Category Archives: Photographs: Night

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Alley, Night

March 21, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I photographed both familiar and new subjects at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard again this past week. During the evening I gradually worked my way across the core of the place,eventually heading south from where I began. I had photographed the other side of the building on the right, which contained a large open interior space with many windows. When I came around the other side of the building I was surprised by the complex pattern of light between the two receding buildings. I had photographed here in the past when the building to the right was abandoned, and this alley had been a very dark place.

On this evening those of us who have photographed at Mare Island for a long time — some for several decades — lamented some of the changes that are coming to the place. It lay almost dormant for years, but now many of the old buildings are being refitted for modern users. On one hand this changes the lonely and forlorn character of the island. On the other hand, it means that once the buildings are rehabilitated they will likely stand for a long time. But right now construction is going on everywhere, some interesting places now are off-limits, and fences have been erected around the construction work. That posed a problem for this photograph. In the past I could walk right up this alley, but now a portable cyclone fence cuts off access. I solved the problem by extending my tripod as high as it would go — well above my head! — and photographing over the top of the fence.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Ship Yard Buildings, Crane

March 19, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I recently had a chance to return to this ship yard facility near Vallejo, California to work on night photography. This is the place where I first tried that genre approximately fifteen years ago. It was more or less on a whim — I read that someone was inviting photographers to come up to Mare Island, in conjunction with the annual Flyway Festival, and find out about night photography. I knew almost nothing about it, but decided to give it a try. Since that time I’ve been hooked. I’ve returned to photograph here often during the intervening decade and a half, and my night photography expanded from that beginning to incorporate other subjects and places. (Recently I have focused on night street photography done with small handheld cameras.)

This photograph is an example of several things that intrigue me about photographing at night. Scenes that might seem mundane in daylight are transformed at night. Not only do many distractions simply disappear, but the light itself, especially in areas with varied artificial illumination, transforms these subjects. In many places LED lights have replaced the wild mix of tungsten, fluorescent, sodium vapor, and other sources today — an unfortunate development in the visual sense, as LED light is more or less like daylight. But in places like this one, the colors of the light become intense. Here the intense green of a large work light predominates. Another appeal of night photography is that it lets me make photographs of things that my eyes cannot see. In the ambient lighting I could only barely see the details of this scene. But with a long exposure there is enough light to reveal hidden features, a pure example of “seeing what the camera sees.”

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Los Banos Donuts

March 8, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I can’t be certain, but there is a very good chance that this place was there back when I made my first trip to Yosemite decades ago as a child. I recall my Dad driving us over Pacheco Pass and down through green hills into the Central Valley. (This was before the San Luis Dam was constructed, though I think it was already approved or planned. Yes, I’ve been in California that long!) I know we passed through Los Banos, stopping in a park along the way for a picnic. I don’t know if we stopped for donuts on that trip, but I have stopped here a few times since then.

Every time I’ve passed through this town for the past few years, typically before dawn or well after sunset, I’ve noticed the place and made a mental note to stop and photograph it before dawn or after sunset, its big red DONUTS sign and glowing interior lights calling to us in the darkness. But since I was usually in a hurry to get somewhere — a destination to the east or else back home — I never stopped. Until this season. I finally pulled over and stopped briefly in a parking lot across the street and made a few exposures. I thought the pickup truck was an appropriate touch. (And, no, I did not stop for donuts. This time.)

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Wildlife

The Cranes Return

January 31, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I understand that the “Super Blue Blood Moon” or something similar occurred early this morning. I missed it. (Well, not quite. I did look out my window before sunrise, and I saw a bit of the eclipse over my neighbor’s house.) However, almost exactly 12 hours earlier I was in a position to look at and photograph that very same moon as it rose over the Sierra Nevada and climbed into the sky above California. It was a beautiful, quiet, peaceful moment at the end of a long day photographing birds.

I chose this particular day to visit the wetlands for a couple of reasons. First, I knew there would be ground fog in the morning and that fog often leaves behind a soft and hazy atmosphere. Second, I knew that the moon would rise from behind the Sierra about a half hour before actual sunset, putting it at an interesting elevation above the horizon at sunset and during the blue hour, that period when the moon seems bright but the ambient light is still sufficient to illuminate the landscape. I began watching for the rising moon at the appointed time, but it did not immediately appear, because it still had to clear the Sierra and because the atmosphere above the valley was so thick with haze. Perhaps twenty minutes later it began to emerge from the haze, and I quickly moved to a spot I had previously considered, where some trees break up the otherwise flat landscape here where a gravel road winds among them. I hoped that the cranes might appear — they often do during the moments shortly after sunset — and hoped even more that they might pass through the scene. Sometimes one does get lucky, and a long string of the birds flew just above the moon as the sky turned pink and deeper blue.