June 2026.
Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

Earlier this summer, Lynn and I visited Fergus Falls on Flag Day just to check out two sites I thought had potential for a Cellpic Sunday feature or two. We weren’t disappointed—both sites gave us a true sense of the town’s character. One of them was the old Fergus Falls State Hospital, a sprawling brick landmark that once housed thousands and shaped the town’s history. It’s been empty for years now, but the towers and arches still hold a certain presence, the kind that makes you wonder what stories linger in a place long after the lights go out.

For more than a century, the old state hospital served as a regional mental health facility, one of several built across the Midwest in the late 1800s, when communities tried to bring order and compassion to what had been a rough system of care. Generations of patients lived and worked here, and at its peak, the place was practically a small town of its own. By the early 2000s, modern treatment models and newer facilities made the campus obsolete, and the doors finally closed in 2005. As I wandered around the grounds, taking photos with my cell phone, I couldn’t help thinking about how many stories must have played out behind those walls. With Halloween week upon us, it felt like the right time to give one of the photos a slightly ghostly makeover.

According to the archives of a regional ghost‑hunting group, investigators from Midwest Paranormal Files recorded several unusual audio clips during an overnight visit in 2012. In one, a voice clearly says “help me,” even though the team was alone in the room. Another clip captured a response to a simple question—an investigator asked if anyone was there, and a voice answered before he could finish. Whatever you make of that kind of evidence, it certainly adds a little atmosphere to a walk around the old hospital grounds.

The old Fergus Falls State Hospital sits on the east side of town, just off Union Avenue. We saw the towers rise above the trees long before we reached the grounds. The photo above shows the central entrance building and part of one wing stretching out; the matching wing on the opposite side is hidden by the trees to the right. From this angle, you’d never guess how massive the full structure really is. The campus is easy enough to walk around, but the building itself is closed to the public. Years of weather, neglect, and structural issues have left the interior unsafe, and only authorized crews are allowed inside. Even so, standing outside gave us a sense of the place and the weight of its history.

About the photos: I took the original image with a Samsung S25 Ultra using the Expert RAW app. The bright, sunlit entrance was captured in automatic mode at f/1.7, 1/5500 sec., and Auto‑ISO 80, producing a file almost completely free of noise. The Ultra’s Rear Wide camera required a vertical composition, so I cropped it to a 5×7 aspect ratio. Once the basic processing was finished, I made a virtual copy, exported it to Luminar Neo, and found a front‑lit, threatening sky from my sky collection. I started adjusting the image in Neo, but its masking tools aren’t as refined as those in the most recent versions of Lightroom Classic.

I sent the TIF file back to Lightroom, where I made a few global exposure adjustments, then moved on to masking. Linear masks from the top and bottom helped darken the sky and foreground. A Subject Mask isolated the building, allowing me to refine color, structure, and exposure. The foreground felt too dark, so I readjusted the foreground mask, added a subject mask for the sidewalk, and brought its exposure in line with the pavement. Finally, the red‑and‑white hazard boards were too intense and pulled attention away from the building’s façade, so I masked them and reduced the saturation of the red stripes. I posted both images and their metadata in 2K HD on my Flickr site here.

I invite fellow bloggers to join in by creating their own Cellpic Sunday posts. There’s no set theme. The first rule: your photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or other mobile device. The second rule: link your challenge response to this post or drop a comment here with your link so others can find it. And remember, despite the name, there’s no penalty for sharing on a day other than Sunday.

John Steiner.