The Ninja goes to the forest.........And takes photos!!

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Without further ado, let's bring 'em out!

A random shot from one of the nearby forests. There are 3 different forests around the edges of the town, each -10 minutes walking distance from my house.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/6339/picture008wn6.jpg

Because big forests are awesome. Add a load of snow and it gets 10X more metal!
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/681/im001537wa8.jpg

Some of my more recent photos. This place is at the bottom of the road from where I stay right now.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3852/downbythesideoftheriverkx7.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/2681/ashotoftheriverfromafoofq6.jpg
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5184/aphotofromthatbigrockinnq3.jpg

For those who have seen my desktop picture. (look in the desktop thread) Same day, same place too. I just turned to the left and took this one.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4725/anotherforestshotthisplcw6.jpg


A few hundred yards from the last photo is this area. This happened only a few months ago.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8302/anotherforestshotthisplrd8.jpg

An older photo of the late Aero and Bob.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6396/aerobobbyoe1.jpg

And always a hit with the ladies (or at least mi amor loves this one :p) The Ninja............in the park.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/6482/anotherforestshotthispljh8.jpg

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Come on guys. Don't you like photos? :p

[Revenant]

Nice pics, what kind of camera do you have?

[blood imp]

Hells yeah I like photos! They all look sweet! Not your typical generic flat forest, but a kick-ass, water-filled forest! It looks sweet. You're lucky to have a place like that less than 10 minutes away! And Aero and Bob looked good right there.

And what kind of camera did you use?

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Hah! It worked! :p Go bumpage!

What camera eh? Let me see.....

It's an HP Photosmart 715. Old by technological standards but still darned good and I won't be replacing it anytime soon. I'll be taking it with me to Mexico next year and the year after that too.

[blood imp]

Make sure to take pictures of Mexico! And the camera is good.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Don't worry, I intend to take plenty photos. If things go to plan, there'll be plenty cute photos too. :D

And if things go according to my other plan, I'll be sending photos from there almsot everyday or, at least, when Iget time. :p

[FATAL]

Your forests look a lot more interesting than the ones over here. Damn you.*yuck*

[Ninja_of_DooM]

lol. Well I know I'm going to miss them when I leave the country. But I simply can't find any other reason for wanting to stick around when there are better places to go to. And the chances of getting a good job around here are almost non-existant anyway.

Anyhoo, I'm going to upload a few more photos now. Back in a bit.

EDIT; Ok, here we go.

Snow. What fun.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8561/aloooongwaylm8.jpg
Don't those trees leaning over the sides of the path look so comforting? :p
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5663/moresnowlolth2.jpg

More hillside stuffage! :p
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4616/hillue0.jpg

Same place as the previous photo.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7594/treesandhillshehko1.jpg

An abandonned farm.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/4728/ooharroc5.jpg

Inside the building above.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4041/inside2zz1.jpg

An old farm house, just right of the buildings you saw in the last photo.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1475/creepyzu3.jpg
Inside the house. As I learned, great place to shelter from the elements. Creepy place though.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/593/insidemu2.jpg

[Ninja_of_DooM]

An abandonned railway tunnel. It's pitch black in there so don't go without a very strong light source. You won't see your hand in front of your face most of the way. It's about a kilometre long and creepy as hell!
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4981/oldtunnelwv1.jpg

Under the olde railway bridge, just next to the tunnel.
http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/2605/theoldrailwaybridgenextav0.jpg


And finally, just for the heck of it, a photo cute took at Isla Mujeres, northeast of Cancun, a week before hurricane Dean arrived. I'm hoping to base myself In Cancun next summer and take a trip to Merida to visit cute, seeing as it's easier to fly to Cancun from here than it is to Merida, which is only 4 hours away by bus.http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/5456/beachatthenorthoftheislcb3.jpg

[Doom_Dude]

Nice shots Ninja. I didn't realize you posted these...

I like the forest shots and the watery area with the stream looks like a nice place. Great places to take photos. That first shot that has the deadfalls has an interesting composition. Kewl. :D

That abandoned farm is cool. I should try painting something from that. I need to get back into doing that artsy stuff.

Wow that tunnel would be creepy to go into, even with a light.

Like I said, nice shots. I always preferred pictures of scenery. Are these all in Scotland, besides the Cancun shot?

