doors leading into the concourse have been permanently barred and so it's a creepy dead-end nowadays. Here is a long-exposure (68 seconds) shot of the tunnel showing detail that is impossible to see in the darkness.
I also took a long exposure of the flooded chamber below the concourse (the concourse roof leaks badly...actually "leak" isn't a strong enough word as large pieces of the roof are missing). Here is what this creepy chamber would look like if there was a little light down there...
And now we go into the HDR images. These require quite a bit more work than a typical photograph but allow us to compress a high-contrast scene into something your computer can display. HDR tames the deep shadow and the bright highlight and lets them play well together.First off is my favorite shot of the day, taken inside the old carriage entrance. I love the geometry of the structure in here and in HDR it looks grand and luminous.
Next is the leaky-roofed concourse...
...and the huge columns of the ticket lobby...
...and the big ramp that leads down to the barred doors beyond which lies the subway tunnel...
...a shot of the main lobby with its 67 foot ceilings...
...and a cool doorway in the lobby...
...more giant pillars, these in the main lobby...
...and a shot of the hideously mangled elevators, loaded up with tons of steel and junk thrown down the shafts by scavengers...
...and finishing with a picture of the rusted and burned car down under the tracks. Some joker has neatly placed a newer plastic fascia in front of the car as some kind of cruel joke...
