Tag Archives: piling

Tomales Bay Building, Morning Fog

Tomales Bay Building, Morning Fog
Tomales Bay Building, Morning Fog

Tomales Bay Building, Morning Fog. Tomales Bay, California. February 9, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a Tomales Bay shoreline building with morning fog along nearby hills

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am fortunate to be within a few hours driving distance of the Point Reyes National Seashore, so I shoot there fairly regularly. I had a free morning on this early February day, so I decided to drive up that way with the intention of being there for dawn. I didn’t quite make it for the actual sunrise – at that point I was driving through foggy redwood forest – but I got to the road that travels along the edge of Tomales Bay on the way to the “point” shortly after sunrise, and as the fog was clearing from over the water and the hills.

This structure is what I think of as the “Launch for Hire” building, since a very large size with that announcement has been painted on both sides. I haven’t stopped to photograph here much at all in the past, but the early light was interesting on this morning – foggy to the north toward the entrance to Tomales Bay, and backlight fog and trees to the east – so I spent a bit of time photographing along here. I shot the building from both sides – the side facing into the “golden hour” early morning light, and the deeply shaded backside of the building with the very bright morning light and thinning fog beyond. In the latter case, there was a glow in the windows of this building, on pilings out over the water, from the light coming into its interior through windows on the far side facing the rising sun.

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.

Dock Facilities, Staten Island Ferry

Dock Facilities, Staten Island Ferry - Pilings, piers, and other docking facilities for the Staten Island Ferry
Pilings, piers, and other docking facilities for the Staten Island Ferry

Dock Facilities, Staten Island Ferry. New York, New York. August 19, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pilings, piers, and other docking facilities for the Staten Island Ferry.

This is another of my Staten Island Ferry photographs from last summer. Although it may be a bit hard to see in this small jpg, I was impressed by the extensive wooden structures at the Staten Island end of the route at the ferry terminal. Pilings are placed about as close together as possible, and in densely packed rows. Beyond them, a walkway and wooden fence rises, and beyond that more similar structures. In front of all of that are several very dilapidated looking wooden structures that seem to me falling apart and almost useless… for whatever it is that they were designed for.

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.

Pier, San Francisco Waterfront, Morning

Pier, San Francisco Waterfront, Morning
Pier, San Francisco Waterfront, Morning

Pier, San Francisco Waterfront, Morning. San Francisco, California. July 8, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old pier along the San Francisco Bay waterfront, morning light.

When I take the train to San Francisco early on summer mornings, it is frequently the case that the sun is out as I walk along the Embarcadero waterfront, and the light greats a bright glowing atmosphere as the haze and light fog above the bay are backlit. It can be almost too bright to look at. Often the buildings of the east bay and the cranes of the Port of Oakland are faintly visible on the horizon, as they are in this photograph. There is actually a range of east bay mountains above these structures, but they are not quite visible through the glowing atmosphere in this photograph.

The Embarcadero, the road that runs along the waterfront of the bay on the east side of The City, is lined with many old piers. They range from those that have been restored and turned into tourist areas (think of Pier 39 with its souvenir shops), others that house businesses and even a museum or two, some that are primarily parking areas, and a few others that have been left to rot in the sun. In some ways, those in the latter group are the most interesting to photograph, though there are fewer of them now that the value of this waterfront real estate has once again been recognized. Originally, this was a working port with passenger and freight ships. Now most of that business has gone across the bay to Oakland. However, today the bay front properties are probably more valuable for other purposes anyway.

I have photographed this particular pier before, but this time I liked the very bright sky, barely visible structures across the bay, and the morning light that is just hitting the left side of the buildings on the pier.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.