i love photographing abandoned places, capturing the gritty texture of dust shrouded mundane objects, long discarded and/or forgotten. obviously a tripod is called for when shooting in old buildings as they're usually rather dark... my kit when i shoot in abandoned/ruined buildings includes my Nikon D80, a tripod, 2 Nikon speedlights, a Bogen 001B Nano compact lightstand, Pocket Wizards to trigger the speedlights, 5" and 8" snoots from David Honl and a small flashlight.

i shoot in manual mode, with the ISO set to 100 - long exposures are not a problem with a tripod. if i'm using flash(es) to illuminate an object or room, i'll bump the shutter speed up to control the ambient light. i bracket the exposures when shooting available light.