Tag Archives: mare

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

Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue

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Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue
Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue

Brick Wall and Fence, Railroad Avenue. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a night scene on Railroad Avenue at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard with cyclone fence, brick wall, pipes and tank, window, and speed limit sign.

I was thinking about the Panocturnists group when I made this photograph at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard during the first weekend of February. The location is in many ways pretty mundane – one of the first areas that most first-time Mare Island night photographers shoot near the entrance to the so-called “historic core” of the site, and nothing that would warrant a second look during daylight hours. Not surprisingly, most photographers here are initially attracted to a nearby turnstile or to the massive steel structures overhead. I’ve shot here enough now that, while I’ll still shoot those subjects, I usually look for less-obvious subjects that I may not have tried previously. So while some new folks photographed right behind me I decided to see what I could do with the street light-illuminated fence, wall, and collection of pipes in this corner. (And, as the long exposure was underway I was able to help out the first-timers… :-)

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

Brick Wall and Windows, Reflection

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Brick Wall and Windows, Reflection
Brick Wall and Windows, Reflection

Brick Wall and Windows, Reflection. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photography of structures in the “historic core” of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard with reflection in a rain puddle – Vallejo, California.

A few times each year I have the pleasure of photographing at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard with The Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group founded my Tim Baskerville and now an important resource for information about night photography, night photography workshops, and fine night photography. During the first weekend of February I joined a small group for a visit to “the dark side” at Mare Island. In contrast to typical shoots there, this time there was no moon. However, since it had rained earlier in the day the clearing clouds and left-over reflecting puddles provided special conditions that aren’t usually available.

This scene is probably familiar to almost anyone who has shot at Mare Island. The brick wall and windows belong to the museum located in the “historic core” of the facility at the corner of 8th and Nimitz, where the huge overhead structures were used to move heavy equipment and parts to the ship construction area along the waterfront.

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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Building 101, Corner View

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Building 101, Corner View

Building 101, Corner View. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. August 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The corner of building 101 under artificial light and with fog overhead – Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

Like I said, I guess I’m not finished with this series yet.

This is the same Building 101 that I photographed from several different perspectives late in the evening of my August 30 visit to the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California to do night photography with some other Flickr folks. The other photographs of Building 101 are straight on and explore various portions of the front of the building. For this one I shot straight at the corner of the building instead, for several reasons. For one, I wanted to include the different types of light striking the two visible sides of the building. Almost all of the light is artificial aside from a bit of moonlight, but the light striking the right side comes from a very close and bright – and very yellow! – sodium vapor light. It was all I could do to handle the saturated yellows on this wall. The front of the building is lit by lights that are a bit weaker, though they only appear less garish by comparison to the almost hallucinatory yellow light on the right side. Above this are some interesting converging angles of roof and walls and overhead the fog glows in the artificial light from sources below.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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A Bit About Mare Island and Night Photography

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Often when I post my photographs from Mare Island Naval Ship Yard I get email and comments from readers that generally fall into two categories. I’d like to make a brief comment on each of them:

  1. Several readers have written to tell me about their own connections to Mare Island. In several cases I have received messages from people who were brought up in that area and whose parents or other relatives actually worked in the ship yard. Thanks for sharing those stories – I did not “discover” Mare Island its history until fairly recently, and I’m more and more impressed with the stories behind this place.
  2. Others often ask about photographing at Mare Island, particularly at night. Since Mare Island is (mostly) a public place, you can simply drive out there and photograph during the day for the most part. (There are some areas that are off-limits.) Night photography may be a somewhat different thing. There are security patrols and they may well stop you. And you might feel a bit uneasy about trying night photography there for the first time on your own. I strongly urge you to get in touch with The Nocturnes the SF Bay Area night photography group headed by Tim Baskerville. My first experience there was through this group, and doing one of their workshops can be a great way to learn about Mare Island and night photography.