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Ryan Ademan remembers the thrill he felt as a child playing in the abandoned R.F. Simmons Co. factory in the Attleboro neighborhood off North Main Street where he grew up.

"No one was there to tell us we couldn't run around in the halls. It was great. It was our little world," Ademan, 24, said of the hours he and his friends played inside the abandoned building, which used to stand where the CVS store is now.

Ademan is an "urban explorer" and Ademan is not his real last name. But it is the one he uses on his urban exploring Web site called Abandoned Dreams, where he posts photographs of abandoned buildings and other structures he has visited all over New England and the Northeast.

While he gets permission to go into some buildings, he and his friends most often just find an open door or window to crawl through, then walk around and explore buildings most people consider eyesores.

Ademan sees them as treasures. What he and his friends do is considered trespassing and Ademan says he has been arrested at least three times for his hobby. He and his 23-year-old girlfriend - who goes by the name Cambria - do not want to use their real names because they fear prosecution.

They are not vandals, and they deplore the vandalism of the abandoned state hospitals, schools, factories and other buildings they explore and photograph. He is not a trained photographer, but says he loves to document what many people consider eyesores.

"It's just for the love of the buildings. It's about respect for what people had and how people lived," Ademan said.

Urban exploring is a worldwide underground movement and there are books and numerous Web sites devoted to it.

Ademan formed an urban exploring group, also called Abandoned Dreams, in 2006 and it currently has nine members. Several may go out and explore buildings together, but it is rare the entire group goes out at one time.

Ademan, who dropped out of Attleboro High School, began taking photographs after surfing the Web and noticing a friend's photographs posted under a pseudonym. He bought a camera and has no formal training in photography, but does have a keen eye for detail.

"I just picked up a camera one day and found it was a lot of fun," he said.

While some of the urban explorers on the Web post photographs for sale, Ademan says he has not sold or exhibited his photographs at art shows. He said he just has a passion for documenting the buildings and seeing them in a way no one else does.

He and Cambria say they admire the brickwork and craftsmanship in old, abandoned storm drains and sewers they have visited. They say modern construction is just cheap.

The destruction of the R.F. Simmons building of his childhood to make way for the new CVS also served as an important lesson. "The next time you go to see it, it may not be there," Ademan said.

"That's a big piece of history that's gone. Anything can turn into a parking lot," he said. "We're there to just capture a moment in time."

He and his friends find machinery, notes on bulletin boards or desks among other items that make it appear as if people just got up and left. He said they are amazed at the things that are left behind.

"I've been in (abandoned) hospitals where it was just like people went out for a lunchbreak," he said.

His favorite place to photograph is the abandoned Dever State School in Taunton.

"I saw it and just fell in love with it," he said.

Ademan emphasized that he and his friends merely enter the buildings to photograph them out of admiration for them. They say they get angry when they see the buildings vandalized, burned or damaged by "scrappers."

Ryan and Cambria say they feel that way because vandalism or intentionally started fires is what endangers the buildings and makes them ripe for destruction.

"That's what gets them torn down," Cambria said. "That hurts a lot."

Last year, they said, someone started five fires at Dever.

"It hurts to see buildings torn down. It really does," Cambria said.

They said they have been to 10 states exploring abandoned buildings, including most of New England and some in Pennsylvania.

"This is a big part of my life. It's one of those things that makes me happy," Ademan said.

Ademan says they sometime enter buildings with permission, but most often "just find entrances left by scrappers and vandals or explorers before us."

He says he has been arrested at least three times in the last year and a half, including once in Plainville outside the old Wood School on South Street.

Ademan says he wanted to go into the building, but unknown to him someone had earlier broken a window and police were keeping a close eye on the old school when they spotted him on the property.

He was charged with vandalism and trespassing, but Ademan said the vandalism charge was dismissed.

He said he has no grudge against law enforcement - and, sometimes, security or police have given him a break and not taken him into custody.

"They are just doing their job. But there is the occasional hard ass," he said of police officers.

Once in Boston, they were in an abandoned school and refused to come out until police threatened to send in the K-9 unit. He said police laughed at him and his friends when they walked out with their hands up and their camera equipment.

Ademan says he loves to climb buildings and water towers for better views of the city, and claims to have climbed on the roofs of 100 buildings in Attleboro in one month. He has also climbed buildings in Providence and Boston.

"I just want to see everything from above, to shed some new light on my town. I gain more respect for it to see it that way," Ademan said. "Everybody sees it from ground level."

"Cityscapes are just wonderful. Daytime or nighttime. You just see how small you really are, especially in Boston and Providence," Ademan said.

He and Cambria say they are not too concerned about breathing in something unhealthy inside buildings, although they are aware of asbestos, mold and lead paint in many of the buildings.

"We both smoke cigarettes. You are going to die of something," Ademan said, adding that he is allergic to mold but loves the smell of abandoned places.

He said he has suffered only minor scrapes and bruises from exploring.

Cambria says that while she loves to explore buildings, she has only climbed to the roof of a building once, and doesn't really care for it.

They do, however, have some concern about who they might come across in some of the buildings.

Two weeks ago, Ademan entered an empty building through an open back door and heard a loud noise. Thinking it was another "explorer" like himself, he yelled out, but the person responded by swearing and then walking quickly toward his voice.

"The footsteps were heavy," Ademan said, adding that he hid behind a boiler and watched as the man walked by a few times.

Ademan said he waited until the man walked far enough away, then left the building - but not before updating his Facebook page by cellphone to tell his friends about his predicament.

Scrappers don't like company, Ademan said, and are not friendly.

However, he said he and his friends have shared cigarettes with homeless people they come across on their adventures.

"Homeless people are some of the coolest people you meet," he said.

Ademan said he researches many places he has been inside, especially the Dever State School, which he hoped to write a book about.

He said he and his friends have also talked to former workers and residents about many buildings.

An online magazine or zine, called Infiltration zine, says, "Urban exploration is free, fun and hurts no one. It's a thrilling, mind-expanding hobby that encourages our natural instincts to explore and play in our own environment.

"It encourages people to create their own adventures, like when they were kids, instead of buying the pre-packaged kind. And it nurtures a sense of wonder in the every day spaces we inhabit or pass by that few local history books could ever hope to recreate. I've had some of the best moments of my life while exploring, and I can't recommend the hobby enough."

The New England Urban Exploring Web site describes New England as one of the urban exploring capitals of the United States, with an abundance of abandoned buildings.

"The explorers from New England will always have something to explore. Almost every state has a couple of hospitals to visit, many industrial sites and a whole system of drains under the streets. The history in these buildings are extensive and should still be continued to be told throughout time, even as the buildings close down," the Web site states.

Cambria added: "You develop a feeling for the building. You fall in love with it. You develop a relationship with it."

She says that they have gone into many buildings repeatedly for so long that they are starting to notice the decay in some buildings.

"You get to see what happens over time. Decay happens. You get a new respect for nature," she said.

There are urban explorers all over the world, especially in Europe, where there are numerous post-Cold War relics and the ancient catacombs in Paris.

"I think more people should respect the history of their states and their country," Ademan said. "See what once was and will never be again. Explore everything."

"Urban explorers are just completely different from vandals or scrappers. We're just there for the history, in general," he said. "I just go in, snap my pictures and hang out with the building."