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explore everywhere

Sometimes I go places, this is where you can read about my adventures. Road trips, cemeteries, abandoned places – they’re all here.

Grahamville Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup February 27, 2017

After that incredible abandoned church we found on our Valentine’s Day adventure (check it out here!) I couldn’t imagine our luck getting any better. Shortly after crossing the Pennsylvania border we hit a major wall of fog. Like barely see the car in front of you wall of fog! Jeff said something like “wouldn’t you love to shoot a cemetery in this?” To which my response was “well, I doooo have the find a grave app!” I opened it real quick and found that a little ways off from the next exit was a real gem of a cemetery. The photos showed some old headstones and I was sold!

It was about ten minutes away from the freeway which when you’ve had the worst luck ever photographing fog feels like a lifetime. I’ve told you a million times in the past how every time I go to shoot some beautiful foggy location it all burns off before I arrive. I held my breath the whole way there. We went through patches where the skies were clear, and patches where you couldn’t see a darn thing. By some stroke of luck when we pulled into the driveway it was so white you couldn’t see a single headstone.

I nearly jumped out of the car. Just kidding. I literally jumped out of the car, grabbed my camera from the back and started running around snapping photos. I was so happy to just be shooting anything in the fog but the further I got into the cemetery the older the headstones were until I found that sweet spot I’d seen on the app. It was SO EXCITING. I honestly could ramble forever about how much I love fog and cemeteries, and how the two combined is like the ultimate photographic subject for me so, here, just look at my photos from the day…

cemetery, fog, foggy, pa, grahamville cemetery,

xoxo

abandoned in New York

by Kaylah Stroup February 22, 2017

For Valentine’s Day Jeff and I took a spur of the moment trip to Rochester, New York. On Friday morning he sent me a text asking me to ask my mom, who was at our apartment, if she’d be willing to take Klaus home with her when she left. I knew that meant we were taking a weekend trip so I asked “Where are we running away to?” He responded with a screenshot of a hotel reservation in Rochester. That’s my kind of Valentine’s Day present!

Since we met we’ve been taking annual trips up to Rochester. Each time previous had been with friends, and only for the day. Last year we weren’t able to find a time when everyone was able to go and subsequently missed the opportunity. We’re both fairly smitten with Rochester. Jeff, especially, had been itching to get back as soon as possible. It’s very reminiscent of Cleveland so it’s kind of like being at home but with lots of new things to explore. We left without a plan but armed with cameras – the way any good trip starts.

Saturday was spent aimlessly wandering around the city on foot. We woke up fairly early Sunday with hopes of getting the abandoned subway again, and finding some abandoned buildings to shoot. I felt a little uncomfortable with the subway since for the first time it was actually fenced off, and seemed to be under construction. We opted to hit one building we had found during our last visit and then hit the road since the weather was icky. On our way home we stopped in Buffalo, a city filled with abandoned buildings that for some reason we never have any luck getting into. Well, the Buffalo curse was finally broken.

Despite getting two spots that weekend, one of which was a maaajor highlight for both of us, I didn’t end up with very many photos that I absolutely loved. The ones I am happy with I couldn’t bare to just tuck away in a folder so what you get is a mix of photos from the two buildings.

abandoned rochester, abandoned, new york,

xoxo

Bonaventure Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup February 16, 2017

One of my all time favorite headstones. I took a photo of it back in 2014 and made sure to hunt it down again on this most recent trip.

Back in November Jeff and I took a quick weekend trip down to Savannah, Georgia. It was my second visit down there and since my first I had grown immensely in my photography. Needless to say, I was excited to shoot some photos. The number one spot I wanted to shoot was Bonaventure Cemetery. Bonaventure is one of those places that is sooo incredibly beautiful that it’s a tourist destination even for… well, normal people? Ya know, normal people who don’t specifically hunt down cemeteries in each city they visit. IT. IS. GORGEOUS.

When we arrived we were greeted by an employee at the gates. In my mind she was about to tell us we weren’t allowed to go in for whatever reason. Instead she asked if we needed any help, warned us Bonaventure wasn’t in tip top shape, and handed us a map.

A month prior to our visit, Hurricane Matthew had ripped through and caused quite a bit of damage to the cemetery. A lot of trees came down, damaging the headstones below. Bonaventure was closed for a few weeks to clean up some of the damage but opened shortly before our visit. Which I’m really happy about. I would have been SO disappointed if we went all the way down to Georgia and didn’t get to go to one of my favorite cemeteries! Large sections of the property were taped off but it didn’t really hinder our visit at all. One would think in the condition it was in that the number of visitors would be low but I don’t think I’ve ever been in a cemetery with so many other people (other than in Granary Burying Ground, of course!) For a place with over 30,000 interments it sure is lively!

