Revisiting Manda Coal Mine, Omuta City

[Andrew O'Neill]

While in Japan earlier this month, I revisited a place that has meant a lot to me, photographically...

 

[Sirius Glass]

Wonderful!!

 

[mshchem]

Great video, beautiful photographs. Reminds me of an old railroad shop I would visit 40 years ago. Thanks so much for sharing!
Best Regards Mike

 

[MTGseattle]

Nice work Andrew!

 

[pentaxuser]

Very ínteresting, Andy. What surprised me was how long some the the exposures had to be I may have been conditioned by the light conditions on the day of the tour and not realised that when you took the shots the light conditions were quite different

The night shot with the trails of the aircraft at I think 4 hours was probably the longest exposure I have seen but was clearly needed. How do you go about working out the exposure? Clearly a few minutes either way makes no difference but if you'd asked me to guesstimate the exposure I don't think I have estimated anything close to 4 hours which only goes to show that even at very long exposures, instinct and finger in the air guesses might be well wide of the mark

I was surprised at how white( almost IR like) the tree foliage came out with a green filter but maybe it was in fact quite light in colour anyway and not a deep green

You seemed to be the only tourist that day, no doubt due to the weather. You could have fried an egg and some bacon on a shovel as you walked around

By the way the underpass did not look open to me. These days in the U.K. there would probably be a "jobsworth" securíty guard there ready to shout at you even when you were still about 20 yards away

pentaxuser

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Very ínteresting, Andy. What surprised me was how long some the the exposures had to be I may have been conditioned by the light conditions on the day of the tour and not realised that when you took the shots the light conditions were quite different

The night shot with the trails of the aircraft at I think 4 hours was probably the longest exposure I have seen but was clearly needed. How do you go about working out the exposure? Clearly a few minutes either way makes no difference but if you'd asked me to guesstimate the exposure I don't think I have estimated anything close to 4 hours which only goes to show that even at very long exposures, instinct and finger in the air guesses might be well wide of the mark

I was surprised at how white( almost IR like) the tree foliage came out with a green filter but maybe it was in fact quite light in colour anyway and not a deep green

You seemed to be the only tourist that day, no doubt due to the weather. You could have fried an egg and some bacon on a shovel as you walked around

By the way the underpass did not look open to me. These days in the U.K. there would probably be a "jobsworth" securíty guard there ready to shout at you even when you were still about 20 yards away

pentaxuser

The long exposures were down to using small apertures, especially with 8x10...and with reciprocity factored in! The star shot was all guess work. No metring was done. Initially I intended it to be a 5 hour exposure, but I was tired and figured 4 hours should give me decent star trails... I did a ton of light painting with a flash set to strobe. I painted mainly in the front of the buildings, and a ton on the tower. I even climbed up under the first level and zapped it several times! It's tricky getting up there, but I knew my way around there quite well, so no worries. Luckily I had a key to lock the place up, leave my camera there, hop in my car, and drive to Starbucks, with a good book. I think it was a Harry Potter book!
They get a lot of school groups visiting. School was out for Summer. A TV drama was also shot there apparently, making the location kind of famous. But...no one wants to go there in that heat which was fine by me! No one to get in my way! There was only one other person wandering around. I knew one of the volunteer staff members, but he didn't recognise me at first. Haven't seen each other in over 20 years! He offered me access to the air conditioned staff room, with ice water, flavoured ice. That was a real treat! I don't know if you noticed, but they were wearing a special vest with built in fans. They told me it really keeps them cool!
The tree was a really light green, up against red brick. I used the filter to darken the brick. I was surprised that it came out like that... probably due to accidently over exposing the crap out of it!
When I first discovered the underpass, that fencing was up, with a small opening in the bottom that I could crawl through. The underpass looked the same as did all those years ago... lots of weeds and ferns...and spiders! The spiders and snakes creeped me out the most at Manda!
I wish I could have shown the inside of the bathing area, and repairs shops. Sadly that area is being repaired. They told me all the work will be done by March 2024. I will be back!

