Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Black and white photograph of a night scene on Railroad Avenue at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard with cyclone fence, brick wall, pipes and tank, window, and speed limit sign.
I was thinking about the Panocturnists group when I made this photograph at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard during the first weekend of February. The location is in many ways pretty mundane – one of the first areas that most first-time Mare Island night photographers shoot near the entrance to the so-called “historic core” of the site, and nothing that would warrant a second look during daylight hours. Not surprisingly, most photographers here are initially attracted to a nearby turnstile or to the massive steel structures overhead. I’ve shot here enough now that, while I’ll still shoot those subjects, I usually look for less-obvious subjects that I may not have tried previously. So while some new folks photographed right behind me I decided to see what I could do with the street light-illuminated fence, wall, and collection of pipes in this corner. (And, as the long exposure was underway I was able to help out the first-timers… :-)
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email
keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, vallejo, california, usa, san francisco, bay, area, 30, mph, speed, limit, sign, pole, cyclone, fence, crosswalk, sidewalk, street, brick, wall, building, structure, industrial, window, shadow, pipe, tank, wire, night, photography, the, nocturnes, nocturnal, black and white, monochrome, panorama, historic, stock, panocturnes
Hah! Who knows at Mare Island! Many of these structures are very old and have been modified and boarded up and so forth over the years. As far as I know, the building in this photograph is essentially abandoned. A year ago I was shooting at night along a different wall of the same building – shooting some interesting pipes along a brick wall – and while making a 2 or 3 minute exposure I began to notice something moving in the frame. Gradually a whole family (flock? herd? gang?) of raccoons began to emerge from a gap below a boarded up section of the wall!
What are those pipes doing in front of a door?