Tag Archives: abandoned

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street, Tongue in Cheek

Now Open

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San Francisco Photograph - An abandoned toilet stands next to a Chase Bank "Now Open" sign in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.
An abandoned toilet stands next to a Chase Bank “Now Open” sign in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.

Now Open. San Francisco, California. July 15 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An abandoned toilet stands next to a Chase Bank “Now Open” sign in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.

Sometimes the world just hands you things that you couldn’t come up with on your own if you tried.

The opportunities for bad puns are so tempting here, but I’ll struggle to resist, and instead simply offer a few words about the location and the, uh, scene. On this summer day I was wandering around San Francisco to do street photography, and walked up Grant Street. Grant is such a tourist place that I often instead head off to some nearby streets that are a bit less geared to the tourist trade, so I picked up a cross street and wandered up toward Stockton Street. At one point as I walked past a busy area of markets and other small businesses I happened to notice this odd (and perhaps unfortunate, if you are the bank) juxtaposition of sidewalk “decorations.”

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Industry Noir

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Industry Noir - A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.
A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Industry Noir. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A night scene in an artificially-lit industrial area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Given some of the other iconic and impressive things that may be photographed at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, this is sort of a normal looking scene. However, as one who has photographed there quite a bit at night, somehow it seems to capture – for me, anyway – something about the way the place feels. Wandering about among very old, very abandoned, and very dilapidated old structures in the quiet of the night, sometimes things can feel just a bit strange, and a glow from inside a window on the second story of a building or the reflection of a soft interior light can sort of make you wonder just a bit.

To be honest, I’m rarely scared or nervous when shooting there. For the most part the experience is a very quiet, slow, and contemplative one. But I recall one night that was a bit different. I had arrived early – before the sun set – and had met up with a group of fellow night photographers. They had some plans to shoot in a particular area, but I really wanted to shoot something else at first. So I told them to go ahead and start and that I would find them a bit later after shooting my first subject. Finishing with that work a half hour or so later I headed off in the direction they had gone, stopping to make more photographs along the way. But I never saw them again. I continued shooting along, wandering along deserted old streets and up alleys behind abandoned buildings. Finally at one point I suddenly became aware of being very alone in a very dark place and, for the first and only time at MINSY, I became nervous – and quickly packed up, returned to my car, and left. This photograph reminds me of that just a bit…

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street, Photographs: Wildlife

Room in Abandoned Building, The Embarcadero

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Room in Abandoned Building, The Embarcadero - The interior of an abandoned waterfront building on the Embarcadero, San Francisco.
The interior of an abandoned waterfront building on the Embarcadero, San Francisco.

Room in Abandoned Building, The Embarcadero. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The interior of an abandoned waterfront building on the Embarcadero, San Francisco.

This interior is a room in a building located on one of the piers along the Embarcadero on San Francisco’s waterfront. This one is located not far from the South Beach Harbor. It seems to be one of those old structures that was recently adapted for use by companies that had the “look” of being part of the tech boom in the city – perhaps design firms or similar. I have walked past it many times, occasionally photographing the exterior windows and other features, but otherwise not noticing it all that much.

On my last walk past this spot things had changed, to say the least. There were signs along entrances that declared that the pier had been closed, ostensibly for safety reasons, and that no trespassing was allowed. No one seemed to be inside the building, and most of the businesses appeared to have left or been abandoned. Though one set of windows I could see stacks of boxes labelled with intended mail recipients, but that mail wasn’t going anywhere! Near the north end of the building I could see into this sun-filled room, with its tall windows facing the bay and the morning sun. Almost everything was removed from the building, giving it almost the same abandoned feeling that I often experience when shooting at Mare Island. I managed to push my camera up against a window, block reflections from the street behind me with my hand, and make a few perhaps final photographs of this space.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Abandoned Turnstiles

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Abandoned Turnstiles - Night photograph of abandoned turnstiles in the industrial area of the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.
Night photograph of abandoned turnstiles in the industrial area of the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

Abandoned Turnstiles. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of abandoned turnstiles in the industrial area of the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

Early this month I had the opportunity to join my friends from The Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group, for (yet another) return visit to the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard for an evening of nocturnal photography, along with a chance to share work and pizza! I have been photographing Mare Island at night for something like a half dozen years now, yet I still find new and interesting subjects every time I go there.

These turnstile structures are found throughout the facility, and they are a frequent topic of conversation and subject of photography among the night photographers I know. They are intriguing features and there is something compelling about them as potential subjects. Standing along at night they seem forlorn, perhaps in contrast to the knowledge that thousands of ship yard employees must have passed through them at one point. They also seem almost disconnected from the rest of the industrial landscape here. While it is obvious that they must have once been the only entry way to certain areas of the facility, not it is quite possible to simply walk around them. In addition, some mysterious electrical “stuff” has clearly been removed – time card readers? Something else?

It also turns out that they are a surprisingly difficult photographic subject, and I have had many discussions with other night photographers about this. Up close they present an amazing density of interlocking metal features… that are very difficult to assemble into a good composition. I’ve managed once or twice. Oddly, one of my favorite photographs of the turnstiles is almost the very first photograph I made at Mare Island, a black and white close-up photograph of a gate by the island’s museum. For this shot I decided to work from a bit of elevation, setting up on a raised landing in front of a nearby building so that I could look down on the structure and create a sort of surround out of the background area and further buildings.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.