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks for reply Andy I hadn't noticed the special vests. I don't think I'd have lasted 5 minutes in those conditions, let alone been able to do your tour.

Incidentally I am not sure a gap under the fence qualifies as access permitted. It's a bit like a POW saying he spotted a small gap under the barbed wire so he thought it was OK to leave

pentaxuser

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Good stuff. I especially liked the clock image and the night one.

 

[Ben 4]

Very impressive—I love the juxtaposition of the 2023 video with your B&W shots from 20 years ago. The B&W images have a dignity that is absent from the video. It's remarkable that you were able to find so much of the same subject matter in the same positions all this time later. A question: in found sites such as this, are you ever tempted to move loose items around to make a different composition? I'm thinking of the gloves, for example, at 12:11 or the shovel laid across the tracks at 15:10? I can never bring myself to do that, though I'm not sure why.
Nice safari hat, by the way!

--Ben

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Very impressive—I love the juxtaposition of the 2023 video with your B&W shots from 20 years ago. The B&W images have a dignity that is absent from the video. It's remarkable that you were able to find so much of the same subject matter in the same positions all this time later. A question: in found sites such as this, are you ever tempted to move loose items around to make a different composition? I'm thinking of the gloves, for example, at 12:11 or the shovel laid across the tracks at 15:10? I can never bring myself to do that, though I'm not sure why.
Nice safari hat, by the way!

--Ben

Thank you, Ben. I don't like to move items around, but sometimes a little tweaking is necessary. The shovel was not touched. It is how I found it. The gloves in the box are how I found them. The box was leaning against the wall however, I did adjust its tilt ever so slightly. Very little has changed there, other than clean up, keeping the weeds down, repairs, replaced windows, info placards here and there... That hat was absolutely necessary in that sun!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Thank you, Ben. I don't like to move items around, but sometimes a little tweaking is necessary. The shovel was not touched. It is how I found it. The gloves in the box are how I found them. The box was leaning against the wall however, I did adjust its tilt ever so slightly. Very little has changed there, other than clean up, keeping the weeds down, repairs, replaced windows, info placards here and there... That hat was absolutely necessary in that sun!

I too will not move or stage objects for photographs. I leave things as I find them.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I too will not move or stage objects for photographs. I leave things as I find them.

I don't like to stage anything unless it's a still life, for example.

 

[MattKing]

I'll move stuff that is in the way - e.g branches - but I rarely stage stuff.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I'll move stuff that is in the way - e.g branches - but I rarely stage stuff.

I was constantly holding weeds out of the way, tree branches, etc. To photograph in the toilet, I had to remove a gauntlet of cobwebs in the doorway!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

...no spiders were harmed.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I'll move stuff that is in the way - e.g branches - but I rarely stage stuff.

I was constantly holding weeds out of the way, tree branches, etc. To photograph in the toilet, I had to remove a gauntlet of cobwebs in the doorway!

Yes, I will do that and remove empty cigarette packages too.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Yes, I will do that and remove empty cigarette packages too.

You would have been pretty busy moving empty cigarette packages here when I first started exploring the area!

 

[Sirius Glass]

If you gottem; smokem.

 

[Ben 4]

Glad to see that I’m not alone in leaving found scenes as they are!

 

[Rick A]

Andy, thank you for inviting us along on this visit. Stunning images indeed.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Andy, thank you for inviting us along on this visit. Stunning images indeed.

Thank you, Rick! You are very welcome!

 

[Keith Pitman]

Loved the tour, but especially your photos. Bravo.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The OP's wondering around in the hot weather reminds me of the quote about English men and mad dogs wandering around in Rome on hot summers midday.

 

[DWThomas]

Ah, a lot of fine Olde Rust! Thanks for the hot tour and the cool B&W shots.