Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Building 259

March 27, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Building 239, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

In mid-March I returned to the old Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to do night photography with some of my nocturnal friends, a group of photographers with connections through Bay Area night photography guru Tim Baskerville who has been photographing, teaching, and generally promoting night photography for decades. We assembled well before dark, and as I arrived I kept my eyes out for structures on the old ship yard that might be interesting to photograph after sunset. About a half hour before the sun went down we began to head out to start out night’s work.

I planned to photograph around the “historic core” of the facility, but I decided first to drive back along my arrival route to where I had seen these buildings and few others that caught my attention. I started with a building that I have photographed in the past, and the sun set as I worked that scene. The soft, blue early twilight changed the appearance of the buildings, giving the foreground building 259 a blue cast and altering the color of the further building. I’m intrigued by these “round” buildings (what I grew up calling Quonset huts), and here I wanted to contrast its shape and color with the squared and pinkish background building.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees In Sun, Cliff In Shadow

March 26, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sun from behind an ice-rimmed granite monolith lights a row of trees at the edge of a meadow

I made this photograph on a day of somewhat ephemeral conditions. There had been snow the day before — light snow, but in very cold conditions. On this morning the storm had passed, but it was so cold that a thin layer of snow was still there. It was in the meadows, on the branches of trees, and collected on every small irregularity on the granite cliffs above Yosemite Valley. At the moment I made this photograph the sunlight, shining through thin clouds, had just arrived on the closest trees, while those in the distance remained in cold shadows.

The light and the snow patterns on the face of the granite monolith are remarkable. The small amount of snow — perhaps only and inch or two — brought the patterns of cracks and small ledges into relief, making visible features that we might overlook on a warmer day And the light on the cliff is rather blue since the face is illuminated not by direct sunlight, but instead by the giant “light panel in the sky,” which happens to be very blue!

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

Photographs: Night

Windows, Brick Building, Night

March 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This building was a surprise to me. As I recall from past visits, I’m pretty sure that it had been more or less abandoned at one point, and I typically found it completely dark when I photographed there at night. I specifically recall photographing around it and having to content with a very dark environment, the sort where exposures of many minutes were necessary. But on this visit I found it, instead, to be a source of light. The interior was clear and well-lit, and large expanses of windows allowed the light to spread from the building onto the surroundings.

On a slightly technical level a few things seemed notable about photographing this structure. First, it is an example of how well current photographic technology can handle some very challenging light situations. The subjects in this photograph ranged from a bare lightbulb inside the building (visible as the brightest area in the central window) to virtually black shadows on the close side of the building wall. Yet a single exposure was sufficient to capture enough image data to protect the highlights and retain some detail in even the darkest areas. The second observation has to do with the inevitable changes that time brings to places like this. I have photographed here for about fifteen years, and on this visit I saw many changes. I lamented many of them, especially the places now off limits, knocked down, or modified almost beyond recognition. But at the same time, the re-opening of some of the old structures has made them more photographically interesting — as in the case of this building where there is now sufficient light for photography.

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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

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Ideas, Site News, Thinking Aloud

A Photo Per Day Since When?

March 24, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

See July 3, 2005 post)

I was helping out at a friend’s workshop earlier today, and he mentioned to the group that I have been posting a new photograph every day for a long time. He turned to me and asked, “How long?”

I’m actually not quite certain. The first photograph posted at this blog was on July 3, 2005, when I shared a black and white photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge. Look back through those early posts I can see that at first there were gaps between posts, sometimes of a day or two, and perhaps a bit longer on a few occasions. But shortly after that I decided to try to produce work (not always “great” work) at a rate such that I could post a new photograph every day — so it seems like it must be getting close to eight years now.

I’m occasionally asked a few other questions about this project:

Why?: The main idea comes, I think, from my background in music, a field in which it is simply accepted that you must make work (e.g. – “practice”) continuously, both to develop your skills and to make them become instinctive.

Do you think you can produce a great photograph every day? No! Making a handful of excellent photographs (at least in the genres I focus on) every year is a worthy goal. Essentially, I’m exposing my “practice” work to the world, partly to encourage myself to take the work seriously and partly to share the process with others.

Do you actually go out and make a new photograph every day? Again, no. I produce work at an overall rate that lets me post something every day, but there are many days when I make no photographs… and other days when I make quite a few.

Questions or comments? You can leave them here on this post.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Building 259

Trees In Sun, Cliff In Shadow

Windows, Brick Building, Night

A Photo Per Day Since When?

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