I enjoyed our visit to Bonaventure enormously. Seriously every other sentence out of my mouth was “Oh my god, this is amazing!” or “Look! So cool!” Despite how much I enjoyed being there I was not happy with my photos, even as I was taking them. The warm sunshine was felt so good but I’m not huge on shooting photos in bright sunlight. That intense light paired with the enormous trees, and draping spanish moss meant there were a lot of shadows. You don’t have to know much about photography to gather that really bright patches of light and really dark areas don’t exactly make the best photos. I was bummed because I had been so excited to finally shoot the cemetery properly. For two whole years I had been dreaming of going back!

When I got home, imported my photos, and started to sort them I wasn’t surprised when they weren’t awe inspiring. I put them in a folder and moved on. Oh well, at least I got to enjoy the cemetery again! Fast forward to last week, I’m in the middle of organizing all the folders on my computer when I rediscover all my photos from Bonaventure. I found one I liked, edited it. Niiiice. Found a second, edited it. Okaaay, I can dig it. Found another, same thing. After about twenty minutes I had a whole bunch of photos that I couldn’t understand why I didn’t like them the first time around. I’m so glad I didn’t just delete them!

spanish moss, savannah cemeteries, georgia

Until next time, Bonaventure! I’ll be back in another few years to photograph you properly.
xoxo

PS. If you end up visiting Bonaventure some time soon, they have a cemetery tour app! It isn’t free but the proceeds help maintain the cemetery which is pretty rad, and after the storm they could probably use all the help they can get!

Kinzua Bridge

by Kaylah Stroup January 26, 2017

Last Monday Jeff had the day off work for Martin Luther King Day. The original plan was to head to Rochester for our annual abandoned subway adventures but at the last minute our friends weren’t able to make it. While we still have a lot of things to do around the apartment, we were both aching for an adventure. Somehow talk of Kinzua Bridge came up and we decided to drop Klaus off at my parents for the day, and take the three hour drive just to see a big pile of rust.

Kinzua Bridge is located in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. It was originally built in 1882, and billed as the “Eight Wonder of the World”. For two years it even held the record for tallest railroad bridge! In less than twenty years the bridge needed some serious updates to accommodate for the heavier weight of modern trains and the materials they were carrying. The bridge was rebuilt, and used on and off for quite a few more years. In 2002 all traffic on the bridge was halted due to the poor condition of important structural elements. (This is obviously a very brief history, if you’re interested in reading more there are tons of sites with the all the details a quick google search away!)

On July 21, 2003, a tornado struck the Kinzua Bridge causing eleven of the twenty towers to collapse. Instead of rebuilding, which would has cost approximately 45 million dollars, the state decided to turn it into a visitor attraction. In 2011 the Kinzua Sky Walk, a pedestrian walkway to an observation deck with a glass floor, opened.

Quarter found below the bridge from someone who probably tossed it to make a wish.

I had actually visited the bridge back in 2012 but didn’t really do too much exploring around the area. We basically walked out to the observation deck, took a peek, and left. These days I’m a quite a bit different. I’m certainly not as lazy, and definitely more inclined to want to get a closer look at things. Needless to say, after checking everything out from above, Jeff and I hiked to the bottom to get a better look.

Unlike my first visit, where the park was jam packed with people, we were one of only two groups of people there. It was awesome! We hiked down the crazy steep hill which was pure agony to get back up after we were done, and wandered around the massive ruins. I took so many photos but ultimately was disappointed in what I shot. There is just no way to capture how incredible this all is to see in person, and how tiny you feel beside it. Seeing it from above it almost looks like a model but as soon as you start to get closer you realize just how big it all is. I think the photo above the one of the quarter puts it in perspective, at least a little bit, when you spot the tiny person in the right corner.

I was a little nervous about taking such a long drive just to take a few photos, and return home the same day but it ended up totally being worth it!
xoxo

10 favorite abandoned spots of 2016

by Kaylah Stroup December 28, 2016

Although I didn’t go inside, this was one of my favorite exteriors. Don’t try to deny the fact it looks like a puppy!

The past two years I’ve made lists of my favorite abandoned places I visited over the course of the year. Despite the fact this year’s numbers are low, I think I actually only blogged about just over ten spots, I still wanted to make this list. Because I really love making lists, and because a lot of the places I explored this year hold some sort of special value to me. From the Knox County Poorhouse where I showed up on demolition day by accident but ended up getting a personal tour from the owner to the Rubber Bowl where my mom had seen the Rolling Stones many years before or Two Guns which I consider “our spot” since Jeff and I have such fun memories there. My numbers weren’t huge but the adventures were great.

Knox County Poorhouse.

Salton Sea of the Midwest.

Abandoned in the desert 2016.

Abandoned houses.

Anchor Valley Cemetery.

Two Guns + The Apache Death Cave.

Kings Park Psychiatric Center.

Abandoned Rubber Bowl.

