Tag Archives: building

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

Building 259

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Building 259
Building 239, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

Building 259. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

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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Photographs: Night

Windows, Brick Building, Night

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Windows, Brick Building, Night
Light from the interior of an industrial building spills through windows and into an alley

Windows, Brick Building, Night. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light from the interior of an industrial building spills through windows and into an alley

This building was a bit of 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.

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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Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Metal Structure

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Blue Metal Structure
Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Blue Metal Structure. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I was at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to spend the evening doing night photography with my friends from the original Nocturnes group, and I had arrived well before sunset. After meeting up in the Mare Island Museum for pizza and conversation we realized that the end of the day was coming. I went outside about a half hour before sunset, and I thought of some old industrial buildings that I had passed on the way in. Instead of staying where I was and starting my typical routine of wandering on foot with my gear I decided to take short drive back to those buildings and see if I could make a few quick photographs in the end-of-day light.

I soon arrived and made a few photographs in golden hour light, but the sun quickly dropped below the horizon and I was left with that post-sunset glow. This light can be quite warm if clouds reflect some of the remaining red, yellow, and orange tones of sunset, but if the sky is clear what remains is the intense blue of early twilight. The latter light is what evolved, and I soon moved back to this unusual structure whose blue paint’s color was even more intensified by this twilight illumination.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows

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Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows
Shadows from metal balconies slant across brick wall

Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows from metal balconies slant across brick wall

I don’t think I can up with a comprehensive list of all of the variations on urban and street subjects, but there are a lot of them. You can, of course, focus on photographing people — whether street portraits, with our without the subject’s cooperation, or anything up to groups and crowds. You can treat the urban environment as its own sort of landscape, looking for form and color and light in the familiar ways. You can think of it as a way of simply making a record of transitory things that will soon be changed or bone. It can focus on architecture. And the list goes on.

I think of this as a sort of street landscape. This New York wall, at this time of day and during this season, transforms into something that I can’t imagine the builders understood when they constructed it. My bet is that they were making a practical brick wall, with practical windows, a simple pair of balconies (probably designed to save money), and fire escapes. But, as was apparent when I walked past in December, becomes a canvas for a wild conjunction of shapes and textures and shadows.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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