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Yep, all in Scotland, within about 10 miles of my home. I'll maybe mark the loations on a map sometime.

yeah, that tunnel is pretty dark. it's worse when there's a wind blowing thorugh. It gets cold and makes the eyes water, making it harder to see. What's more, it's so dark that the strongest light just gets swallowed by the darkness so you'll only be able to see a few feet ahead.

EDIT: Map done. It's a bit sketchy but it gets it across. :p
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9928/mapxb1.th.jpg (http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mapxb1.jpg)

[blood imp]

Damn you're lucky!!! You have the most kick-ass area around your house. It's all so AWESOME!!!! You're making me jealous! :p

[+Acyclitor+]

most grim and frostbitten :)

there is similar beauty in the area near my residence, I'll have to do some photography sometime and share it with you guys.

[Jimi]

Nice photos and nice forest. They look so clean. Around here too many people seem to think forests are meant for throwing garbage into them..

[Ninja_of_DooM]

lol. Yeah, all I ahev to look out for is doggy poo. :p I'll tell you what I find funny about the forests. When I'm walking along a path hemmed in by trees and the wind starts to blow, you can hear it approaching as it moves towards you and see the trees moving along with it like as though some invisible thing is coming towards you and brushing against the trees. :D

The snowy photos were taken in early January this year. I woke up and saw it ahd been snowing. So I had a quick shower, and breakfast, grabbed my camera and went out there at about 10am. What was really cool ws that despite seeing a lot of tracks in the snow, nobody had gone up the more out-of-the-way path so I was the first person to go there and it had a good reward in it too. There were Fox prints in the snow at some places but what got my interest was one set of Deer prints.

They were going along the path in the same direction I was going so following them was easy enough. I could see where it had stopped to browse the nearby bushes and pick stuff off the ground as well. After about half an hour of following them, I got to a bend in the path and when I looked I saw the same Deer that had been leaving the prints, just disappearing into the trees at the side. I don't know why, but it was a nice feeling. Knowing that what I had been just moments behind it.

I also saw Squirrels running around the treetops too. They were easy to see because of the snow that fell off the branches they were on. So I could see little trails of snow falling everywhere. :p And then I got caught in a mini blizzard of sorts. A strong wind came through and blew all the snow off the treetops and blew it in my face. lol!

Expect videos at some point. I've been meaning to record my various walks for a while now. :p I sjut need to find an affordable video camera.

EDIT: You might like this photo. I took it when the sun was shining for a few minutes during that walk.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6128/splitdg6.jpg

[Danimetal]

Nice pics Ninja. Also, every time I see a photo of yours (I mean, a photo of your physical self) you remind me more and more to my friend Silvio.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Hahaha! Seriously? That's funny. :D Well we'll see later. I was toying around with the camera's timer feature today and took a self-photo with it. I'll see how it turned out when I unload them.

Right, so I'm just back from another wander in the big forest. I found a new path today too. I'll upload the photos later on tonight. Turned out to be a pretty cool walk too. Cold, wind howling throught the trees and trees creaking all around me. I went pretty deep in too, no marked path most of the time. You'll soon see. :)

[Danimetal]

I'll try and look if I can find a photo of him somewhere... I am most sure that I have no digital photograph of him since he's a friend from high school (that's years ago) but I could have some old photographs lying around in my private albums. As of today he has very, very short hair (almost none) but it is fun to see him like this now when he had curly, long hair like mine's.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

You're all going to have to wait for the photos. This piece of crap computer is refusing to detect the camera and I've run through every possible solution to no freaking avail. *angry* Looks like I'll eb waiting for it to fix itself again. :p

Why is it that things have to stop working when you want them to work most?

[FATAL]

if this is your most urgent need for camera functionality, I dare not to think about the event when you do not need it. *wacky*

[blood imp]

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6128/splitdg6.jpg
Thats a cool path, Ninja!

[lucius octavion]

Oh my god, nice man. Jee, I wish I was you... and I wish where I lived it didn't look so crappy...

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Yeah, that's the more remote path I mentioned earlier on. Forgot to tell you.

[blood imp]

I'm thinking of using that one as my desktop. :p

[lucius octavion]

Dude, I want to come visit you on Christmas! :D

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Try coming along in January. we usually have snow by then. :p Seriously though, it usually doesn't snow until January aroudn here unless you're lucky.

EDIT: How the heck did I double post that? Must have been when I updated FF.

[Doom_Dude]

This is not the double post you were looking for. Move along. ;)

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Lol. Thanks for deleting it DD.

The camera's still not working. But here's another photo. I took it inside that old barn frome earlier. it's the next room through door in the room with the old fireplace.

