Tag Archives: peeling

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

Building 631, Mare Island

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Building 631, Mare Island
Building 631, Mare Island

Building 631, Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Building 631, with badly peeling paint and illuminated by garish artificial lighting, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

For some reason I often find myself down around the old power plant and in the alley next to Building 631 near the end of my nighttime shoots at Mare Island. The railroad tracks curve through this alley – though they aren’t particularly visible in this photograph – and the bizarre and garish light and grossly peeling paint on this wall seem different from many of the other subjects around here.

One of the fun things about this sort of night photography is that “white balance” is more or less impossible! This scene includes light sources ranging from some kind of bizarre blue-green lighting that I can’t identify (fluorescent?) to sodium vapor to tungsten to sky lit by the glow from Vallejo, across the bay from the island. When it comes to the right color balance… pick one! Or several! Or make one up! In the end, no matter what you choose it won’t really “look like” what you saw in the dead of night – but for me that isn’t really the object. Long-exposure night photography lets us reveal things that we cannot see with our own eyes and present them in ways that are imaginative and different from our usual reality.

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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keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, historic, vallejo, california, usa, nocturnes, night, photography, structures, building, 631, peeling, paint, wall, door, light, lamp, garish, artificial, window, road, track, sky, plants, old, abandoned, industrial, north america, conduit, boarded up, downspout, no parking, wire, perspective, convergence, stock

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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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keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, minsy, vallejo, california, night, nocturnal, photography, historic, building, structure, 101, yellow, artificial, light, bright, window, door, roof, pipe, wire, metal, texture, rust, peeling, dilapidated, old, worn, out, shadow, reflection, grafitti, paint, urban, industrial, lamp, fog, overcast, sky, glow, stock

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

Building 101, Night

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Building 101, Night

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

Night photograph under artificial light of a portion of the front of Building 101 near the core of the historic shipyard at Mare Island, Vallejo, California.

I’ve been intrigued by the windows, doors, peeling paint, grafitti, and general appearance of Building 101 at Mare Island in the past, but this was the first time that I set about to photograph it apart from the surrounding buildings. Rather that try to place it in its surroundings in this shot, I decided to just shoot it straight on with a prime lens and simply “show” the front surface of the structure as it is.

Believe it or not, the color balance of this image is “as shot” – the front of building is starkly lit by sodium vapor lamps and the right side is even more strongly lit by the same sort of lighting. The “sky” is fog covered, and the fog is illuminated by a lot of artificial light, coming for the most part here from the town of Vallejo across the water. (As I worked on this image I thought about how different it would have been had the light at the upper right corner of the building been operating!)

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
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keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, minsy, vallejo, california, night, nocturnal, photography, historic, industrial, old, historic, dilapidated, run down, defaced, grafitti, peeling, paint, metal, corrugated, window, door, frame, pipe, conduit, fence, chain, link, lamp, light, shadow, asphalt, sign, yellow, sky, peach, orange, brown, dark, pane, usa, stock, broken, glass

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

Psychedelic San Francisco Doorways

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Psychedelic San Francisco Doorways

Psychedelic San Francisco Doorways. San Francisco, California. August 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pair of very brightly painted yet terribly dilapidated doorways near the border of Chinatown and North Beach, San Francisco, California.

A question: If you are wandering about in The City (or the city ;-)  and carrying a camera, how can you not photograph something like this?

These wildly painted yet badly dilapidated doors are on a relatively nondescript street more or less along the boundary between Chinatown and North Beach.

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
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keywords: bright, color, yellow, gold, red, blue, aqua, psychedelic, doors, two, pair, window, run down, dilapidated, worn, paint, glass, mail, slot, knob, lock, 1432, 1430, arch, doorway, entrance, wall, purple, peeling, flag, decal, tile, step, mat, frame, crack, north beach, chinatown, urban, downtown, street, san francisco, california, usa, travel, scenic, local, sidewalk, gaudy, stock