Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Light and Dark Sandstone

May 16, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bit or remaining red sandstone sits on top of an underlying layer of lighter rock, Point Lobos State Reserve

Near the end of April I found time for a quick visit to Point Lobos State Reserve, south of Carmel in the Monterey Peninsula/Big Sur region. This is a place I have photographed for many years, so I know specific rocks and trees quite well. Photographing here often provides a sort of tension between continuing to refine how I see things that I have known for decades and trying to locate new subjects. In addition to the constantly changing patterns of the Pacific Ocean itself and the mostly stable elements of the rocky shoreline and forests, the weather always changes and the wildlife provides unending variations.

When I decided to go there on this morning I should have remembered that this is the weekend of the annual Big Sur Marathon, which mostly closes sections of the coast highway in the area for an hour or more at a time. But I didn’t remember… until I got to the Carmel Valley road block. I lined up for the periodic car caravans that were scheduled to leave every 90 minutes, picked up a cup of coffee and waited. Eventually we followed a highway patrol vehicle down the highway, and I soon turned off into an almost entirely deserted Point Lobos State Reserve. The solitude I found on this day when few others came to the park made up for the delay in getting there! Because the light was filtered through high clouds I decide to spend some time photographing these beautifully sea-sculpted sandstone formations along the rocky shoreline.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building 237, Early Evening

April 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening light on the face of Building 237, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California

This is one of the rarest of photographs from me—a daytime photo from Mare Island! Although I have photographed here for quite a few years, virtually all of my photographs from this location have been made at night, when the industrial environment of the place is transferred by darkness and artificial light into something mysterious.

By day, many of the subjects that I find so interesting and even colorful at night are often quite bland and boring. Building 237 is the subject of one of my favorite photographs from Mare Island, “Yellow Buildings, Shadows, Moving Clouds.” In that photograph, these buildings glow with an intensely yellow light from nearby artificial lightning, and the motion of clouds during the long exposure creates an aura in the dark sky above them. But during the daytime, the color of the buildings is a somewhat faded and drab sort of yellow-tan shade, and this is even more washed out in typical daytime light. On this visit, largely because the sun sets later by the clock during daylight savings time, we found ourselves ready to photograph well before it was dare, so I decided to go out and look for golden hour light as the day ended. Here that light subtly colors the front face of building 237, whose color contrasts with the cold, blue tones of the next-door building that is already in full shadow.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Ship Yard Crane

April 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Giant ship yard crane against night sky at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

These towering cranes, remnants of the active period of ship building at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, are an iconic feature of the place. Among the many photographs of the locations, especially those by night photographers, they are among the features most often captured. Several of them tower along the waterfront, and their height and their retro-industrial appearance command attention.

Although I have photographed at Mare Island a lot, I have very few photographs of these objects. On most of the occasions when I have photographed there they have been parked too far away (they move on tracks), too poorly lit, or have been obscured by fences and other objects. Recently the ship yard has seen renewed activity as it is being used to partially dismantle some of the old ships of the “mothball fleet” that has long been anchored in the delta near the Carquinez Bridge. On my most recent visit to photograph here at night I found that several of these structures had moved to more accessible areas and that they were better lit. This one was behind a fence, but since I wanted to emphasize its height towering against the backdrop of the night sky I was able to shoot up at a steep angle and keep the fence out of the frame. The perspective distortion, the cut off upper portion, and the sense that the structure is leaning amplify, for me, the mysterious and other-worldly quality of these slightly anthropomorphic structures.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Fog, Tree, Marsh, Morning Sky

April 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter morning fog in bright morning light above a San Joaquin Valley marsh

I made this photograph, rendered here as a high key black and white image, in a wetland area of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Photography began on this morning before dawn, in very foggy conditions. Here, nearly two hours later, we had worked our way around to a different location where shallow ponds stretched into the distance, reflecting trees in the thinning fog that was brightly lit by the morning sun, and with high clouds above.

At the time when I looked across this water I was struck by how little of substance there was in the scene. Above was misty and faintly blue sky with thin clouds. Below there was water, but the water served primary to reflect that same sky. The only solid material in the scene is the faint trees, a few birds, some bits of grass, and a couple of thin strips of levee. Everything else is sky or fog or reflection of sky and fog. The photograph is one of a series that I have tucked away, yet to work on at the appropriate time, and in need of further thought: Do I work with the high key luminosity of the scene, or do I work with the color version in which everything is shades of blue?

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Central California

Light and Dark Sandstone

Building 237, Early Evening

Ship Yard Crane

Fog, Tree, Marsh, Morning Sky

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.