Tip Top Cereal Company.

Cleveland Rocks!

Bonus spot – not abandoned at all but it still kind of fits in the same category. This was one of my favorite nights, and I’m still excited about those photos.

Hopefully 2017 will include more abandoned buildings. I certainly miss it. Here’s to another year of great adventures!

xoxo

Check out previous year’s favorite abandoned places here – 2014 + 2015.

You can find the rest of my posts on abandoned places under the “abandoned” tag.

Old Sheldon Church Ruins

by Kaylah Stroup December 6, 2016

On the way home from Savannah, the week before last, Jeff and I made a pit stop in Beaufort County, South Carolina to check out some really neat looking church ruins I had found photos of online. Researching any vacation for us includes searching for abandoned spots and really neat old cemeteries in the area. This kind of touches on both! While it’s not actually abandoned by any means, it’s on the National Register of Historic Places, the ruins of this old church are way rad and totally up our alley.

The church was originally built between 1745 and 1755, at the time it was known as Prince William’s Parish Church. It was partially burned by the British during the American Revolution in 1779. The interior and roof were rebuilt in 1826. Then thirty nine years later it was set ablaze yet again, this time by the federal army. It was never repaired. Apparently what wasn’t destroyed in the fire was used to help rebuild homes in the area.

Surrounded by gorgeous old trees, draped in Spanish moss, this spot couldn’t have been more dreamy. I always enjoy checking out the ruins of old buildings but the cemetery was what really excited me about this place. The first photo in this post? Ugh! It doesn’t get any more beautiful than that in my opinion. The fall colors, the sarcophagi, and Spanish moss! Be thankful you weren’t there in person with me, I would not shut up about Spanish moss. I’m honestly surprised I’ve mentioned it so few times on the blog.

Judging by the amount of photos, reviews, and the number of people that showed up at the end of our visit this is a super popular spot. As of October 2015, they no longer allow weddings on the property but they do still have a special Easter service each year. Jeff, and I showed up shortly after sunrise on a Sunday morning, while the sun was still at that perfect spot in the sky. We were the only people there for nearly an hour. I had so much fun roaming the property. Well worth the short detour!

xoxo

Colonial Park Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup November 30, 2016

At the beginning of this year Jeff got a new full time job which is obviously really good news but we kind of thought it meant we wouldn’t be able to travel as much as we wanted. Since the very beginning of our relationship traveling has been something that we’ve enjoyed together tremendously. I mean, duh, who doesn’t like traveling with their significant other? We took our first big trip together only a few months after meeting, and that was the start of something magical. I live for our vacations. They’re easily some of the best times I’ve ever had so the idea we wouldn’t be able to take our annual trip out west or go anywhere else was a huge bummer. With some careful planning, determination, and a few all night drives, 2016 turned into the year of road trips for us. I’ve played in the ocean, explored new cities, poked around a creepy old cave, and even managed to cross off one of my bucket list destinations – Roswell!

Over the holiday weekend Jeff and I went down to Georgia looking for a soul to steal and spent a few days hanging out in Savannah. I think this trip kind of started off as a joke, or at least it kind of felt like it. “We should go on Thanksgiving, that way we don’t have to decide whose house to go to for dinner!” Then, kind of randomly one day, Jeff sent me a screenshot that he had booked our hotel. We left the Wednesday before Thanksgiving around 8pm and took turns driving through the night. It’s a loooong twelve hour drive but you do what you gotta do!

I had hoped to blog about it how I blog about all the other trips I take, which is in order so it’s kind of like a diary or something for me to look back on but to be honest, the majority of the photos I took were in cemeteries. I had been to Savannah once before a few years ago. It was actually my first big trip with a friend and I had the time of my life. I almost feel like it was an important turning point for me. Anyway, I didn’t take many photos while I was there that time and I’ve been dying to get back to shoot these cemeteries that I have to believe are some of the most beautiful in the United States. So we ate the best chocolate ever*, played some pirate themed mini-golf, ate a pirate themed restaurant, did a whole lot of walking, and of course, spent a ton of time wandering cemeteries. I have so many photos to still work my way through but I’m going to start with my favorites first.

Colonial Park Cemetery is beautiful old cemetery located right in the middle of the city. It was established in 1750, and obviously holds tons of history. 700 victims of the 1820 Yellow Fever epidemic are buried here, along with many victims of Savannah’s dueling era. During the Civil War many of the graves were looted. Rumor has it that Union soldiers even changed the dates on some headstones. Why they’d do that is beyond me, but still, very interesting!

I had actually visited this particular cemetery a few years ago but absolutely, one hundred percent, do not remember it being this beautiful. Jeff and I arrived shortly after sunrise, while the sun was still in a perfect spot in the sky. The lighting was incredible and there morning fog seemed to just be burning off. It was SO beautiful. Lets not forget the Spanish moss. Oh my gosh, is there anything prettier than trees draped in Spanish moss in a cemetery? No, there isn’t! I don’t even know how many times I exclaimed how much I loved it. (Sorry for being annoying, Jeff!) I just can’t get enough!

