- Nearly every UE site contains an FAQ, so perhaps I'll need to have one too? For my part, I'll try to answer to some questions that are not handled in other FAQ's.
How Do You Prepare For An Exploration?
- No special tricks here. I'll just check my equipment, so that everything works fine and I'll also try to imagine the place where I'm heading, so that I'll be somehow better prepared if the place in question requires something special, like climbing, crawling etc. I also check the weather forecast as exploring Viapori and other places, that require climbing on the rocks, is a bit too dangerous during and after rainy days. You might easily slip and fall down. Also before heading for an exploration, I'll let someone to know where I'm going and about what time I should be back. So that if something happens, I can at least be found and perhaps even receive help.
You Explore Always Alone?
- For most part yes. Sometimes my fiancé is with me, but most of the explorations I do alone.
What Kind Of Equipment You Carry With You?
- It depends on the place I'm heading for, but most of the time the following items can be found from my camera bag: Flashlight, respirator, map, paper, pen, cell phone, ID card, portable GPS system, extra batteries for the flashlight and GPS, digital camera, dryfit battery for the digital camera and sometimes I also carry an extra SLR camera with me to shoot only some B&W film. Also linen for wiping the lens clean from dirt is an vital item and on longer explorations I usually take some fluids and something to eat with me.
GPS?
- Yeah, Global Positioning System. I think it's a nice detail to get the coordinates of every place. No deeper meaning with that and as it's a quite small equipment, it doesn't take too much space from my bag.
Is There Any Places Where You Wouldn't Go?
- I think it's vital for your own safety to know, what things you don't like to do and what terrifies you. On my part, I don't like open heights too much and so I avoid these kind of places generally. It's not too wise to act against your own fears as you cannot be sure, how you will act when the fear starts to control you and not the other way around.
Have You Been Ever Afraid In Abandoned Places?
- No not really. Of course there is always the excitement when you get into some buildings and you don't know what lies ahead, but as you start to photograph and look around, that feeling usually passes away and stays gone if nothing surprising happens.
So You Have Bumped Into Somebody While Exploring?
- Yes I have, few times, but knowing how to talk and act with people have helped in these situations.
Do You Believe In Ghosts, Because I See Few Of Them In Your Pictures?
- I cannot give a definite answer to that. I'm usually so concentrated on finding other things from abandoned buildings, that I don't have the time to observe, if there is some ghost walking with me. In my pictures I don't see no ghosts, I just see coincident.
Finland Does Seem Like A Cool Place For UE. I Wish My Country Would Have At Least Few Abandoned Places...
- My thoughts exactly, although I think your country is much more interesting place than Finland is. When starting out this hobby, my first thought was that this country does not contain any abandoned places, but when you start to look around, you'll find plenty of them. I bet the same goes with the country that you live in. Just look around...there's not a country or a city, that wont have any abandoned buildings.
The Information You Give Is Wrong At Certain Locations!
- Probably so. I've never claimed this section of Silent Wall being hundred percent accurate when it comes to history. I just don't have the time to go through city archives, to find information of these locations. Perhaps when I'm retired, that being within the next forty years, I'll have the time to do that also. So please come back and check the updates around the year 2040.
The Maps Are All Screwed! I Cannot Find A Thing With Those Maps!
- Well, what do you expect? Don't you think that if I could draw hundred percent accurate maps with a free hand, I would be doing something else than updating this web site?
Can I Rip Off Everything From Your Site And Show Them As My Own Work?
- What do you think? Of course not, but I'm not that tight minded person, that I wouldn't give you a permission to use the pictures in some project of yours, just as long as you _ask_ politely in advance. The benefit of asking is, that you get a bigger versions from the pictures and without the copyright markings. However, I prefer that the pictures are not used in any commercial projects, although that's an negotiation question, but pictures in some galleries, for example Auschwitz pictures, I absolutely forbid to be used in any commercial project. Those places do not exist, so that you or I could make money out of them. I've released for example the Silesian House pictures and pictures from the Toxic Suburb of Alakiventie, to be used in few projects, which serve a good purpose. Also I'm not too fond of the people, who link directly the pictures to different forums. If you want to show some particular picture in a forum, please post a link to the picture, rather than directly linking the picture. I pay everything out of my own pocket and your giving me extra costs, when directly linking the pictures. It eats more bandwidth...
Can I Add A Link To Your Site?
- Yeah sure. You can either point the link to the main page: www.silentwall.com or directly to the abandoned places section. Unfortunately I don't have any banners, but if you want to have a picture along with the link, you're free to take any of the pictures you like and add it along with the link. It would be nice, if you would let me know when you're done, so I could perhaps add a link to your site?
The coordinates are all screwed up! The error can be even 300 meters!
- Let's get one thing straight. This site is NOT ABOUT geocaching, this site is firstly about photographs and the coordinates are the last thing I worry about. You don't believe how many emails I receive every single week about few locations, where the coordinates point to a place, 200 to 300 meters from the actual location. It has never been and never will be my purpose of providing an exact coordinates for these places. Mainly because I like to at least try to protect the places and more importantly, so that you would also have to use your eyes to find the place and not just carry your GPS and stare the numbers....look up and you might see something even more interesting, which I've missed.
