Tag Archives: license

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

Pilings and Water, Night

March 18, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pilings along the waterfront photographed at night, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California.

This is another photography from my nighttime visit to the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard with friends from The Nocturnes in early March of this year. The subject here includes some old and worn pilings along the edge of a ship launching ramp and the still water smoothed by the long exposure necessary to photograph here at night.

This particular spot only recently became accessible (at least without jumping a bunch of cyclone fences or getting someone to open the gate) when waterfront access was created near the ship yard museum. An area that had formerly been off-limits was opened to provide a way to get to the edge of the water, and this path parallels this ramp and the extensive structures alongside. In this photograph I made a color balancing choice that is a bit unusual for me when it comes to night photography in general and shooting at Mare Island in particular. One of the things that I enjoy about the night photography environment at Mare Island is that there are many different types of lighting, each having different color characteristics. Some are merely warmish “tungsten” like colors, others are garish yellows and greens, a few are blue, and the wash of light from nearby Vallejo and even the natural light of the moon can enter the mix. Because of this, I often simply go with the wild colors of the environment here. This scene is lit by grossly yellow sodium vapor lamps, and the “natural” coloration of the scene is quite intensely saturated. For this image I decided to color adjust this much closer to what might be regarded as a more neutral light color.

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

Morning Clouds, Angel Island, San Francisco Bay

March 13, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light shining through layers of morning clouds over San Francisco Bay silhouettes the hills of Angel Island near Richardson Bay.

I can be a bit of a creature of habit when it comes to shooting in certain locations that I’m very familiar with. But the habit isn’t so much shooting the same thing – though that can be part of it – as it is being attentive to how the familiar thing might present itself in ways I have not previously seen. This photograph is a case in point.

I was on my way to a location north of the Golden Gate where I frequently photograph, so I know the route well and have a routine that I frequently follow – it involves where I’m heading, what time I plan to get there, and the route I typically follow. Along the way there are several places where I almost always pause long enough to look around and see if a familiar scene might look different. At a location where my route follows a short ridge line, I often stop and look back across Richardson Bay towards Angel Island and, beyond that, the waterfront of Oakland and then the East Bay hills. On this recent morning, a weak weather front was washing out as it arrived in the Bay Area and, as a result, there were many layers of clouds stacked up to the east. While the sun was able to shine through and light the surface of San Francisco Bay beyond the boats anchored in Richardson Bay, there was haze in the atmosphere that obscured details even on relatively close Angel Island, and in the sky above and beyond there were layers of fog, lower clouds, and the highest clouds of the weather front.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Tree Farm and Hills

March 10, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This is perhaps a bit of a subtle photograph. While shooting in the Skagit Valley of Washington, my brother Richard and I took a break from photographing trumpeter swans and snow geese and went looking for bald eagles, which hang out nearby in large numbers. We eventually found several of them in various trees in the area, including in the upper branches of these large groves of trees that I think may be poplars that are part of a tree farm. (Our first attempt with the eagles was a classic. We saw a beautiful bird in a tree at the edge of the grove right alongside the road. We stopped. We carefully fitted the right long lenses. We got out. We aimed… and the eagle flew away.)

While standing around looking for the birds I was fascinated by the regular patters of these very slender and closely spaced trees in the tree farms that were along the road. The light was very muted due to overcast, and the trees themselves don’t provide a whole lot of light/dark contrast. I found a section of the grove that I liked and then worked my position so that I could get the diagonal of the more distant and out of focus ridge to cut across the background and angle down to the right.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

Ship Yard Structures, Night

March 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photography of steel towers at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

It had been a while since I last shot at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, one of my favorite places to do night photography. But in early March the opportunity came up to join friends from the Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group currently celebrating its 20th year. We met in the afternoon for the traditional social stuff – tour of the island, sharing photographs, and pizza – and then headed out after the sun set. (Night photographers are probably the only people who look out the window and mutter, “Ah, it’s still golden hour. Let’s not go out yet…” ;-)

These giant steel towers are among the most iconic structures at the historic ship yard. As I understand it, they were originally part of a system used to move very heavy materials (such as ship engines) from shops to the water’s edge. Virtually everyone who photographs here indulges in photographing these towers and even after you have photographed the place as many times as I have they are still a source of interest. Recent work on the island has opened up a section of the water front that was previously off-limits, so it was possible to walk right beside these shell towers as they stretched out toward the water. Working from almost directly beneath them, I lined up a couple of the towers in night darkness, in which the towers were lit by nearby security lights.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: license

Pilings and Water, Night

Morning Clouds, Angel Island, San Francisco Bay

Ship Yard Structures, Night

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.