All the cute shops, beautiful historic buildings, and good eats aside, Savannah is worth visiting just for it’s cemeteries… ya know, if you’re into that kind of thing.
xoxo

*So, I was just going to link to the chocolate place’s website until I realized they also had an etsy shop. You guys HAVE TO try this chocolate. Their Mexican Mayan Truffle is literally the best piece of chocolate I have ever eaten in my life. Also, their retail location is the adorable if you’re in the area!

underground

by Kaylah Stroup November 23, 2016

There are some shenanigans my friends and I get into that I don’t blog about for one reason or another. Exploring tunnels is one of these things for a handful of reasons. One important thing being I would never want to encourage you to do something potentially dangerous. Flash floods are real, and air quality should always be something you’re thinking about. Second, they aren’t really all that glamorous, and in the past I really struggled with how to photograph them.

I’ve expressed my frustrations with night photography in the past but this like a step past night photography. These tunnels are completely dark in most cases. No light at all. It’s up to you and your flashlight to put together a cool shot. The dozen or so times previous to this that I’ve been underground I didn’t really take all that many photos. In a situation that is kind of new to me it’s tough for me to want to experiment when the people around seem so confident and like they know exactly what they’re doing. I don’t know if that make any sense at all especially since I’m confident my friends wouldn’t judge me for any potentially crappy photos.

This time I was really feeling it though! It’s such a great feeling to be excited to sort through your photos at the end of an adventure. I’m so thankful to have friends who put me in unique situations and encourage me to grow as a photographer, whether they mean to or not.

someone lost their purse!

In the past I always just set up to take the same or very similar shots that my friends were taking. Basically just long exposures where someone was silhouetted – kind of like this one or this one Jeff took of me. It was almost like I felt I couldn’t shoot anything other than that because I was just learning to take long exposures to begin with so I wanted to get that perfect shot. This time I went into with the notion that I wanted to capture the experience, not the perfect photos, and I am so so so excited about what I got.

My favorites of the bunch are the long exposures weird light trails from out flashlights, and ghost-like figures, like the one below. I picked that up near the end of our little adventure on accident and then promptly decided I had to shoot like that more. The first photo in this post is absolute favorite. I had everyone walk away from me while I took a thirty second exposure. It was a super long, super dark, thirty seconds which I spent singing quietly to calm the thoughts of tunnel monsters but it was so worth it.

My goal as a photographer is to always be growing, experimenting, and learning new skills. In the last two years I have done SO much of this. I’m curious to see where I’ll be in another few years. I can’t wait to get back and play around more!
xoxo

Hartsgrove Center Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup November 14, 2016

fog, headstones, hartsgrove ohio, cemetery

Over four years ago, on the way to go camping, I stumbled upon a beautiful foggy cemetery. It was one of the first cemeteries I ever blogged about and it was definitely the first foggy cemetery I ever shot photos of. For a looong time those photos, although technically not the best, held the title of my favorites. I mean, what could be more spooky than a foggy cemetery?

It never gets all that foggy here, and when it does it usually never really reaches any of the cemeteries, at least not that I’ve ever been able to witness. It tends to stay a lot closer to the lake. All these years I have been waiting for the opportunity to shoot two of my favorite photo subjects, fog and headstones, together again. Other than an abandoned house, I don’t think there could be anything more perfect to shoot surrounded by fog.

My parents live around an hour away from my house. Half of the drive is highway, and the second half is back roads. I went to visit them the weekend before last and as soon as I got off the highway I hit a wall of fog. Not like “Oh, it’s a little bit foggy. Cool!” but like “HOLY COW, I cannot see the car directly in front me.” It was basically zero visibility. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to pull over and shoot but I knew that I had to take the opportunity to get some photos.

When I remembered those photos from a few years ago and that a small cemetery was coming up in a few miles – my mind was made! The fog had cleared a bit before I made it there but it was still an absolutely beautiful sight! It took four years but I fiiiiinally got the photos I wanted. Paired with the gorgeous autumn leaves, I really don’t think these could have come out any prettier. I am so pleased!

falls, leaves, headstone, cemetery, ohio

One of my favorite things about fog is how it highlights all the spiderwebs! Such works of art.

While writing this post and searching back through the blog under the keyword “fog” to find the links to old posts I realized that they almost all start the same – about how we just don’t get much fog here and how excited I am to shoot it. I’m starting to build quite the collection of foggy photos. It’s still not getting old for me though! I am so jealous of you guys who live in foggy areas, although I’d probably miss the chase of rushing to a location before the sun burns the fog off.
xoxo

cemetery explorin’ buddy.

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