scary photography

So before starting my Holga shoot I did some research to try and get some ideas as to what I wanted to shoot. I came across the Flickr account of "rockpool73" and was immediatly inspired. (I would post some of his pictures, but Flickr won't allow it.) My favorite thing about the photographer's pictures was the heavy blacks he got in his pictures. This appeared most in afew picture he took of a long haired cat. Seeing this brought me back to a subject I'd tried many times to shoot, but had never been able to capture: my cat. Shooting my cat is always very difficult because he's very needy, and when I bend down to take his picture, he immediately runs over to me. I decided that I would try again. First I brought Montey (my cat) inside, and had my dad pet him to try and keep him still, but then I became leary of shooting indoors and decided it might be cool if I took him into the woods. He dutifully followed me into the backyard, but when we got into brush he'd bight at things and groom himself (neither actions made for a good picture). I also found that since I was shooting first thing in the morning, the sun was really strong, and it was having a negative affect on the pictures I took. I tried for about an hour, to get at least one picture I liked, but I had no luck.

Feeling semi discouraged, I moved to plan B: I asked my mom to drive me to an abandoned factory I'd seen by a place I used to volunteer at. She happily agreed, but when we got there I realized this may not have been such a good idea. The factory was gigantic, and no one but my mom and I were around. The factory would probably be a good place for my town's homeless people to live. I became terrified at the idea of an angry stranger bursting out of the building. My mom (who in some ways is my complete opposite) didn't really consider this fear at all, she was excited and wanted to explore. As I slowly walked toward it I noticed "no trespassing" signs all over the place, and graffiti everywhere; what if this was a gang hangout?! I had my DSLR with me and did not want to be held up. Once again, my mom thought I was being ridiculous, and yelled to me to come closer. I eventually did, and saw that the inside of the factory was really awesome, but the ground inside was completely torn up, and amidst all the decay was a running pump. This planted another fear in my mind; what if this was a hazardous waste site? Once I thought of this I decided it was time to go. I took afew more pictures, and we left. The whole setting was really strange, but it was so much fun to shoot. While I was kinda proud of myself for semi-conquering my fear of the building, I found that my fear made it hard for me to focus on the composition of my pictures, and when I looked back on the ones I took digitally a lot of them weren't level.

So here are some of the pictures I took throughout my morning of shooting. I shot the pictures of my cat and the woods with the Hipstamatic because I thought it might better imitate what the Holga pictures would look like, but the factory pictures are from my DSLR.

If you want to see rockpool73's awesome pictures here's the link!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockpool73/5403907762/in/photostream