Shattered Shutter Photography and Urban Exploration

This is my portfolio of photographs that I feel are my best work. All of the photographs on this site are for sale. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing a print.
-Rev

Pearl Brewery

San Antonio, TX

©2008

Here is one of the many yellow painted spiral stair cases in a vertical panorama format. There are also the exact same style staircases in the Lone Star Brewery... coincidence?
Pearl Brewery

San Antonio, TX

©2008

This is one of the stainless steel brewing vats still left behind. It will likely be integrated into whatever this area will end up being.
Pearl Brewery

San Antonio, TX

©2008

Some kind of electrical turbine, possibly used to pump the liquid to different parts of the brew house.
Birds on Powerlines

colors digitally manipulated

©2008

Rhodessa High School

Rhodessa, LA

©2008

This is an HDR or “High Dynamic Range” image of the hallway and coat room leading to one of the many classrooms on the second floor.
Rhodessa High School

Rhodessa, LA

©2008

This is an HDR or “High Dynamic Range” image and a vertical panorama of one of the many classrooms.
360 Bridge at night

Austin, TX

©2008
Standard Industries Reliable Battery Factory
San Antonio, TX

©2002

Some miscellaneous equipment in a decaying truck and automobile battery-manufacturing factory.

Pine Valley School

Black Bayou, LA

©2002

The story goes:

Built just before the Civil Rights movement. This school was at the time a state-of-the-art school for black children when things were "Separate but Equal". The school was never used because the black population instead chose to integrate themselves into the white public school system. Now the swamp has nearly reclaimed this building doomed from the start.
Strange Unfinished Tower

Austin, TX

©2003

Looking up at a strange tower that was never finished. It's not clear why it was never finished, but it's speculated that it was the idea and work of a man who had a unique vision for a multi level house but either due to old age, sickness or money, it was never completed.
Austin Athletic Club

Austin, TX

©2006

A building that thousands of Austinites see every day. This building was the cities first public athletic center but has been unused since the Memorial Day flood in 1981.
Longhorn Quarry

San Antonio, TX

©2006

This is one of the first places that I found to explore and is partially responsible for inspiring me to search for places to explore. It continues to be a large Urban Exploration Muse for me. Once it was a limestone quarry, now it sits decaying in the wind while the city continues to grow around it. This picture was taken from the other side of the open quarry.

Longhorn Quarry

San Antonio, TX

©2006

This is one of the first places that I found to explore and is partially responsible for inspiring me to search for places to explore. It continues to be a large Urban Exploration Muse for me. Once it was a limestone quarry, now it sits decaying in the wind while the city continues to grow around it.
Longhorn Quarry

San Antonio, TX

©2006

This is one of the first places that I found to explore and is partially responsible for inspiring me to search for places to explore. It continues to be a large Urban Exploration Muse for me. Once it was a limestone quarry, now it sits decaying in the wind while the city continues to grow around it.
Longhorn Quarry

San Antonio, TX

©2006

This is one of the first places that I found to explore and is partially responsible for inspiring me to search for places to explore. It continues to be a large Urban Exploration Muse for me. Once it was a limestone quarry, now it sits decaying in the wind while the city continues to grow around it.
Longhorn Quarry

San Antonio, TX

©2006

The wind sweeps the clouds by on this muggy South Texas night. This is one of the first places that I found to explore and is partially responsible for inspiring me to search for places to explore. It continues to be a large Urban Exploration Muse for me. Once it was a limestone quarry, now it sits decaying in the wind while the city continues to grow around it.

Longhorn Quarry

San Antonio, TX

©2006

This is a panorama of most of the buildings used to manufacture the cement from the limestone dug from the quarry. This is one of the first places that I found to explore and is partially responsible for inspiring me to search for places to explore. It continues to be a large Urban Exploration Muse for me. Once it was a limestone quarry, now it sits decaying in the wind while the city continues to grow around it.
San Juan Mission

San Antonio, TX

©2005
TXU North Main Power Plant

Fort Worth, TX

©2005

A cathedral comes to mind but this was the home of giant machines burning fuel to provide the city with power. Each pane reflects the city lights just a bit differently. They truly do not make them like they used to.
TXU North Main Power Plant

Fort Worth, TX

©2005

The backside of a control panel reminiscent of a mad scientist's laboratory.

General Tire Plant

Waco, TX

©2005

The color of the windows in this picture actually produced this blue-green glow - while half covered in pure black creosote.
General Tire Plant

Waco, TX

©2005

A ladder to the top from inside of the smokestack. My friend, Noah Vale, begins the climb.
Pedestrian Bridge over Town Lake

Austin, TX

©2006

Cool fog and fiery lights reflecting on glassy water.
Lamar Bridge over Town Lake

Austin, TX

©2006

Thick fog, and approaching car.

Pedestrian Bridge over Town Lake

Austin, TX

©2006

Thick fog and the lights reflecting on the lake.
Unknown - Incinerator?

Galveston, TX

©2006

Color Digitally Edited

I haven't found any information about this building yet but after carefully looking at the layout and the equipment in this building I decided it could have been an incinerator. Before the bridges were built and concerns about the environment grew, they might have used this to burn their trash.
Unknown - Incinerator?