[GoldEyes]

As a photo freak, very nice photos Ninja!! Very sharp and colorful. Me likey a lot!!! :)

[Ninja_of_DooM]

I still have a lot of photos from the walks I've already posted. I'll upload those until I can get my camera to work. I'll be getting access to another PC later this week so I'll soon see if it's the camera or the PC that's causing the problem. :p I'll post a few more of Cute's photos from Isla Mujeres later.

And maybe, once I get hold of a video camera, I'll make a video of that tunnel just to let you lot see what it's like. I forgot to mention before, there's actually another tunnel on the other side of the first one. it's about a kilometer away down the track the railway used to be on. It doesn't look too safe though and it's down at the bottom of a hill which has made the ground around the entrance and inside very muddy because the water can get in. in the other one I just have to watch my feet for rocks in the ground so I don't trip on them. :p

EDIT: Photos, as I promised. Kudos to Cute for these. :)
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4972/beachatthenorthoftheislqs1.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5056/anothershipdevastedbyhubt3.jpg

[lucius octavion]

Man, I live too far from you.

[blood imp]

That beach looks sweet :D

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Lucius, you do realise those are different to the other photos, right? I can't live in 2 places at once. But just to clear things up for you seeing as you are probably in the dark here (and because I'm nuts about her);

The pictures of the forests and hills are all my own, taken from places near my home in Scotland. You know, cold harsh weather and dark skies. :p

The more exotic photos were taken by my Girlfriend, <---see left *heart*, when she spent a weekend at Isla Mujeres northwest of Cancun, Mexico as well as going to Cancun itself. This was about a month or so back. It was a week before Dean hit the area. For your information, she lives in Merida 4 hours to the west of Cancun. Very bright and quite hot. And the weather too. lol! :D

So yeah, you can tell the photos are from 2 different countries. And you really don't want to be me either, unless it's for the looks. :p

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Right folks, time for an update!! :) The camera is now working again. Let's bring them on. I took these while going along a new path I discovered that day after I decided to look behind the tree-line and saw it. These are laid out in order from start to finish. At the end I found a small area that had been cleared almost right in the middle of the forest, about a hundred or so yards from the path. The area before was just a maze of trees. Don't go in without a good sense of direction or you'll get lost.

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/3523/newpath1nu6.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/8502/newpath2kw0.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/8383/newhollybushcl8.jpg
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/3163/knarlyjh4.jpg
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/940/ruinak0.jpg


Dani, this one's for you. You said something about that friend of yours who looked like me. :p Is this him? lol!

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/8168/newmema7.jpg

[Doom_Dude]

Nice shots again Ninja. Are there any lakes around your part of Scotland?

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Not really. There's a river that runs through Perth, but that's all.

The only lake I can think of is Glenfarg Resevoir, not exactly a lake. It's about 8 miles south of Perth and it's quite remotely placed. Getting to the shore of the thing is hard and I've never done it. It supplies water to a village of the same name and hence the only way to the shore is secured. Steep hills rise up around it from all other sides so getting in that way is not exactly encouraged as you're likely to get chased around by some angry cows, (and they can run, trust me I know) or falling down the hillside. :p

[lucius octavion]

Lucius, you do realise those are different to the other photos, right? I can't live in 2 places at once. But just to clear things up for you seeing as you are probably in the dark here (and because I'm nuts about her);

The pictures of the forests and hills are all my own, taken from places near my home in Scotland. You know, cold harsh weather and dark skies. :p

The more exotic photos were taken by my Girlfriend, <---see left *heart*, when she spent a weekend at Isla Mujeres northwest of Cancun, Mexico as well as going to Cancun itself. This was about a month or so back. It was a week before Dean hit the area. For your information, she lives in Merida 4 hours to the west of Cancun. Very bright and quite hot. And the weather too. lol! :D

So yeah, you can tell the photos are from 2 different countries. And you really don't want to be me either, unless it's for the looks. :p

lol Yeah, I know that. Heh, I was mainly talking about your pictures from where you live in Scotland. Those are really rad. *hippie*

[Ninja_of_DooM]

More stuff. I took these, literally, just a few minutes ago outside my house so make that 10pm. They're a little blurry though.
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/9712/darkda2.jpg
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/6738/dark2cn5.jpg

[blood imp]

Those on the path from #35 look like something from a movie. :p

And the real awesome thing about your forests are the plephora of side features (i.e. hills, uprooted trees, big rocks, mine). Near where I live is a forest, although it is for the most part flat with a hill or two. One of the smallish woods here does have a cool bike-trail though, but it's nothing to be excited about, and besides, my camera is unavailable right now.*sulk* Oh well!

