Detail, Brick Buildings. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. August 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Details of the walls, windows and roof of brick buildings at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.
This may be the final photo in the recent Mare Island series for a while. (Or maybe not… ;-)
This photograph shows the details of some of the old brick buildings not far from the power plant. They were photographed in twilight as I was wandering around prior to beginning the real night photography work. Although it is difficult to see in this small jpg, there is some really wonderful light on the small structure atop the roof that comes from the open view towards the sunset to the west. Also a bit hard to see here – but perhaps visible in a larger print – are the puffs of fog that were just starting to blow in off of the water and which catch a bit of the reddish early evening light.
This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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My father worked at Mare Island for 33 years. He started just before WW2 and retired in the early 70’s (when I was 12). I went there many times as a young boy and always marveled at how big everything was. I’d love to go back and shoot there. Do you ever lead or participate in photowalks there?
That is cool. You aren’t the first person with connections to the old ship yard to contact me, and I’m fascinated by the connections that so many people have. Although I grew up in the SF Bay Area, I really didn’t discover this historic location until a few years ago.
The Nocturnes, the Bay Area night photography group led by Tim Baskerville does periodic night photography workshops at Mare Island. You might try contacting Tim to see if he is leading or knows of any events focusing more on daytime photography. The island is now public, so you can just show up there and photograph. Some of the most interesting subjects are in the area by the towers and dry docks. There is a lot of heavy industrial equipment, interesting old buildings, and even nearby military residential areas here.
Dan