In a couple of weeks, I'll be roaming downtown Dallas. I'll probably hit the Deep Ellum area early, roam a little, then hit rat race for a bit if I can find a good way in.

I'm not looking for your good locations, or even abandoned places, just places to work on my photography. I'm still learning and just need some lens time. Can you point me to some interesting architecture or street art to check out in my wanderings? I just haven't spent much time down there in years. Active sites are great that I can just get to from the sidewalk. Nothing fancy. Nothing we should be protecting.

If anyone would like to meet for lunch and wander with an old fat man, that would be great.

Moved your post here where you might get better coms than the main board.

Downtown Dallas is full of good architecture photo ops, some can be shot from parking garages, you can see some while riding the DART trains hop off hop back on when youre done. Rat Race has had its outfall moved/extended due to road construction so I hear.

(this thread can be seen by everyone including search engines so no real location names please)

...whenever I'm doing what you're doing, I literally drive around and stop at what inspires me.

Thanks for moving the thread and for the tips. The parking garages do give a nice perspective change on a lot of shots. I definitely planned on some recon up front with general digging, satellite images, and street view. Just curious if there were any particular publicly viewable venues you guys liked. I don't mind paying admission, parking, or whatever. I'll be getting a DART day pass and doing a lot of wandering.

I've got a less than stellar history roaming in Dallas. I lived there a while before I got married. Two attempted robberies, an attempted home invasion, ended up a witness in a homeless guy's murder trial, and had a rather large, rather hairy cupid rub his beer soaked man boobs on my truck window one Halloween. Definitely not looking for a repeat of that one. So please, let me know if there is anywhere you recommend avoiding, particularly with decent camera equipment. I'm not looking for anything that a few bucks or a pack of Camels won't get me out of.

I honestly like the idea of S Dallas, but want to keep my gear and my rear.

Just look in the UEDB under Dallas, there are lots of public viewable locations there even in scary scary south Dallas.

Are you wanting to see only Dallas proper, or would you consider other parts of DFW? Arlington and Fort Worth have some great spots to photograph and I'm more familiar with them is why I ask.
A few ideas:
1. Deep Ellum is a great start. One of my favorite spots to just walk around taking street photos. So +1 there.
2. Parts of lower Greenville are cool, but not too riddled with crime (if you stay out of the dark alleys).
3. Thanksgiving Square and Fountain Place downtown.
4. The Trinity River over by Margaret hunt bridge is really cool (and great for skyline photos as well). You had mentioned wanting to explore the south side a little bit. Well, this is the part of oak cliff that has been getting a face lift. Start out in the trendy spots by the park and work your way into the area as far as your comfortable.

Hope that helps! Like I said, I'm more of a Fort Worth girl, but I've lived all over DFW most of my life, so I've managed to accumulate some geographical knowledge.

Good luck and welcome!

Thanks, all. This run, I'm looking at just Dallas proper, but I live close enough that I'll be all over the DFW area, so I'll take any of your favorite suggestions. I was up in Sherman a couple of weeks ago, had a great time and got some decent pictures.

I've definitely hit the UEDB for Dallas. That's the first place I looked. Just getting a feel for some easy favorites that are still standing and accessible. I know, new guys are annoying. I just want to work on the photography some in a more urban environment than I'm normally in. I think I need to get used to some more of the distractions, angle changes, high places, etc. Most of what I've done so far was out in pastures and town is a completely different animal that actually makes you look in more directions. I have such a long list of places to see that I don't want to take a trip to a fantastic location and not have good pictures, just because I screwed up with my camera or wasn't being observant enough.

1700 Pacific and Thanksgiving Square both have direct entrances from outside to the tunnels...

He are a few of the pictures from wandering top side. Nothing too exciting, but I got to play with the camera some and hang out with my girls. That was the main goal.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskm59MsL

I'll get back over there and check out some of the other areas soon. One thing I noticed is that the south side of downtown is all wrapped in razor wire. I'll have to see if I can poke around over there some more and find some spots to check out.

Check out a site called: http://shothotspot.com. It's basically a map with photos layered onto it from mostly Flickr users. Several varieties on this theme exist, including a variety of like-minded apps. I've found lots of cool spots this way.

Now aint that cool. Found my friend and bikin buddy DEA and UER (inactive) member Barry Kooda there first pic I pulled up:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/20521269

Just a heads up on that website, I found it and was overjoyed and began looking up all the new locations I was finding quickly falling down from heaven as I realized many of the locations are demolished so the numbers are inflated( This is for the Houston/Dallas area.) I guess what I mean is that other people took really cool pictures in places that are no longer available and posted them, so double check before you head out. That being said this is still a fantastic resource, added bonus is that it isn't limited to abandonment.

Posted by 2Xplorations Now aint that cool. Found my friend and bikin buddy DEA and UER (inactive) member Barry Kooda there first pic I pulled up: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/20521269

Great pic! Reminds me, whatever happened to Tejas del Norte motorcycle ride?

Posted by Keaven Great pic! Reminds me, whatever happened to Tejas del Norte motorcycle ride?

I don't think we ever got everyone together at least I wasn't there if they did.

Always up for a ride.

Posted by theduckling Just a heads up on that website, I found it and was overjoyed and began looking up all the new locations I was finding quickly falling down from heaven as I realized many of the locations are demolished so the numbers are inflated( This is for the Houston/Dallas area.) I guess what I mean is that other people took really cool pictures in places that are no longer available and posted them, so double check before you head out. That being said this is still a fantastic resource, added bonus is that it isn't limited to abandonment.

I probably should have included a caveat about this. Also, cross-check the location before heading out or dedicating too much time to any specific location... The site relies (from what I can tell), almost completely on user tags from sites like Flickr. The downfall of this is that many of the tags are inaccurate! But, in general, the locations are generally reliable . But, as you said, some of them have been demolished (or activated, etc).

Another interesting site is called http://Roadtrippers.com.
They offer a wide variety of locations and genres (including abandonments) amongst other things. They also offer several other cool and unique features, such as planning an actual trip, your route options, your gas mileage etc... I used this website just a week or two ago on my road trip to Oklahoma.