Tag Archives: old

Commentary, Locations

More Eastern Sierra Aspen Color Conditions

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I returned very late last night (Sunday, 10/4/ 2009) from a weekend trip to the eastern Sierra to photograph fall aspen colors. It was, as they say, an “interesting” experience – in many ways not quite typical but in others not totally surprising either.  On Saturday I posted “Bishop Creek Aspen Conditions – 10/3/09”  in the early afternoon, so this report takes up where that one left off.

After posting that first report from Starbucks in Bishop I drove back up into the Bishop Creek drainage. After getting a camp site at the Four Jeffrey campground (now a surprising $21/night!) I headed up the road toward South Lake to do some late afternoon and evening photography. The weather was not fully cooperative, to say the least! The predicted high winds were arriving in the eastern Sierra, and I think that anyone can understand the “perfect storm” of low light, high winds, and fluttering aspen leaves! I was still able to work with the conditions and get some interesting stuff, though it was a real challenge. To avoid writing the same thing twice, I’ll hold off on the description of the aspen conditions and cover that below as I describe Sunday shooting.

My final stop on Saturday night before putting the camera away for the day was at South Lake, where the wind was howling and the light was fading fast and the temperature was dropping. As I arrived two rather cold-looking backpackers flagged me down and asked, with a certain amount of intensity, if I would drive them down to Bishop. It turned out that they had just finished a 22 mile day, coming from just below Mather Pass, and were exhausted. Realizing that it was time to recharge my own supply of backpacker hitchhiking karma (e.g. – sometimes I need a ride back to my car!) I agreed to squeeze them into the car and drive them down to Bishop. Continue reading More Eastern Sierra Aspen Color Conditions →

Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Night

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.

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.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

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

Ship Yard Towers and Fog, Night

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Ship Yard Towers and Fog, Night

Ship Yard Towers and Fog, Night. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. August 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of tall ship yard towers and old buildings backed by glowing fog at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

OK, I lied. I do have more photographs from my late-August night photography shoot at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California.

This one includes the view up Nimitz Street past the main ship building area and the includes the huge overhead structures apparently used to move equipment from the shops to the dry docks and the waterfront. The scene is backed by the strange glow of the ground light sources illuminating the high fog coming in from the San Francisco Bay.

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

Detail, Brick Buildings

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Detail, Brick Buildings

Detail, Brick Buildings. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. August 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Details of the walls, windows and roof of brick buildings at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

This may be the final photo in the recent Mare Island series for a while. (Or maybe not… ;-)

This photograph shows the details of some of the old brick buildings not far from the power plant. They were photographed in twilight as I was wandering around prior to beginning the real night photography work. Although it is difficult to see in this small jpg, there is some really wonderful light on the small structure atop the roof that comes from the open view towards the sunset to the west. Also a bit hard to see here – but perhaps visible in a larger print – are the puffs of fog that were just starting to blow in off of the water and which catch a bit of the reddish early evening light.

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.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/gdanmitchell
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

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