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

Moonlit Building, Windows and Stairs

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Moonlit Building, Windows and Stairs
Moonlit Building, Windows and Stairs

Moonlit Building, Windows and Stairs. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. February 27, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photography of an old moonlit building with windows and metal stairs at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

Late in the evening of this visit to Mare Island with The Nocturnes I decided on one last little project – to wander off from the places where I most often shoot around the “historic core” of the facility and find a few out of the way and more isolated subjects. As I walked down one street I saw a driveway leading back into an area between a bunch of old buildings so I decided to check it out. After photographing a much larger building covered with external pipes (photo still in progress) I turned around and saw the moonlight falling across the worn paneling, windows, stairway, and sharp angles of this wooden building.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/8, 162 seconds

keywords: minsy, mare, island, naval, shipyard, vallejo, california, usa, north america, san francisco, bay area, night, photography, nocturnes, rust, paint, worn, weathered, peeling, paint, paneling, railing, stairs, stairway, shadow, moon, full, moonlit, angles, window, frame, door, room, industrial, urban, stock, historic, reflection

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

Towers and Brick Building, Full Moon Light

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Towers and Brick Building, Full Moon Light
Towers and Brick Building, Full Moon Light

Towers and Brick Building, Full Moon Light. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. February 27, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Industrial towers and brick building under the light of the full moon at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

On February 27, for the second time this month, I visited Mare Island Naval Shipyard to do night photography with The Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group. (Anyone looking for great resources on night photography should visit their web site. They also offer classes and workshops on night photography.) This was a “Mare Islands Alumni” event, attended by quite a few folks who have done night photography at Mare Island. One of the highlights came before the actual photography began as we met in the museum building and had a chance to view work by participating photographers – the work gets better every time and there was some wonderful night photography on display.

One attraction on this night was the full moon, which appears just above and to the right of the frame in this photograph made near the intersection of 8th and Nimitz Streets, in the heart of the old ship construction area. The was the first subject I photographed – it was something of a “do over,” since I had overlooked some obvious composition problems with the shot earlier this month and wanted to get it right this time. When I originally mentioned that, Tim Baskerville pointed out that I might have a hard time getting the same reflective puddles in the scene, but as luck would have it a good sized storm was just departing and it left great puddles everywhere!

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 35mm f/2.0
ISO 100, f/11, 353 seconds

keywords: 8th, avenue, street, nimitz, asphalt, puddle, reflection, water, twig, manhole, cover, steel, tower, rivets, bolt, brick, shop, building, window, arch, industrial, stop, sign, full, moon, light, sky, star, trail, cloud, minsy, the, nocturnes, mare, island, naval, shipyard, historic, vallejo, california, usa, north america, curb, sidewalk, night, photography

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Weathered White House, Pescadero

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Weathered White House, Pescadero

Weathered White House, Pescadero. Pescadero, California. June 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A weathered old house along the main road in Pescadero, California.

I know I’m not the only photographer who is a sucker for old, weathered rural buildings. I had been over at the coast trying to photograph seascapes, and I decided to stop in at this town just inland before heading home. I drove past this place once. I turned around and drove past it a second time. I finally gave in, turned back and pulled over, and made a few exposures before starting my return drive. (Note to JW – this is one of the photos that I did think of as a black and white image at the time I made the exposure.)

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: old, weathered, house, home, building, white, peeling, paint, shingles, window, lace, curtain, porch, entry, walkway, door, pattio, 1581, sky, lawn, street, full, sun, shadow, roadside, road, pescadero, california, usa, pacific, ocean, coast, architecture, stock

Commentary, Equipment, Technique

Canon EOS 5D Mark II: Two More Reasons to Love Live View

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Yesterday I was at Point Lobos shooting a variety of wildlife, nature, and landscape subject. As I worked I found myself using the live view feature of my Canon EOS 5D Mark II very frequently – partly for reasons I’ve written about before, but largely for two reasons that I’d like to briefly mention.

Much better depth of field preview – Everyone knows about the small depth of field preview button on the body near the lens. Since the lens is open to the widest aperture when you focus you cannot tell what your depth of field will be until you push this button to stop down to the aperture that you’ll use for your shot. There are two problems with this technique: you cannot judge sharpness critically enough across the frame in the viewfinder and the viewfinder becomes incredibly dim if you stop down to small apertures like f/16. Put those two problems together and the usefulness of the preview button is diminished. However, when you use live view the camera automatically adjusts when you press the preview button and the image is still plenty bright to see on the LCD. Even better, you can zoom in to 5x or 10x magnification to carefully check sharpness. All in all, this makes DOF preview a much more useful feature when live view is used.

You can compose a photograph when using neutral density filters to extend exposure – At one point this weekend I was using a 9-stop neutral density filter to make exposures of the surf with durations in the 10-20 second range. My usual practice is to compose the shot and, if necessary, manually focus without the filter attached. Once the shot is set up I attach the filter. Unfortunately, the filter renders the scene virtually invisible through the viewfinder. Recomposing or manually focusing requires removing the filter, making adjustments, and then reattaching the filter. I discovered yesterday that live view mode can display the image in the LCD even with my 9-stop ND filter in place, allowing me to make changes to the composition/framing or adjust focus without removing the filter

(Shortly after posting this I got a message from B&H photo saying that they again have the Canon EOS 5D Mark II back in stock, and unlike some other dealers they sell it with no markups at the list price of $2669.95.)