And those house pictures are a bit blurry!

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Sit tight and I'll get a video of that path uploaded later today. :D

Forgive me for what I am about to unleash upon the world! :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GieDQ6thVp4
I'll have another one next week when I go rummaging around that olde farm. It'll turn out better than this time, I swear. :D And it won't be so dang dark either. I didn't realise I moved aorund so much. :p

[Doom_Dude]

What did you jump over near the start? Some brambles or something? I think the vid would be better if you stopped in some spots and did a slow pan of the area. A tripod would help in spots like that. and you can get a nice, compact light weight one for cheap. You can even get these little ones you can set on a rock or table. Its ok to pause video and move across the rough spots and then continue filming in another spot. Otherwise pretty good for a first try. I still prefer your photographs but I always had the preference for photos. I've done some videos for family function type stuff and even did a wedding, but I stay clear of that kind of video stuff when I can. ;)

[Ninja_of_DooM]

I jumped over a ditch at the start. Yeah, is hould probably have tried stopping a few times. The problem is that youtube only allows for videos to be 100MB in size and 10 minutes long. Pausing while recording is not something this camera can do so I'm going to have to look for something that can maybe stick 2 videos together.

I'm probably going to stick with photos, but for those places that are just dieing to be seen in detail (like that farm) videos are good. I'll see how that one goes when I go back there on sunday. It's small enough to do in 5 minutes. I'll maybe try to stop tallking so much as well.

Oh, and sorry for the double postage. Didn't realise I had spilled over onto another page. :p

[Doom_Dude]

No prob on the double postage.

LOL I thought you jumped over some nettles or something. It takes awhile to get used to doing the video thing, especially when you're trying to move around and stuff. Look forward to the farm video. ;)

[Ninja_of_DooM]

As do I. I had taken a lot more photos there but they just didn't quite go together so well. I was moving from room to room you see? Apart from that, you weren't quite getting the feel of how battered and ruined it was. Plus, a tour of the house would be quite cool, though I better take my stick with me so I can hack my way through the weeds, nettles and stuff on the path to get there. I might try and get past the rubble in the hallway. I would try and get upstairs but the chances are the floor is going to break under my weight and that's if there are even stairs left to go up.

The funny thing is, when I first went there I never thought about whether or not the door would be locked, which it wasn't. There is a back door, I found it when I went inside and got into what I assume was the kitchen. But the door is behind a thick wall of vegetation now and impossible to get to without a scythe. :p

[Doom_Dude]

Sound like you need a ride-on mower. ;)

I wouldn't chance the upstairs myself. Not worth it. You could tie your camera to a long pole and stick it up through any holes and use the timer to see if you can get some shots. ;) I thought you were gonna say you needed the stick for the spider webs.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

lol! No, spider webs aren't such a problem. I don't recall seeing any as a matter of act. The house is just full of wallpaper, old crumbling plaster and the walls are full of holes. The ceiling is mostly ok as is the floor. There's even an old bath and a toilet inside as well. I sheltered in the house when I was last out in the area and got caught in the rain without a proper jacket for it.

[Doom_Dude]

Theres a lot of spiders around here this time of year. You need a big stick sometimes to get the webs out of the way. :p

By the way I got started on that farm house painting. Just got the sky done and did the background trees and filled in the dark windows and the holes in the roof with some black. All that green stuff in the front is going to be a pain. :p I may go over parts of the sky with some white to make more of a cloud cover. All I did so far was just a basic sky with some blue that fades to gray.

[blood imp]

The movie was WAY to blurry, and I agree with DD, you should've stopped a few times. But now we get details of your forest! YAY! :D
And I can't wait for the farm house video. It looked really cool from the photos! And don't forget to take a picture from inside the tunnel! :D

[Ninja_of_DooM]

I only just saw how blurry it was. Drat! I must have been moving around too much. :p I should have turned on the night-time compensation. It may have made it brighter for you.

If I can take the camera too, I'll try and take a photo of the inside though the flash might not help too much simply because it's so dark, but I'll try all the same. Being so close to the farm, I'll maybe be able to include it in the video if I move quick enough from one place to the other. If not I'll just make s seperate movie and maybe go through as well. Better pack all the torches I've got. :p

Anyway, get over to DD's thread. You'll want to see this.

