Locked
In
Photography can be so much fun that you often lose track of time, which is not always a bad thing, but it is when your locked in a derelict RAF base...
Oh yes, silly bollocks here got proper stuck one evening while out shooting some self portraits at RAF Upwood.
Upwood has been derelict since the late 1990s now, so it is in a rather poor state of repair now, but it is very photogenic nonetheless, and I have shot here many times before, as a self portrait artist, and fashion and glamour photographer with many models some time back. So to say I know the location well is probably an understatement, I know Upwood very well.
As per usual, I arrived at the location in good time, sometime in the early evening around 4 PM, I was well aware that this location would be locked up by security at around 7 PM, so I made a mental note to myself not to get locked in.
It was such a lovely evening, warm, sunny, blue sky day, and absolutely no one around, which was very unusual for Upwood, as the local youths do very much enjoy some good old fashioned mindless vandalism, you know the sort of things, tiles and masonry being thrown from the rooftops, nice little fires to keep them warm, and so much fun smashing windows, though at Upwood, they had been smashed long before most of these kids were born.
It is a rather sprawling RAF base, with so many buildings to explore and photograph, and after a little while exploring, I went back to one of my favorite buildings for some final images, and after a while I could only gasp in awe at the gorgeous golden light that was pouring into the decaying rooms. I took more photos and eventually decided now would be a good time to get out of there.
A few moments later, I was in my car approaching the main gate to exit the base, only, I couldn't get out, as you know full well by now. It was locked by a padlock.
On the gate was a notice "property protected by Acme Security"... that wasn't the real name of the company, but you get the picture. There was a phone number, brilliant, I only wish my smartphone was actually with me, and not at home where I left it,.
While Upwood is in the middle of nowhere, it is between two villages, so all I had to do was grab the attention of a passer by and and get them to ring the number on the notice, and eventually I did get someones attention, and for that I was grateful as it was now getting dark.
A security guard did come along eventually and was not very impressed with having to let out some idiot who got locked in
The images were ok for what they were, but I never got caught out like that again and since then I have been back, but never locked in, so be careful, don't be a numpty!
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