Tag Archives: industrial

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

Tower, Night Sky

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Tower, Night Sky
A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Tower, Night Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This is not the first nor the only photograph I’ve made of this structure. It comes from the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the place where I did my first serious night photography almost two decades ago. (It happened on more or less a lark when I saw an announcement of a free event, showed up, and became hooked.) This structure is one half of a pair of gigantic overhead tracks that I believe originally supported some sort of lift mechanism that moved heavy mechanical systems (probably engines) to ships that were under construction. The buildings were originally various shops connected to the shipbuilding work, though today, years after the facility was decommissioned, many of them have been taken over for other purposes.

The relationship between night photographs and objective reality is a complex thing. I think of it as revealing “what the camera sees” more than as capturing what we see at night. In truth, in places like this and in lightning like this… we can’t really see much at all. But by extending the exposure times we can make images out of what is largely unseen. (A close examination of this photograph will reveal star trails made as the earth rotated beneath the night sky over the course of a several minute exposure.) In the end, many decisions about such images — luminosity, color, and more — must be subjective, since there really is no objective reality that corresponds to what the camera sees.

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: Urban/Street

Doorway, Dark Street

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Doorway, Dark Street
Light from inside a darkened building escapes through a door, casing a pattern on a dark industrial street.

Doorway, Dark Street. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light from inside a darkened building escapes through a door, casing a pattern on a dark industrial street.

This photograph comes from a San Francisco Bay Area location where I’ve been doing night photography for over 15 years. It is a place with striking visual icons including huge ship yard cranes, old buildings, and (until its removal a few years ago) a gigantic “smoke stack” towering above a power plant. Over the years I became less interested in re-photographing those things, and I began to spend more time searching out subjects that I had overlooked, scenes that are quieter and more contemplative than those icons.

I “discovered” this photograph during my pandemic-era return to old photographs that I had not looked at for years. This one exemplifies several things I’ve observed about the process of reviewing photographs shortly after making them. I usually have a few images in mind that I know will be promising, and I begin with those. As I work on the archive I invariably discover that others are more worthy than I initially expected, and this process of uncovering unexpectedly interesting photographs continues… until I am distracted by the next project, at which point I often move on and leave some interesting work behind. In this case, the “moving on” process was hastened a bit because one of my favorite night photographs came from this same evening, and I think that made me feel like I was done with that night’s work. But I wasn’t.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Tanker 540

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Tanker 540
A tanker trailer parked in an industrial area.

Tanker 540. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tanker trailer parked in an industrial area.

With this photograph I take a little detour away from the recent Sierra Nevada fall color photographs. (Don’t worry — there are more to come!) This subject is about as far away from those colorful photographs as possible, I think. During this pandemic period I walk a lot, every day if possible, and sometimes quite a few miles. The walks take me into lots of places in a two to three mile radius from where we live, and this includes quite diverse areas ranging from a small downtown to wealthy residential neighborhoods to old areas of the city and even some industrial zones.

This photograph comes from the latter — an old industrial area now surrounded by more urban areas, with its edges gradually being chewed away by condo developments and other kinds of revitalization. Walking down a street near a plant that supplies materials for building roads, I passed several of these black trailers parked by this old concrete building. The trailer itself seemed interesting, but so did the building and the angled shadows of overhead utility wires.

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 | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Rivets and Rust

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Rivets and Rust
Detail of weathered and distressed steel structure on the Steel Bridge, Portland, Oregon.

Rivets and Rust. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of weathered and distressed steel structure on the Steel Bridge, Portland, Oregon.

I made this photograph at about the same time as another one that I posted recently — it also featured a close-up view of the weathered structure of an old steel bridge with rivets, colorful stains, and lots of weathering.

Whether the specific location is all that important is debatable, but I made the photograph on the “Steel Bridge” (that’s actually its name), over the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. This is an old and quite busy structure, and it is full of fascinating little vignettes.

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 | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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