Galveston, TX

©2006

Digitally edited

I haven't found any information about this building yet but after carefully looking at the layout and the equipment in this building I decided it could have been an incinerator. Before the bridges were built and concerns about the environment grew, they might have used this to burn their trash.
Unknown - Incinerator?

Galveston, TX

©2006

Black and white

A door into the furnace extremely pitted and effectively rusted shut from the salty sea air.

Unknown - Incinerator?

Galveston, TX

©2006

True Color

A door into the furnace extremely pitted and effectively rusted shut from the salty sea air.
Unknown - Incinerator?

Galveston, TX

©2006

Looking up through one of the old brick smokestacks
Sea-Arama

Galveston, TX

©2006

There is not much left of the roof above this sea side aquarium attraction.
Lone Star Brewery

San Antonio, TX

©2006

The brewery that by 1959 had gained the reputation as being the worlds most beautiful brewery. In 1996 the San Antonio brewery was shut down and after being bought by several companies and being moved around for a few years it is currently owned by Pabst and is brewed by other companies contracted by Pabst. Once it was a place for families to visit on the weekends to go through the museums and swim in the Olympic size swimming pool. Now even though the vats and machinery have been almost completely sold off, I still enjoy the occasional visit.

One of my all time favorite smokestacks.

Lone Star Brewery

San Antonio, TX

©2006

The brewery that by 1959 had gained the reputation as being the world's most beautiful brewery. In 1996 the San Antonio brewery was shut down and after being bought by several companies and being moved around for a few years it is currently owned by Pabst and is brewed by other companies contracted by Pabst. Once it was a place for families to visit on the weekends to go through the museums and swim in the Olympic size swimming pool. Now even though the vats and machinery have been almost completely sold off, I still enjoy the occasional visit.

True Color

One of the many spiral staircases coated in peeling paint.
Rhodessa High School

Rhodessa, LA

©2004

This school was built in 1938 to accommodate the steady flow of new families moving to the Rhodessa area their oil boom. At one time there was 800 students in attendance. Eventually the oil flow slowed to a trickle and it became unnecessary for this school to exist. The oil companies who built this school seemed to pay particular attention to building a nice science classroom.
Lone Star Brewery

San Antonio, TX

©2006

The brewery that by 1959 had gained the reputation as being the worlds most beautiful brewery. In 1996 the San Antonio brewery was shut down and after being bought by several companies and being moved around for a few years it is currently owned by Pabst and is brewed by other companies contracted by Pabst. Once it was a place for families to visit on the weekends to go through the museums and swim in the Olympic size swimming pool. Now even though the vats and machinery have been almost completely sold off, I still enjoy the occasional visit.

Huge chunks of walls and floor have been destroyed to remove equipment.
Lone Star Brewery

San Antonio, TX

©2006

The brewery that by 1959 had gained the reputation as being the world's most beautiful brewery. In 1996 the San Antonio brewery was shut down and after being bought by several companies and being moved around for a few years it is currently owned by Pabst and is brewed by other companies contracted by Pabst. Once it was a place for families to visit on the weekends to go through the museums and swim in the Olympic size swimming pool. Now even though the vats and machinery have been almost completely sold off, I still enjoy the occasional visit.

The room pictured here at one time held one of the fermentation tanks. I decided to take a vertical panorama to show how the tank was about 3 stories tall. The top of the picture is what was directly overhead and the bottom of the picture is what was directly in front.

The Vault

Dallas, TX

©2005

Self Portrait

I stand on the left with two fellow explorers on the right. An engineering marvel sleeps underneath downtown Dallas. Waiting for enough rain to quench its thirst.
The Vault

Dallas, TX

©2005

Self Portrait

Four explorers, two with their rappelling helmets still on, pose in the vast underground man-made cavern.
Mansfield Manufacturing

Kilgore, TX

©2005

This small East Texan oil town was also once home to a large porcelain-manufacturing factory that made mostly sinks and toilets. Near the back side of the factory was little colonies of hundreds of ladybugs in clumps like this.

University Steam Tunnels

TX

©2005

A fellow explorer leads the way through the miles of labyrinth underneath one of the largest universities in the US. Feels like being in the circulatory system of a giant living creature.
Plaza Hotel

Houston, TX

©2004

This old hotel was abandoned save for the hundreds of pigeons who made it their home. I found this one fluttering around in one of the rooms and snapped this picture. The colors have been adjusted in this picture but it is otherwise untouched.

Parkdale Power Plant

Dallas, TX

©2006

Digitally Edited Color

High pressure connection for a mothballed natural gas fueled power plant.
Parkdale Power Plant

Dallas, TX

©2006

Digitally Edited Color

High pressure connection for a mothballed natural gas fueled power plant.
Eagle Lake Power Plant

Fort Worth, TX

©2006

Something new that I'm trying out, a vertical panorama. It was the only way I could find to get everything I wanted into this picture. The top of the picture is what was directly overhead and the bottom of the picture is what was directly in front. This power plant is actually "mothballed" meaning that if the need arises for the extra power that this plant can produce, they are supposed to be able to make it operational within 90 days.

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