>>1759958Google search "[your area] abandoned places" to find the most obvious and publicly known stuff. A list or two might be floating around in an online magazine/entertainment site. Sometimes you can find people on photography websites like Flickr talking about abandoned places to do urban portraits. Atlas Obscura may also help.
I've found Google Earth to be immensely helpful. Some will say satellite imagery is limited, but if you train yourself to recognize buildings and property in disrepair from above you can actually hone in on locations. Things like:
-Cracked and overgrown driveways/parking lots
-Vegetation growing out of control
-Rusty or water-damaged roofs
-Junk strewn about on the property
-Collapsing balconies/overhangs
-Just generally old-looking buildings (brick, concrete)
Several of Google Earth's tools can help you determine whether something is potentially abandoned:
-The 3D Buildings option, if the structure you're looking at has been three-dimensionalized, will let you look at it from all angles, and spot things like collapsing corners, shuttered windows, graffiti, or holes in the walls
-The Historical Imagery slider will let you look at a property over the years, so you can see how long it's sat looking like it does now, how often it seems to be visited by the property owner/work trucks/whatever, and if there's been any recent developments or projects on the property
-Google Street View is very handy; you can either get right up to the location and look at it as it appeared sometime in the last few years from street level, revealing details about security (cameras, 'No Trespassing' signs, barbed wire fence) and possible entrances. Or, you can at least get as close as Google Car did to it and scout for potential parking spots, neighbors who might see you, etc.
You'll be looking in more industrial areas and older parts of the city, and poorer sections of town. Following train tracks or canals usually leads to something interesting.
