Tag Archives: peeling

Stairway and Broken Windows

Stairway and Broken Windows
Stairway and Broken Windows

Stairway and Broken Windows. Near Vallejo, California. March 16, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Exterior staircase, broken windows, and peeling paint on the wooden side panels of an abandoned building near Vallejo, California

I had joined up with a group of night photographers that I often shoot with on this evening, and we were sitting around in the late afternoon hours sharing pizza when someone made the radical suggestion of going out to shoot before darkness arrived! In the past, this has been just about the only group of photographers I’ve ever met who would stay inside during a San Francisco Bay area golden hour and sunset period, anxious for the light to go away so that shooting could begin! But on this evening, the radical concept of shooting in the daylight must have seemed so innovative that quite a few of us headed out to find either landscape-style shots over the San Francisco Bay or else abandoned and dilapidated industrial subjects nearby. I opted for the latter, and hoping to cover a bit more ground before dark, rather than walking nearby I drove, trying to figure out where I wanted to be in the fading light.

I ended up near this lonely, abandoned and partially destroyed building that has been left to vandals, who seem to be doing their best to accelerate the natural destructive forces that eventually take such buildings. Many windows are broken, there is spray paint in many places, and the exterior of the building is tremendously weathered and worn. Just a few minutes before sunset I made a series of exposures of this building, using a long lens to isolate smaller sections of the building. The sunset light turned the otherwise-dull building a much more intense shade of brown/yellow, and the brighter sky and clouds over San Francisco Bay are reflected in the broken windows. Soon after I finished shooting, the sun set, and I headed back to where my nocturnal friends awaited, and we headed out to photograph in the night.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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.

Stairway, Rain

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

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.

Weathered Blue Building, Fences, and Plants

Weathered Blue Building, Fences, and Plants - A weathered blue building with fences and plants in evening light, Mendocino, California.
A weathered blue building with fences and plants in evening light, Mendocino, California.

Weathered Blue Building, Fences, and Plants. Mendocino, California. August 28, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A weathered blue building with fences and plants in evening light, Mendocino, California.

I had been thinking that I really should photograph some of the old, weathered buildings in Mendocino while we were there, but it just seemed like I was never quite in the right spot in the right light with the right amount of time – so, for the most part, while we were there recently I mostly just talked about how “sometime I should really photograph some of these old buildings.” Sound familiar? The village is full of various kinds of interesting places: severe-looking old churches, badly weathered older buildings, neatly restored and updated homes and businesses, old shops, and vignettes of old windows, fences, gates, and more.

In the evening we decided to walk out toward the coastal bluffs southwest of the village, with the plan of photographing the bluffs, coastal rocks, surf, and ocean in golden hour light. As we walked along a boardwalk toward the water I looked to my right and saw this very weathered old building, with its surrealistic garden of very strange shaped, well, what exactly? Trees? Bushes? Whatever they are, with their conical shapes, their twisting trunks, and odd angles they seem like they could be the model for some of the plants in a Dr. Seuss book. I was a block away when I spotted the scene, and the low angle side light was about to be cut off, so I simply set up where I was and made a few photographs – using a very unusual architecture lens, a 100-400mm zoom! This actually turned out to be a good choice – and not just because I would have lost the light if I had switched to a shorter lens and run toward the building. The long focal length flattens the depth of the elements of the image and draws them together. It also eliminated the perspective convergence that often causes walls and other vertical elements to slant inward. Do I worked quickly, and managed to get this shot while the side light was still illuminating one of the odd plants and highlighting parts of the worn fences in the foreground.

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.

Pipe Covered Wall, Fire Extinguisher Sign

Pipe Covered Wall, Fire Extinguisher Sign - A very worn and peeling wall with pipes, conduit, a fire extinguisher sign, and shadows - The Embarcadero, San Francisco
A very worn and peeling wall with pipes, conduit, a fire extinguisher sign, and shadows – The Embarcadero, San Francisco

Pipe Covered Wall, Fire Extinguisher Sign. San Francisco, California. July 8, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A very worn and peeling wall with pipes, conduit, a fire extinguisher sign, and shadows – The Embarcadero, San Francisco.

This is a more or less random bit of wall in a small alley leading from the Embarcadero to some old buildings on one of the old piers along the east shoreline of San Francisco. (I need to get back up there soon. There was a recent fire in the area and now I’m wondering if it affected any of these little spots I photograph.)

I am a bit of a sucker – and who isn’t? – for old worn walls, especially when they are crisscrossed by pipes and conduit and when they hold various valves and meters of the sort that in more modern structures might be hidden from view. In this case, I made the photograph in relatively “harsh” light – it was still morning, but no longer the very early soft, warm light. In fact, it was that very light that created another element of this scene that attracted me, namely the very wide shadows from the very narrow pipes. I liked other small details too – the “FIRE EXT” sign, worn and now covered by conduit, with no fire extinguisher to be seen; what must be a much older “sign” about a third of the way in from the right, which now seems to be completely blank; that interesting interruption of the wall near its base but a chunk of steel covered with rivets.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.