Tag Archives: mare

Photographs: Night

Windows, Brick Building, Night

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Windows, Brick Building, Night
Light from the interior of an industrial building spills through windows and into an alley

Windows, Brick Building, Night. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light from the interior of an industrial building spills through windows and into an alley

This building was a bit of a surprise to me. As I recall from past visits, I’m pretty sure that it had been more or less abandoned at one point, and I typically found it completely dark when I photographed there at night. I specifically recall photographing around it and having to content with a very dark environment, the sort where exposures of many minutes were necessary. But on this visit I found it, instead, to be a source of light. The interior was clear and well-lit, and large expanses of windows allowed the light to spread from the building onto the surroundings.

On a slightly technical level a few things seemed notable about photographing this structure. First, it is an example of how well current photographic technology can handle some very challenging light situations. The subjects in this photograph ranged from a bare lightbulb inside the building (visible as the brightest area in the central window) to virtually black shadows on the close side of the building wall. Yet a single exposure was sufficient to capture enough image data to protect the highlights and retain some detail in even the darkest areas. The second observation has to do with the inevitable changes that time brings to places like this. I have photographed here for about fifteen years, and on this visit I saw many changes. I lamented many of them, especially the places now off limits, knocked down, or modified almost beyond recognition. But at the same time, the re-opening of some of the old structures has made them more photographically interesting — as in the case of this building where there is now sufficient light for photography.

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.
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Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Metal Structure

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Blue Metal Structure
Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Blue Metal Structure. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a blue metal building at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I was at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to spend the evening doing night photography with my friends from the original Nocturnes group, and I had arrived well before sunset. After meeting up in the Mare Island Museum for pizza and conversation we realized that the end of the day was coming. I went outside about a half hour before sunset, and I thought of some old industrial buildings that I had passed on the way in. Instead of staying where I was and starting my typical routine of wandering on foot with my gear I decided to take short drive back to those buildings and see if I could make a few quick photographs in the end-of-day light.

I soon arrived and made a few photographs in golden hour light, but the sun quickly dropped below the horizon and I was left with that post-sunset glow. This light can be quite warm if clouds reflect some of the remaining red, yellow, and orange tones of sunset, but if the sky is clear what remains is the intense blue of early twilight. The latter light is what evolved, and I soon moved back to this unusual structure whose blue paint’s color was even more intensified by this twilight illumination.

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

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

Alley, Night

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Alley, Night
Interior lights spill into an alley between two industrial buildings

Alley, Night. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Interior lights spill into an alley between two industrial buildings

As I photographed the night industrial landscape of Mare Island Naval Ship Yard once again this past week, I revisited familiar scenes and went looking for new ones. As I worked on into the evening I gradually worked my way across a chunk of the core of the place, eventually heading south from where I began my work. I had photographed the other side of the building to the right, which contained a large open interior space which had many windows to allow me to see in and to allow light to escape into the surrounding environment. When I came around this other side of the building and looked up the alley I was surprised by the complex pattern of light spilling into the alley between the two receding buildings. I had photographed here in the past when the building to the right was abandoned, and this alley had been a very dark place.

On this evening those of us who have photographed at Mare Island for a long time — some for several decades — were noticing and lamenting some of the changes that are coming to the place. It lay almost dormant for many years, but now many of the old buildings are being refitted for modern users. On one hand this changes the lonely and forlorn character of the island. On the other hand, it means that once the buildings are rehabilitated they will likely stand for a long time. But right now construction is going on everywhere, some interesting places now are off-limits, and fences have been erected around the construction work. That posed a problem for this photograph. In the past I could walk right up this alley, but now a portable cyclone fence cuts off access. I solved the problem by extending my tripod as high as it would go — well above my head! — and photographing over the top of the fence.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Ship Yard Buildings, Crane

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Ship Yard Buildings, Crane
Weathered ship yard buildings illuminated by saturated colors of artificial lighting

Ship Yard Buildings, Crane. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Weathered ship yard buildings illuminated by saturated colors of artificial lighting

I recently had a chance to return to this old ship yard facility near Vallejo, California to work on night photography. This is actually the place where I first tried out that genre approximately fifteen years ago. It was more or less on a whim — I read that someone was inviting photographers to come up to Mare Island, in conjunction with the annual Flyway Festival, and find out about night photography. I knew almost nothing about it, but decided to give it a try. Since that time I’ve been hooked. I’ve returned to photograph that locations often during the intervening decade and a half, and my night photography expanded from that beginning point to incorporate other subjects and places. (Most recently I have focused on night street photography done with small handheld cameras.)

This photograph is a prime example of several of the things that intrigue me about photographing at night. Scenes that might seem mundane in “normal” daylight are often transformed in the night. Not only do many distractions simply disappear, but the light itself, especially in areas with varied artificial illumination, transforms these subjects. In many places LED lights have replaced the wild mix of tungsten, fluorescent, sodium vapor, and other sources today — an unfortunate development in the visual sense, as LED light is more or less like daylight. But in places like this spot, the colors of the light become intense. Here it is the exceedingly green light of a large work light that predominates. Another appealing aspect of night photography is that it lets me make photographs of things that I really can’t see with my own eyes. In the ambient lighting I could only barely see the details of this scene. But with a long exposure there is enough light to reveal features that I could not see at all, a pure example of “seeing 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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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