Tag Archives: gigantic

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Seen Any Geese?

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Seen Any Geese?
A gigantic flock of (mostly) snow geese over a wetland pond.

Seen Any Geese?. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gigantic flock of (mostly) snow geese over a wetland pond.

That’s the question. Seen any geese? A few actually. A few thousand. Or perhaps a few ten-thousand. These are among the many birds that migrate south into the continental US in the winter — these travel from the arctic via the Pacific Flyway and then overwinter in various areas in California. I usually don’t photograph them in this sort of midday light, but I decided that I do find the overall blue-ness of this scene to be attractive.

How does a scene like this happen? Initially a large group of thousands of geese is on the ground or in a shallow pond. Not much seems to be going on until all of a sudden many or all of them suddenly take to the air with a tremendous sound of rushing wings. The instigation is not always clear, but it could be a predator flying over, and I’ve seen it happen in response to things like low-flying aircraft. After the initial take-off, the flock may wheel around in expanding circles and spread to cover the sky until they eventually find a new place to settle.

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

Shipyard Crane Structure, Night

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Shipyard Crane Structure, Night
The base of a gigantic rolling crane structure, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

Shipyard Crane Structure, Night. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The base of a gigantic rolling crane structure, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I did my first real night photography at this location, the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, fifteen years ago. I more or less randomly saw an announcement for a free introduction to night photography at the Flyway Festival at Mare Island, and without giving it much thought I signed up. The session was organized by Tim Baskerville, a guiding-light (guiding dark?) of the San Francisco Bay Area night photography scene and the leader of a group called “The Nocturnes.” (Studio Nocturne SF, the night photography collective I work with today, is a direct descendent.) I had almost no idea what I was doing on that first night photography adventure, but I was taken by the genre (and by this location) and I’ve been photographing at night ever since.

This week a group of us met for a “Nocturnes Alumni Event” at Mare Island, and after sharing and pizza we headed out into the dark to make photographs. It is a bit of a strange experience for me by now. I am very familiar with many of the features of the place, but there have been many changes, too. Back in 2003 the site was almost entirely abandoned, and it was not clear what would become of it. Today portions are being redeveloped, for better or worse — mostly better, I think. So some of the old subjects are gone, others that were off-limits back then are now accessible, and new things have appeared. On this evening I was able to get up close to some of these remarkable and gigantic old shipyard cranes. In a Silicon Valley world of virtual industries, it is quite striking to stand beneath these very solid and very real machines — gigantic things that were used to move the components for building ships.

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

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

Ship Yard Crane, Night Sky

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Ship Yard Crane, Night Sky
Ship Yard Crane, Night Sky

Ship Yard Crane, Night Sky. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. April 5, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gigantic ship yard crane extends high into the night sky, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

For many of us, these gigantic cranes, towering above the historic ship yard buildings and docks, are the iconic structures of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California. The facility has been here since the 1800s, when it was the first naval ship yard on the west coast of the United States, and its history is quite remarkable. I won’t even begin to try to recount it here since a) it is so extensive and b) I’m far from an expert! In the 1990s it was decommissioned and since that time parts of the facility have fallen into ruin, others have been maintained in more or less their condition at that time, and some have been converted to other uses ranging from industrial to housing.

I have photographed here at night for about a decade. It used to be that these towering structures were mostly just parked in somewhat inaccessible locations behind fences along the waterfront. (The folks I photograph with here have a policy of not going into areas that are off-limits, and this had led to generally very good relations with the folks who oversee the place.) More recently the dry dock facility has been put back to use to dismantle very old ships from the “mothball fleet” that had been moored nearby, and now when I visit I often find the cranes have moved and may even be in more accessible locations. The first thing that struck me on this night’s visit was the effect of the security lights playing over the structure—and the fact that the lights are still the older and very colorful lights rather than the newer, more energy-efficient, and very boring LED lighting!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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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