Tag Archives: industrial

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

Night Scene, Mare Island

Leave a comment
Night Scene, Mare Island
Night Scene, Mare Island

Night Scene, Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. May 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of pipes, barricades, trash receptacles, and wall with alarm – Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

I suppose this more or less qualifies as a photograph of nothing. What we have here are: a couple of barricade posts, part of a dumpster, some pipes and valves, a trash can, a textured concrete wall lit from above by a single lamp, a fire alarm, and shadows from various of these objects. I saw this as I walked along Nimitz street along the waterfront at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard and, for some reason, just felt that it was a picture waiting to be recorded.

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 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 40mm
ISO 200, f/16, 13 seconds

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, vallejo, california, usa, north america, historic, night, photography, minsy, pipes, valves, barricades, pole, trash, can, receptacle, dumpster, wall, fire, alarm, light, artificial, glow, asphalt, concrete, cement, industrial, urban, nocturne, stock

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

Alley, Mare Island

1 Comment

Alley, Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. May 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Artificial light illuminates an alley and an old industrial building at historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

On the second-to-last night of May I had a chance to do a bit more night photography at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard after Ivan Makarov contacted me to say that he was organizing a small group for a visit. We gathered before sunset near the “historic core” area of the island, and before long we all headed off to photograph the diverse and interesting subjects found here.

Having shot the “classics” at Mare Island many, many times I decided to start out with a different subject. Instead of heading for the old brick buildings and the immense ship yard structures, before it became dark I headed into a park like area where old cement bunkers sit among trees. By the time I finished there and walked back to where I had last seen the group… they were all gone! I went ahead and shot alone for the next hour and a half or so, mostly looking for detail shots of smaller subjects. Near the end of my shoot I happened to walk past this alley and decided to make one more exposure before packing up and heading home.

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 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 45mm
ISO 400, f/16, 20 seconds

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, vallejo, california, usa, north america, historic, night, photography, minsy, artificial, light, glow, column, building, brick, window, wall, dark, sky, night, nocturne, alley, street, asphalt, shadow, drain, gutter, drain, perspective, industrial, urban, factory, stock

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

Moonlit Building, Windows and Stairs

Leave a comment
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.

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

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: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Moonlit Stairway, Wall, and Window

Leave a comment
Moonlit Stairway, Wall, and Window
Moonlit Stairway, Wall, and Window

Moonlit Stairway, Wall, and Window. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. February 27, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photography of a moonlit stairway, wall, and window at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

Compared to most of my night photography, especially the work from Mare Island, this photograph has, I think, more of a noir quality. This photograph was made in extremely dark conditions at the bottom of a dark stairway next to a dark building in a dark corner of the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard using only moonlight. Oh, did I mention that it was very dark? :-)

Making this a bit more of a technical challenge, in order to get the composition I had in mind (more or less, since it was impossible to really see the scene fully) I needed to shoot from a position very close to the bottom of the stairway and close to the window at lower right. Since I didn’t want to lose sharpness on the far section of the wall that is lit by moonlight I had to use a small aperture of f/16. But in order to maintain image quality I didn’t want to raise the ISO too far.Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! So the exposure ended up being very close to eleven minutes long, and even this was barely long enough. (And, using the camera’s long-exposure noise reduction, this meant waiting around for well over 20 minutes to expose the shot and then do the follow-up dark frame exposure. For obvious reasons, I only made one shot of this subject!)

This is going to be a challenging photograph to print! I think that it really needs to go all the way to black in portions of the lower left, but I’ll need to keep at least a small amount of near-black detail – and I’ll have to do a bit of work to figure out how to best print to get the right color/detail in the shadow at the upper right.

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 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/16, 645 seconds (that’s not a typo!)

keywords: moon, light, moonlit, night, photography, nocturnes, minsy, mare, island, naval, shipyard, historic, vallejo, california, usa, north america, architecture, structure, noir, railing, door, panel, stairs, stairway, steps, pole, shadow, glow, urban, industrial, window, door, reflection, stock