Stokes State Forest In The Jeep
 

Took the jeep out with a buddy of mine up in Stokes State Forest today with my kayak. We explored a lot of the back country dirt roads and lakes and come across a lot of beautiful scenery and also some abandoned houses that we explored and got pictures of. Also while we were explorign the roads at one point I went to shift gears into third and all of a sudden my clutch pedal sunk to the floor and had no pressure. I was really worried because we were in the middle of no where. Somehow the clutch pedal disengaged from the linkage luckily we were able to fix it with a swiss army knife and some duct tape! Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

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1, 3, 8 & 9 are my favorites, everything looks good on them.

looks great! the abandoned house looks like a lot of fun to shoot!

Did you just pick one channel on the last pic to make it b/w? it looks a little off, but im not sure if its good or bad. the sky being so dark with clouds rolling through looks kinda cool.

looks like alot of fun
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LESBIAN AMATEUR

I love shooting abandoned things, theres always good angles and objects to capture cause there is so much going on in a shot.

The last picture was taken in black and white mode with an infra-red filter. Looks cool, just something different, kind of reminds me of something you'd see in an abercrombie ad lol.

I like pic #9 the lighting in it works so well

oooo, that makes sense :)

yeah, abandoned places are great. I shot abandoned factories and farm houses for my thesis as a visual compare/contrast between agricultural and industrial. Up here in NW jersey there's a lot of old abandoned buildings, so there's never any problem running out of places to go.

I do have one suggestion; you have a great eye for a shot, but look up the rule of thirds and shoot with that in mind. When you center an object or the horizon, it ends up making the picture more stagnant than if you put it near a third in the frame. (like if you moved the waterfall in #6 more towards the bottom left like in #4 it would be a little more free flowing)

very nice pics, you were able to explore without any trouble from the rangers? its been a very long time since ive been up there i dont know any rules anymore. id love to do that with my jeep and take some pics

Hmm thanks for the advice. I'll try that.


I'm still a bit of a beginner in photography I always loved it so I finally bought a digital SLR (Nikon D60) still learning new things all the time. Looks like I'm going to have to search for some abandon buildings out by you since you say theres a lot lol.

Nope no trouble from any rangers, saw some hikers and a couple other jeepers. As far as I know its completely legal to drive down these roads its all apart of the state park.

nice pics. do they have anywhere to ride ATVs at stokes?

its a lot of fun, and thats a great camera! there are a lot of old farm buildings and such around here, i know SteveR shot an abandoned insane asylum a few years ago, but I think he said they tore it down. I would have loved to shoot that.

Yea, it was a great place for pics. I have a few of the pics online, but I have about 5 or 6 cds full of pics at home. I'll post some up a little later

A couple ATV's passed me on the trail, whether or not its legal to ride there I'm not sure.

There is an abandoned insane asylum right by me in ceder grove, they knocked a lot of the buildings down but some of them are still standing, went in a couple of them when I was younger, don't think I'd do it again...

Overbrook? The one up on top of the hill, or the one thats partially still operational at the bottom of the hill? I heard they are shutting down the one on the bottom of the hill too. Both were built at the same time by the same people and were considered the same hospital. They closed the one at the top of the hill back in the '80's. Thats the one I took a ton of pics at. Very freaky place. Its a real shame they knocked it all down. That had to be the scariest place I've ever been to. I'll post some pics of it tonight.

Yep, ever go into the tunnels? There used to be tunnels underground that the staff off the hospitals used to get from building to building. Went in there, very very freaky, mattress's and stuff all thrown around. Some parts of the tunnels were blocked with piles of desks, chairs etc..

As far as I know the newer part of the hospital at the bottom was built only a couple years ago and is in full operation. The old hill top hospital is being torn down for condo's but part of it is still left as a reservation you can hike through.

Pics look good.....your Jeep is too clean though :razz:

- Justin

A few of the buildings at the bottom are new, but most are from the same period as the hilltop site. I used to go through the tunnel a lot, definitely scary. The last tunnel that was still open was the one that went from the factory building to the old building to the north, the one that was last used as the childrens building.

any quad riding in NJ is illegal, anywhere, everywhere, unless its private land.

looks freakin awesome man! i wish there were places closer to do a lil off roading with the girls jeep... i guess thats as close as it gets sonsidering i live in NE jersey lol