Urban Exploration At Its Best With Nikon And David de Rueda

David de Rueda is an urban explorer and photographer who had a project in mind - to photograph abandoned places across Europe as they had never been seen before. 

Nikon helped David to achieve his goal, and he came back with some truly stunning images after exploring for 44 days in 9 countries. Here is his itinerary: Paris, Milan, Kiev, Pripyat (Chernobyl), Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Budapest, Sofia, Reykjavik, Kyzylorda (Kazakhstan), Larnaca (Cyprus) and back to Paris.

Particular highlights of the trip include:

• Two prototype Soviet Buran spacecraft, pictured together for the first time in an abandoned warehouse hundreds of kilometres deep in the Kazakhstan desert
• The exploration of Chernobyl and the ghost town of Pripyat – from its highest building, to the remains of Pripyat hospital, to the inside of a nuclear power plant cooling tower
• The long-forgotten wreck of a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, surrounded by the Polar Lights, on Iceland’s south coast
• An abandoned radar station in the mountains of Italy, located after three hours of walking through snow over 50cm deep

David used a Nikon D810 with AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G and AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II lenses.

In the video above, you can see how David got on during the trip and he also explains a bit about where he's going and what he wants to acheive. You can also view David's images in high resolution on Nikon's flickr page.