Geauga Lake Amusement Park, Aurora, Ohio

Stormy skies above the abandoned Geauga Lake Amusement Park in Aurora, Ohio. (Seph Lawless)

Photographer Seph Lawless knows the allure of documenting abandoned places—he has captured eerie images of everything from an in North Carolina and a crumbling . And while the haunting stillness and decay of these places already make for eerie images, the sight of nature picking up where humans left off (such as in Lawless' photos of an ) highlight the ominous atmosphere at these urban ruins.

In Lawless' new book Bizarro, which documents some of the world's spookiest abandoned theme parks, nature plays a supporting (but significant) role in the images: from the dark, stormy skies over Joyland in Kansas and Geauga Lake Park in Ohio to the fiery sunsets illuminating the rotting rides at Funtime Amusement Park in Indiana.

Photographer Seph Lawless at New Orleans Six Flags. (Alyssa Claire)

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Wildlife even makes a cameo in Lawless' photos of the New Orleans Six Flags park, which was flooded when Hurricane Katrina struck the city in August 2005. An alligator can be seen swimming the waters in the now-abandoned park.

"I thought a good way to truly bring about that eerie feeling of an abandoned amusement park was to shoot it at sunset and during thunderstorms," said Lawless.

Of course, photographing during severe weather did bring some challenges for the photographer.

"I'm happy with the outcome, even though it put me in some life-threatening positions out in Kansas and Oklahoma during tornado season."

is available for purchase at Lawless' website. For more on Lawless' work, visit his or follow him on , and on .