With the plan of attempting to get into an underground CSO tank (Combined sewer/storm water overflow tank), that can be massive in size. A friend and I made our way to the 403 highway in Hamilton Ont. We walked down into some bushed and found the manhole of a storm drain that leads right into one, unfortunately we climbed down 30 feet of ladders and found a very nasty and small tunnel. It was only about 3 1/2 feet tall and was full of sewage.
Neither of us wanting to pull a Shawshank Redemption style crawl in a sewage tunnel, we decided to pass on it and go to a tunnel that was close by and that we have done several times. It has the nickname of the Wall Of Anguish because of a section that has a large wall that is very difficult to scale.
Since we have shot here several times already, we roamed around the room at the base of the wall and started backtracking into the tunnel. Trying to figure out what creativity we wanted to unleash.
Outside of the room with the wall, that tunnel is a very basic circular cement passageway, that is very common. But when that section ends at a small room, the really interesting part of this tunnel comes into sight.
A metal U shaped section. I have explored many tunnels and seen countless photos/videos of others. Never once have I seen a metal section in a storm drain!
Light blue in color and covered in rust spots, it is a great place to shoot! So it was a no brainer to set up here. We started with some light painting and steel wool.
Being the time of Halloween, I always have masks and props with me whenever I go out to shoot, so we began to break that out.
Then we started to play with "ghosting" long exposure shots. With our cameras set on bulb shooting, we got into place and started. Posing in one place and hitting the flash, moving to another and hitting the flash again, etc.
As the saying goes, time fly's when you're having fun and before we knew it. It was 3:30am, way way later than either of us intended or could be out until. We needed to make our exit but couldn't resist a couple of more shots in the plain tunnel.
I would have liked to have shot more, but did feel content with the creative chaos that we got into! It was a great night that produced some good photos, but I can foresee myself returning before Halloween comes.
