Tag Archives: rust

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

Shipbuilding Yard Towers, Night

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Shipbuilding Yard Towers, Night

Shipbuilding Yard Towers, Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. August 31, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High fog across the night sky above towers at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

I’ve had the good fortune to be able to do night photography at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California on a number of occasions over the past few years – largely because I discovered The Nocturnes, the SF Bay Area night photography group run by Tim Baskerville. (If you are looking for night photography events, workshops, and general information – you would do well to visit their web site.) The Nocturnes photograph regularly at Mare Island (also known as “MINSY”) and I got my first, ahem, exposure to night photography via one of their events.

This visit, on the final night of August, was the first time I’ve shot there when it wasn’t an event sponsored by The Nocturnes, and it seemed a bit odd to be the person most experienced at shooting here. This event was more or less organized by SF Bay Area photographer Ivan Makarov who contacted me ahead of time for some information about shooting at MINSY and invited me to join his group if I could. I could, so I did.

After shooting there a half dozen times or so, it starts to seem a bit too easy to keep shooting the same Mare Island icons in the same way, so this time I decided to try to shoot a few things that I had not shot before and to shoot some of the familiar subjects in somewhat different ways. One decision I made was to – for the most part – avoid the usual super-wide-angle shots that seem so obvious in this environment. I started out using a 70-200mm zoom instead and later moved to shooting with normal to slightly long primes. (I did fall back on the UWA approach for a few shots – heck, if it works I’m going to do it!) Another factor was that we did not have the totally clear full-moon skies that I’m more familiar with from previous MINSY shoots. We had a softer but earlier 3/4 moon, and at times there was quite dense high fog. The fog obviously obscures the sky and reduces/eliminates the star trail photographs, but it also picks up and then spreads a wonderful diffuse light from the many natural and artificial light sources found at MINSY.

The photograph shown here was made with the long zoom and includes nearly complete fog coverage of the sky. The lighting is a crazy combination of light from nearby Vallejo reflected in the clouds, garish sodium vapor lighting coming from beyond the scaffolding, and some “natural” light from the moon on the front of the metal building. (One of the things I enjoy about night photography in a location like this is that with so many wildly different light sources there is no correct color balance – so I get to pick!

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: minsy, mare, island, naval, ship, yard, historic, vallejo, california, tower, steel, truss, equipment, industrial, bridge, star, trail, fog, light, building, shack, loading, dock, door, window, stairs, steps, asphalt, wire, rust, worn, abandoned, stock, tall, shadow, night, photography, nocturnal, metal, concrete, cement, glow, yellow

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

Kitchen Windows, Fort Mason

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Kitchen Windows, Fort Mason

Kitchen Windows, Fort Mason. San Francisco, California. August 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Kitchen windows of a Fort Mason restaurant, San Francisco, California.

A few weeks ago I was at Fort Mason, along the waterfront of San Francisco Bay between the Marina and the Fishermans Wharf area, and I had a few hours to wander around and make photographs. Near the end of my wandering I passed by this window on the side of Greens Restaurant and was attracted by a bunch of features: the basic geometric pattern, the barely visible “stuff” inside the window, the superimposition of subjects reflected from the building behind me, and the wonderful mess coming from the upper left part of the window.

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

keywords: kitchen, window, restaurant, greens, reflection, pane, frame, pattern, form, texture, architecture, urban, city, fort, mason, vent, light, book, utensil, bowl, pot, roof, corrugated, red, brown, rust, vent, building, street, sill, wall, san francisco, california, usa, travel, landscape, detail, bay, waterfront, pier, public, park, stock, screen, distort, historic, landmark

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Chairs and Terrace, Olympic Sculpture Park

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Chairs and Terrace, Olympic Sculpture Park

Chairs and Terrace, Olympic Sculpture Park. Seattle, Washington. June 21, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Red-orange chairs on a terraced lawn above Richard Serra’s Wake with downtown Seattle buildings beyond, Olympic Sculpture Park.

This is another quick photograph from my half-hour visit to the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle last weekend. I’m fascinated by the large sculpture at the lower end of the terrace (“Wake” by Richard Serra) and I have photographed it before. This time I thought that the juxtaposition of the red-orange chairs (positioned more or less at random by other visitors, I presume), the very green grass, the slightly overhead view of the sculpture, and the cylindrical building beyond was interesting. There is a lot more detail in this photograph than is apparent in the small jpg – obviously the grass detail is not really visible here, and there are some people standing along the green area at the upper left side of the frame. I also thought about positioning the chairs slightly off center to the right, the sculpture slightly off center to the left, and the massive building dead center over all the other elements.

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.

keywords: olympic, sculpture, park, seattle, art, museum, sam, red, orange, green, chairs, lawn, terrace, concrete, cement, sand, trees, plants, garden, wall, grove, wake, richard serra, metal, rust, sky, cloud, blue, cylinder, round, building, downtown, urban, washington, usa, travel, apartment, grass, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Stairs, Shadows, Door

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Stairs, Shadows, Door

Stairs, Shadows, Door. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California. March 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows from artificial light and from the moon fall across the metal wall of a building, a rusty stairway, and a door at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

Another photo from the early March 2009 visit to Mare Island Naval Shipyard for night photography with The Nocturnes, and also another photograph in which I paid attention to some of the smaller details of this historic and very interesting site. Here the weathered door and stairway of this old industrial building are illuminated by the light of the nearly full moon and by nearby artificial light, creating interesting shadow patterns.

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.

keywords: mare island, naval, shipyard, minsy, night, photography, nocturnes, vallejo, california, usa, shadows, artificial, light, moon, moonlight, metal, wall, building, rust, stairway, steps, railing, door, window, pattern, architecture, urban, industrial, historic