Category Archives: Photographs: Night

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shop Buildings at Night

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Mare Island Shops at Night
Mare Island Shops at Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. March 22, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

At least once a year I join The Nocturnes (the San Francisco Bay Area night photographers’ group led by Tim Baskerville) to photograph the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. This amazing historical site near Vallejo, California was the first US Navy shipyard on the west coast and dates to the mid-1800s. It was active until the late 1990s. It is a night photographer’s paradise with wonderful old buildings ranging form officers’ homes to dry docks to huge cranes to wonderful old brick factory buildings

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Commentary, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Site News

Watch for a Site Format Changes

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Moonlit Cove, Thousand Island Lake

Moonlit Cove, Thousand Island Lake. Ansel Adams Wilderness, California. July 27, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I am contemplating a change in the way that photographs are displayed on the home page and in the rss news feed. Instead of displaying the relatively large versions I have been posting here, I will switch to somewhat smaller versions that will expand when you click on them. I think this will have several benefits: those who subscribe to the rss feed will find that my posts take up less space in their feed viewers, there will be less scrolling to do on my home page, and those who want to see full size images will still be able to do so. One small downside will be that rss feed readers will have to click the title link of each post and come to the home page to see the complete display.

I’ve placed an alternate version of today’s image into this post, displayed in the new format.

As always, I welcome your feedback about this or anything else on my web site.

Thanks,

Dan

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Moonlit Cove, Thousand Island Lake

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Moonlit Cove, Thousand Island Lake

Moonlit Cove, Thousand Island Lake. Ansel Adams Wilderness, California. July 27, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I spent a few hours on this cold, clear July evening photographing the light of the full moon, star trails, and reflections on the surface of Thousand Island Lake.

When using a digital camera to make such long exposures one must adopt a very patient attitude. First, find the spot for your photograph and set everything up in the dark. Then make an exposure of perhaps 15 minutes. Because DSLRs are subject to noise on these long exposures, you then wait another 15 minutes while the camera completes a “dark frame” exposure to determine how to compensate for the noise in the original exposure. Yes, it takes 30 minutes (and lots of battery power!) to make a 15 minute exposure.

You could become impatient. Or you could, as I do, sit back and enjoy the peace and quite of a beautiful moonlit Sierra night.

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Photographs: Night, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Moonlight, Thousand Island Lake, Mounts Ritter and Banner

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Moonlight, Thousand Island Lake, Mounts Ritter and Banner
Moonlight, Thousand Island Lake, Mounts Ritter and Banner. Ansel Adams Wilderness, California. July 26, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Photographed on a full moon summer evening in the Ansel Adams wilderness. Taking these photographs was a wonderful and unusual experience – I had to find the shot and then still silently for many minutes as the camera exposed the frame – as long as 15-20 minutes. It is rare to simply sit quietly for such a long time in such surroundings. :-)

(The posting of this photograph is somewhat timely since I’ll be participating in a night photography shoot a Mare Island Naval Shipyard this weekend sponsored by The Nocturnes.)

keywords: black and white, thousand island, lake, mount, ritter, banner, peak, ansel adams, wilderness, night, photography, star trails, full, moon, light, reflection, rocks, forest, alpine, mountains, landscape, scenic, travel, camping, hiking, backpacking, stock, california, usa