Haunted Asylum?

I went to the old mental health hospital in Traverse City today. It's a huge area with once beautiful buildings spread out over many acres of hills and trees. Back in 1885 The Northern Michigan Asylum was built. As the story goes: the founder had a theory that if mentally troubled people could come to a place and be surrounded by beautiful things and find peace and tranquility, that perhaps some of their troubles would cease to exist. Not that this was always the solution, but it may have helped in regards to how asylums were kept and run. The facility ran for 104 years. But with the heath care reform in the state and the declining use of such massive mental health facilities in general, the facility closed in 1989. Due to the previous function of the buildings and the rapid deterioration once closed, stories of hauntings were not far behind. Largly eerie.

This is an example of one of the untouched buildings. Several of the others have been restored. A developer came in and is renovating. Many restaurants shops and condos already exits and are quite impressive. Here is an example of a restored building. It is fast becoming the hip place to shop, eat and even live.

I started my photo exploration today with architecture in mind. Darned if I didn't get ambushed by birds... A robin teased me for yards, I stumbled upon these two sleeping, and this guy wouldn't shut up until I took his picture. I caved and took some shots, but then a light bulb went off... I found the solution to focusing on architecture... change the lens to my wide angle. So simple. It felt good to change things up today.

Hand held symmetry is crazy hard. Hats off to Chamaeleo who does it so well.