[blood imp]

It's not that it was dark, just blurry. :p

As for the tunnel, if you have some super-bright flashlight (like those aquatic ones), you can probably get some decent shots of it. But you don't have to. You can start filming at the entrance, and go deeper and deeper until you lose camera visibility (an experiment!). :p

And oh yes, DD's painting is coming out splendidly!

[Ninja_of_DooM]

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/8500/insidebarndu6.jpg

[blood imp]

*ohh* Coolness! Is that at the farm?
Edit: I just saw the Farm Painting thread. So that's what it is... Awesome!!!

[Doom_Dude]

Hay that's an interesting picture. Are those animal pens?

[Ninja_of_DooM]

That's what I thought they were. I took another photo in there, I just turned left on the spot and I got this one:
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4347/barn2nd9.jpg
Yeah, I think it's safe to assume that those are definitely holding pens. I tried to open the door into that room but it wouldn't budge. From what I rememebr, there's an opening on the outside of the building that will let me get in there.

[blood imp]

How old do you reckon the place is?

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Well going by the size of the place and type of buildings that are there compared with other local farms, I would hazard a guess that it's been abandonned for maybe 30+ years. I mean there are trees growing inside the barns, some as much as 12 feet tall. I've not been able to turn up anything regarding it's actual age, but I've seen abandonned places before and this one is the most decayed. The walls are full of holes, roof almost completely gone and the upper level in the house as partly collapsed as you can see. I have a name though, Kilknockiebank. I suppose I could look for it but soemthing tells me it's not going to be on google. Maybe the town library has something in the archive.

The house has an old stove just inside the front door and there's little sign of electricity being used for more than just lighting. Take a look back at the first page and you'll see an old fireplace inside the barn. Only the oldest farm buildings are going to have one of those as most will have been removed or older buildings will have been demolished. Certainly, I have never seen a place like this anywhere before. I'm going to look around more thoroughly next time that's for sure. I saw various jars and cans laying around the place. Maybe they will have a date marked on them which might lead to some hint of age or, at least, when the place was abandonned. I'll take the camera too and take more detail photos of everything there, show you how extensive the damage to the house is.

[blood imp]

Hmm... well in any case it looks pretty old!

[+Acyclitor+]

I would bet the place is between 75 and 100 years old. probably been "modernized" a few times before it was abandoned.

[Doom_Dude]

Interesting stuff.

There was supposedly an old farm up the road from me. Whatever happened to it... I don't know. In the woods just off the beaten path theres a couple old apple trees in different spots. That's about the only evidence you can find besides some concrete bits sticking out of the ground, some of which were buried or removed when they turned the place into a cemetary. Too bad more of the farm isn't around to investigate. Maybe the foundation is in the woods somewheres but I've never found it and the only thing off the beaten path is a concrete rectangular jobby that is low to the ground, which is usually full of water and is a home to frogs.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Ok, I got the videos (3 of them each the showing the house, barn and tunnel seperately) but we're having connection problems so I'll hopefully have them up tonight or tomorrow. But be warned, the barn video contains one incident of strong language. I got a load of bramble thorns stuck to my leg on my way out of the house 'garden'. Those things hurt. :p

Speaking of more abandonned stuff, not far from the farm is an old bunker. It looks like you went in from the top and down stairs that would have gone around the inside edge to the bottom. I tried to get in and even had some rope to make the descent but some forestry workers had taken a load of debris from when they had been felling trees in the area and dropped it inside, so getting in is no longer possible. There are what look like foundations of another bunker or similar structure nearby but they've been abandonned mid-construction. Just a bunch of concrete columns with wires sticking out of the top is all that there is to see. Plus there's an old, and intact, air raid shelter not far from there as well in perfect condition. :p I'll have to look into those as well.

[blood imp]

Damn, that bunker and shelter sound pretty cool. You'll have to take pictures of those, too! :p

I can't wait for those videos!

[Ninja_of_DooM]

Ok, I know I said they would be up weeks ago, but our ISP made a cockup of epic proportions and ended up cancelling our order. So We've been waiting since I last posted to get this thing going. Just to let you know that we're supposed to have our connection up on thursday, so I'll get the videos done as soon as I can. I have a bunch of photos to upload too so sit tight and I'll get them up as soon as I can. I would do it now, but I don't have them with me. :p

[Doom_Dude]

So I'm not the only one taking long to get stuff done. :p