Tag Archives: building

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite School and Bank Ruins

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Rhyolite Bank and School Ruins
Rhyolite Bank and School Ruins. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 2, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Ruins of the school and bank at sunrise in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada. Rhyolite is a mining ghost town just east of the California/Nevada border between Death Valley National Park and Beatty, Nevada.

When we arrived at Rhyolite just before dawn, it looked like the light was perhaps not going to cooperate. While parts of the sky were quite blue, there was a layer of clouds to the east where the sun was rising. At times the light turned out to be flat and gray, but every so often it would come through the clouds and wash the scene in this wonderful warm light.

keywords: ruins, school, bank, building, ghost, town, rhyolite, nevada, usa, desert, mine, mining, desert, sky, death valley, national park, mountains, wall, rocks, sunrise, morning, stock, historic, landscape, travel, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building 65 and Alley, Night – Mare Island Naval Shipyard

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Building 65 and Alley, Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. March 22, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Building 65 lit by garish sodium vapor lamps, with a dark alley in the background and stars above.

This photo prompts me to post something about night photography and color that I’ve been thinking about for awhile. A scene like this one is lit by a variety of light sources – some natural light from moon and sky, tungsten lights, sodium vapor lights, and a gentle wash of mixed light sources from a nearby city. A question might be: “How do you accurately render the lighting of the scene?” My answer is, “You don’t.” Even if you could achieve an “accurate” rendering it would look nothing like what your night vision affected eyes “saw” since your eyes do not see the same way the camera does.

For me, one of the fun things about night photography – especially when artificial light sources are part of the scene – is that I can render to colors in whatever way makes the most sense for me.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Mare Island Chimney and Buildings, Night

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Mare Island Chimney and Buildings, Night
Mare Island Chimney and Buildings, Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard. March 22, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white night photograph of the smokestack and industrial buildings at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. While I usually shoot this subject in color, I like the stark quality of this one in black and white, along with the way that the monochrome rendition emphasizes the forms of the buildings.

keywords: black and white, photograph, mare island, naval, shipyard, MINSY, industrial, shops, factory, street, tracks, fences, quonset, hut, building, brick, wooden, windows, night, sky, nocturnal, stars, trails, historic, vallejo, california, usa, travel, stock

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

Yellow Poles

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

A barrier of yellow metal poles around transformer boxes under garish artificial light at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

I thought I had finished photographing on the night of this shoot with a group of photographers from The Nocturnes. As I was about to pack up, on a whim I decided to wander around the other side of the Quonset building seen in the photograph, and I found this interesting arrangement of transformer boxes and poles illuminated by some of the most stark and garish light I had seen that night.

keywords: night, photography, nocturnal, yellow, poles, transformers, concrete, slab, block, building, structure, quonset, hut, shadows, blue, light, dark, mare island, naval shipyard, historic, vallejo, california, usa, industrial, urban, equipment, electrical