Tag Archives: bay

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

Tower, Night Sky

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Tower, Night Sky
A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Tower, Night Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This is not the first nor the only photograph I’ve made of this structure. It comes from the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the place where I did my first serious night photography almost two decades ago. (It happened on more or less a lark when I saw an announcement of a free event, showed up, and became hooked.) This structure is one half of a pair of gigantic overhead tracks that I believe originally supported some sort of lift mechanism that moved heavy mechanical systems (probably engines) to ships that were under construction. The buildings were originally various shops connected to the shipbuilding work, though today, years after the facility was decommissioned, many of them have been taken over for other purposes.

The relationship between night photographs and objective reality is a complex thing. I think of it as revealing “what the camera sees” more than as capturing what we see at night. In truth, in places like this and in lightning like this… we can’t really see much at all. But by extending the exposure times we can make images out of what is largely unseen. (A close examination of this photograph will reveal star trails made as the earth rotated beneath the night sky over the course of a several minute exposure.) In the end, many decisions about such images — luminosity, color, and more — must be subjective, since there really is no objective reality that corresponds to what the camera sees.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Winter Mist, Tomales Bay

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Winter Mist, Tomales Bay
Morning mist rises above Tomales Bay on a cold winter morning.

Winter Mist, Tomales Bay. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning mist rises above Tomales Bay on a cold winter morning.

One advantage of living near iconic locations (in this case, the Point Reyes National Seashore) is that I can go there on short notice at times when few other visitors are around. Being only a short distance north of San Francisco and less than an hour’s drive from some populated areas of the greater Bay Area, a visit here on a summer weekend can be considerably less than a solitary experience. But on a freezing cold (literally!) late-winter weekday morning you might find yourself all alone in such a place.

I have passed by this spot many times, and this was not the first time I stopped to make photographs here. (Nearby and just out of sight are a couple of iconic regional photographic subjects.) On this morning it was the light that stopped me, along with the new grass on the coastal hills along the far shore. (Winter is our green season in much of California.) As I worked, the thin morning fog above the waters of Tomales Bay drifted slowly, backlit by the low-angle morning light.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Marin Hills Fog

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Marin Hills Fog
Pacific ocean fog drifts among forested ridges north of San Francisco.

Marin Hills Fog. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pacific ocean fog drifts among forested ridges north of San Francisco.

This is a reworking/rethinking of an older photograph from 2013. The previous interpretation was black and white — at that time I was shying away from cloudy, foggy images with a blue cast, but I’ve come to accept and like them now. (Going to black and white is often an attractive option when I can’t quite see how to make it work in color.) Somewhat unusual for me, I also may have darkened some elements of this version of the image. Perhaps a bit of darkness seems appropriate in this time of sheltering-in-place…

I made the photograph on a quick day trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and a ways north up the coast. My recollection is that I followed coastal roads up to about Stinson Beach, stopped there to grab a a bite, and then decided to take a hillier route back home. It reached a sufficient elevation to get me up onto the shoulder of a ridge where I was above the bank of fog extending back out over the Pacific Ocean.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

San Pablo Bay

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San Pablo Bay
Old pilings in tidal flats along the edge of San Pablo Bay.

San Pablo Bay. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Old pilings in tidal flats along the edge of San Pablo Bay.

This photograph comes from a wonderful visit to a spot along the shoreline of San Pablo Bay, which is essentially a lobe of San Francisco Bay. While the entire Bay Area, especially those areas that are right along the water, is typically a busy urban area, there are still locations where you can almost completely escape that vibe. This is one of those spots, at a park that walls off almost entirely any signs of urban or modern industrial development, and where the long views obscure those things in the distance.

In this particular location the edges of the bay are more or less tidal flats, and the water along the immediate shoreline tends to be very shallow, often emerging at low tide. The old pilings are a remnant of an earlier time when there was a settlement here and when it was the site of an active shrimp harvesting industry. On this morning, it was mostly a very quiet and still place.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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