Category Archives: Photographs: Structures and Objects

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

Building 631, Mare Island

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Building 631, Mare Island
Building 631, Mare Island

Building 631, Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Building 631, with badly peeling paint and illuminated by garish artificial lighting, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

For some reason I often find myself down around the old power plant and in the alley next to Building 631 near the end of my nighttime shoots at Mare Island. The railroad tracks curve through this alley – though they aren’t particularly visible in this photograph – and the bizarre and garish light and grossly peeling paint on this wall seem different from many of the other subjects around here.

One of the fun things about this sort of night photography is that “white balance” is more or less impossible! This scene includes light sources ranging from some kind of bizarre blue-green lighting that I can’t identify (fluorescent?) to sodium vapor to tungsten to sky lit by the glow from Vallejo, across the bay from the island. When it comes to the right color balance… pick one! Or several! Or make one up! In the end, no matter what you choose it won’t really “look like” what you saw in the dead of night – but for me that isn’t really the object. Long-exposure night photography lets us reveal things that we cannot see with our own eyes and present them in ways that are imaginative and different from our usual reality.

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.

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

Eighth and Nimitz, Towers and Wall

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Eighth and Nimitz, Towers and Wall
Eighth and Nimitz, Towers and Wall

Eighth and Nimitz, Towers and Wall. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Towers and brick wall at the corner of Eight and Nimitz, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

One more take on the corner of Nimitz Avenue and Eighth Street in the “historic core” of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, as photographed after dark on my recent visit with The Nocturnes, the SF Bay Area night photography group. (Visit their web site for lots of great night photography resources.)

I thought I’d post this photograph as an example of several things that I think about a lot as I make photographs and post them at my blog and elsewhere on the web. Here goes:

  • While I post a number of photographs that I am very happy with, I also post quite a few that are part of the learning and development process. In fact, posting daily is part of my dedication to practice, an idea that I learned from many years in music. Daily work with images – whether making photographs or working on photographs already made or thinking about how I might photograph subjects I encounter or looking at the photographs of others – sharpens my visual acuity and improves my ability to “see” photographs in subjects I encounter. This is one of those not-quite-right photographs that I learn from.
  • There is much that I like in this photograph, but there is also a significant compositional issue that I recognized as soon as I looked at it on the computer. See it yet? I’ll wait…
  • With a moment to look more closely you probably noticed some issues with the placement of the nearest steel beam on the right side of the frame. It almost, but not quite, covers one of the window frames in the brick wall in the background, but unfortunately a bit of that frame sticks out beyond the left side of the beam. In addition, and related to that, the right side of this beam partially blocks the upper right edge of one of the windows.
  • Of course, now that I’m sitting at my computer in a warm and well-lit room, I can easily see how I could have solved this problem when I made the exposure – most likely by moving a bit to the right and perhaps slightly forward. With that in mind, I’ve filed two things in the “photographic memory bank.” First, the next time I shoot this scene I’ll probably resolve this issue! Second, I’ve added one more data point to the experience that I draw on when I make a shot, and this increases the chances that I won’t miss things like this quite so often in the future.

Live and learn! :-)

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.

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

Museum Building, Reflection – Eighth and Nimitz

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Museum Building, Reflection - Eighth and Nimitz
Museum Building, Reflection - Eighth and Nimitz

Museum Building, Reflection – Eighth and Nimitz. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photography at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard – The museum building reflected in rainwater pools with shipbuilding equipment beyond.

One more in the series of night photographs made with The Nocturnes at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California during the first weekend of February. I made several photographs from this general location that feature the brick side wall of the museum building with the other ship yard structures in the background and the puddles from recent rain in the foreground.

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, historic, vallejo, california, usa, nocturnes, night, photography, structures, eighth, nimitz, avenue, street, museum, core, brick, window, reflection, stop, sing, wall, roof, sidewalk, street, railroad, rain, water, pool, puddle, industrial, scaffold, equipment, sky, nocturnal, nocturnes, clouds, stock

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

Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue

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Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue
Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue

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.

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