Tag Archives: historic

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

Lamp, the ‘UFO Building” at Night

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Lamp, the 'UFO Building" at Night
Lamp, the 'UFO Building" at Night

Lamp, the ‘UFO Building” at Night. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. February 12, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lamp casts a shadow in bright artificial light in a night photograph of the wall of the ‘UFO Building’ at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

The first time I photographed the side of this weathered and peeling building and Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, I didn’t see the feature that gives this building its informal name. I’ll be that you can though, right? Due to a lucky alignment of this small exterior lamp (which appears to be non-functional) and some nearby sodium vapor lamps, the lamp casts a shadow on the corrugated wall of the building that has a striking and easily recognized shape!

It may not immediately be apparent that this photograph was made at night in very low light. However, a look at the lighting should make it apparent that this cannot be daytime light. Note that the lamp that creates a shadow to its right… is also getting some nice illumination from the right side! One of the fun things about shooting in an industrial location like Mare Island is the amazing mixture of lighting sources. Though it wasn’t much of an influence on this night, the full moon can provide light that is color balanced pretty much like daylight… only a lot dimmer. The sodium vapor lamps that light this area (they are common in street lamps) produce a strongly yellow or yellow/red light. Occasional fluorescent or tungsten lamps provide yet more color variations. In the end, it is just about impossible to say what kind of color balance is “real” – and doubly-so since the actual shooting conditions are near darkness. The only reason that images like this look daylight-bright is because they are typically the result of long exposures. In fact, this one was relatively short at just over a minute. Somewhere in the 2 to 5 minute range is perhaps more typical.

The crazy lighting is apparent in this image if you look a bit more closely. As mentioned above, there is cross lighting here from both sides of the frame. While the strongest light comes from the left (and creates that UFO shadow) there is also significant light from a bit further away to the right. You may also be able to see that the in some areas the shadows created by light from one side are filled in by garishly colored lights coming from the other directions – see some of the very yellow areas along the sides of vertical boards and along the ridges of the corrugated wall.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Pipes, Tank, and Cyclone Fence Shadows

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Pipes, Tank, and Cyclone Fence Shadows
Pipes, Tank, and Cyclone Fence Shadows

Pipes, Tank, and Cyclone Fence Shadows. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California. February 12, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white night photorgraph of pipes, a tank, and cyclone fence shadows falling across a brick wall at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This past weekend I had a chance to join my friends from The Nocturnes for an introduction to night photography at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California. The Nocturnes schedule events at this wonderful and rich location several times each year, and I have done night photography there many times in the past. Many of the photographers at this particular event were experimenting with “the dark side” for the first time, so I decided to go both to do a bit of my own shooting and to help Tim Baskerville answer questions from some of the first-timers.

This bit of industrial “stuff” is in a location I have shot many, many times. It is in an alley next to what is now the Mare Island Historic Museum, and it traditionally the first place that many MINSY night photographers start their evening of night photography. Since I’ve shot quite a few of the standard subjects at Mare Island, I had in mind a few slightly different subjects and different approaches in mind this time. One was to focus specifically on shadows as a compositional element and another was to look for some of the smaller details of the place in addition to shooting the very interesting larger structures that so often get my attention.

So, after shooting nearby structure with shadows angling across the alley, I thought that I’d see what I could do with this odd bit of old pipes and a tank against a brick wall, and illuminated by nearby sodium vapor lamps shining through a cyclone fence. I liked the shiny texture of the pipes and their shapes as they radiated from the central tank, along with the shapes of both the very dark and large shadows and the net of fainter shadows thrown over the whole scene by the fence.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay Fog

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Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay Fog
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay Fog

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay Fog. San Francisco, California. December 16, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Alcatraz Island is almost completely obscured by San Francisco Bay fog drifting beneath blue sky.

This is another of what I sort of think of as my “barely there” photographs, in which I work with subjects that are almost completely obscured by fog, mist, rain, or clouds. Some of my Yosemite Valley photographs from a rainy weekend near the end of this past October are in the same category.

 

You can experience an astonishing range of atmospheric conditions in and around San Francisco Bay. The patterns at this time of year (the very end of fall, and more like winter conditions) are quite different from summer. As often as not, the fog in the winter comes from inland rather than drifting in through the Golden Gate, and it is more related to the tule fog that can sit in the Central Valley during the winter, sometimes for weeks. On the other hand, after the passage of a winter storm (which brings its own impressive conditions) the winter air over the Bay can be crystal clear. And frequently the conditions can change rapidly, as was the case on this morning. When I arrived in the Marin Headlands above the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge before dawn, I was initially a bit disappointed that the conditions were too clear! Except for a bank of clouds right above San Francisco (the subject of some other recently posted photographs) the rest of the Bay was almost completely clear. But then, at first imperceptibly and then very quickly, fog began to condense out of the air above the bay. In a short period of time subjects that had been clearly visible were completely obscured. Within moments after making this photograph, Alcatraz was not longer visible.

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
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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine

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Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine

Detail, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. New York, New York. August 15, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Exterior detail of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

After traveling uptown to the general area of Columbia University for a breakfast visit to a bakery that had been recommended to us we wandered across the street to the grounds of this famous and imposing cathedral. We began in the sculpture building next to the church, and this photograph was made from that general area, taking advantage of the soft and diffused light of this overcast day.

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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