Stairway, Rain. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. November 17, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a stairway and a portion of a front wall of Building 45 on a rainy evening at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

I interrupt the almost-steady stream of landscape photographs from the American Southwest (of which there are many more to come) to share a photograph of night photography at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California. Depending upon where you see/read this, you may not know that I have been photographing this place at night for a half-dozen years or more, joining a large number of other night photographers who continue to be fascinated by the place. The San Francisco Bay Area group known as The Nocturnes has been instrumental in uncovering the photographic potential of this wonderful location and in ensuring its respectful treatment by photographers, and I was there with them again this week. I’m certain that many people who drive past and see “Mare Island” signs have no idea of how long this place has existed (well back into the 1800s) nor of its historic importance (the first US west coast major ship yard) or some of its “issues,” including the transition from the military to civilian uses and all of the things that this entails.

The whole area, but especially that around the “historic core,” is quite an amazing photographic resource, especially for those who have worked to “see” it at night. There are a number of obvious, impressive, and iconic features – the gantry structures, the power plant, many old buildings, dry docks, and more – yet return visits begin to reveal smaller and subtler features that you could miss on a single visit. There was one wrinkle in this week’s shoot – RAIN! When we assembled there before sunset – for photograph sharing and talk – we knew that a weather front was headed our way, but we hoped that it might hold off long enough to let us complete some shooting first. I wasn’t so sure. (The weather radar app showed a front very close to us!) As soon as it was dark enough, I quickly went to work at this building that I had seen earlier in the day when I arrived. It was already beginning to sprinkle when I got there, and soon the rain increased to the point where I had to work under an umbrella as I completed some relatively long exposures. (For real fun, try juggling camera, lenses, bags, tripod, and an umbrella… in increasing wind… and rain… while trying to attach camera to said tripod and compose and focus!) I had time to make five or six photographs at this location before I had to seek shelter along with my Nocturnes colleagues on the front porch of one of the old officers’ mansions.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.