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

Ship Yard Structures, Night

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Ship Yard Structures, Night - Night photography of steel towers at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.
Night photography of steel towers at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

Ship Yard Structures, Night. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. March 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photography of steel towers at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

It had been a while since I last shot at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, one of my favorite places to do night photography. But in early March the opportunity came up to join friends from the Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group currently celebrating its 20th year. We met in the afternoon for the traditional social stuff – tour of the island, sharing photographs, and pizza – and then headed out after the sun set. (Night photographers are probably the only people who look out the window and mutter, “Ah, it’s still golden hour. Let’s not go out yet…” ;-)

These giant steel towers are among the most iconic structures at the historic ship yard. As I understand it, they were originally part of a system used to move very heavy materials (such as ship engines) from shops to the water’s edge. Virtually everyone who photographs here indulges in photographing these towers and even after you have photographed the place as many times as I have they are still a source of interest. Recent work on the island has opened up a section of the water front that was previously off-limits, so it was possible to walk right beside these shell towers as they stretched out toward the water. Working from almost directly beneath them, I lined up a couple of the towers in night darkness, in which the towers were lit by nearby security lights.

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.

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

Ship Yard Structure, Night

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Ship Yard Structure, Night

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

A towering ship yard structure against fog lit by artificial lighting at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

An explanation of the colors in this photograph is probably in order. If you had been there next to me, looking up at the sky past this tall steel structure, you would not have seen colors that looked like this. It was, of course, dark out! You would have noticed a glow coming from the base of the fog clouds that were overhead, but it would not have seemed to have much of a color beyond a certain “warm” effect.

However, once I extend the exposure time so that I get a “normal” exposure in the camera (a bit more than three minutes in this case) light and color that are not visible to the human eye become visible to the camera. During RAW conversion I did not significantly alter the colors – these are what ACR refers to as “as shot” color balance. So we get this wild, luminous effect in the fog clouds and the brightness of the light on the structure becomes similar to that of daytime light… except the colors are different and many of the shadows come from sources that would be impossible in a daytime exposure.

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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