The Ruins in Glen Rock, PA

A client asked me about The Ruins during a consultation. Her session is next month.

Being me, I had to get out there first. I wanted to understand the light before the day, not on the day. Where the shadows fall. What the colors do. I shoot places I have never stood in all the time. This one was about knowing the route and showing up prepared.

So we made a Saturday of it, the whole family. We had been to the movies earlier to see the KATSEYE documentary, which Cori and Charlie love. Do not ask me to explain it.

Then we drove to Glen Rock.

I had driven past it for years

The route there felt like a part of town I had never seen.

That was the strange part, because I had passed this place many times. It is one turn off the main road in Glen Rock. There is a gas station right there I have stopped at more than once.

You turn into an alley, and the alley feels suspect at first. You start wondering if you are somewhere you should not be.

Then it opens up. That is the thing about The Ruins. You really do not see this place until you see it.

What it actually is

An abandoned concrete structure with open bays and square columns, and beams overhead with nothing sitting on them anymore.

Every surface is painted. Not tagged over in a sad way, painted. There are full murals down the back wall.

The light, which is the reason I went

This is the part I actually drove out there for, so here is everything I learned.

At high noon you still get direct light. But those beams overhead throw shadow down into it, so it is never the flat harsh noon you get in an open field. The structure is doing work for you before you have set anything up.

Then the sun moves and the whole place moves with it. The vertical columns keep cutting the light into new shapes. The overhead beams change the look of the entire ruin as the angle shifts. Come back two hours later and it is not the same location.

About three hours before sunset is the sweet spot. That is when the shadows are most dynamic, with the angles stacking and the layers of shadow through the structure blending into each other until the atmosphere changes completely. If you only get one window here, take that one.

Golden hour is not what you think. By then the larger walls and the trees have taken over, so the golden light is there but it is not landing on you directly.

And it is not a late location. By sunset it is a bit too dark for normal photos. You can absolutely do it with equipment. That is not why we come here.

The part where I was wrong

I have always believed it is not the location that makes the picture. It is the vision.

This location proved me wrong.

The colors do work I would normally have to do myself, and the artwork gives you a background with real depth in it. Look at what is behind Cori here. I did not build that, I just found the angle.

The structure is also full of small raised areas that sit almost like stages, so you can put somebody up, or down, or through a gap, and get a completely different photo without walking twenty feet.

Then there are the lines. Columns repeating away from you, beams cutting across, geometry wherever you point the camera.

And the columns are not only backdrops. They are things to hide behind, lean on, peek around. Charlie figured that out in about four seconds.

When you are done with the concrete there are grass areas too. They are not as striking as the industrial side. But they mean you can run what feels like two separate sessions in one location, and nobody has to get back in a car.

Know before you go

This is the part I wish somebody had written for me.

It is public and the graffiti is welcome. There are posted signs with the rules on them. This is not a spot you sneak into. There is also a security camera that says out loud that you are being recorded, which I thought was a nice touch.

The road in is bad. Drive it slow, and I do mean slow.

Parking is decent. There is a lot out front, and more off to the right once you pull through the alley. Both are visible from anywhere inside the ruins, so you can keep an eye on your car while you work.

There is a porta potty behind the main wall. It sits outside the camera's view, so it is not somewhere to send a kid on their own.

Now the one that matters. There is an opening that leads toward the water. When I first saw it I thought it was great. Then I walked through it.

It is about a six foot drop, into less than a foot of water, onto rocks. There is no sign, and nothing telling you it is there until you are looking down into it.

There are a few other blind spots in the structure too. Dad Mode kicked in.

So here is my honest answer. Is it safe? Yes. Is it a place to let little ones run free? No. Keep the small ones on the concrete and keep eyes on them, and you will have a great afternoon.

I met Matt

There was a younger photographer out there when we arrived, shooting a car he had pulled in.

We got talking, and before we left he offered to take a picture of us.

I usually say no to that. I am not the photo kind of guy, I am the guy behind it. This time I said yes.

Matt took a rare photo. Great job, man!

Go before it changes

Here is the thing I keep thinking about.

That artwork is alive, and the place actively promotes change, which means what is on that wall this year may well be gone next year. Somebody will paint over the blue figure in the red cap. Somebody else will put something better there.

Most locations look the same in your photos in ten years as they did the day you booked. This one will not. Your session here is dated in a way a park session never is, and I think that is a feature.

The Ruins is on my list now. If you want your session here, it is a yes from me. Book it for the late afternoon and let me do the rest.

The Ruins is one of the locations I shoot across York County. The rest of them are on the full locations list.

Family sessions