Tag Archives: san franciso

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

Tower, Night Sky

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Tower, Night Sky
A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

Tower, Night Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This is not the first nor the only photograph I’ve made of this structure. It comes from the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the place where I did my first serious night photography almost two decades ago. (It happened on more or less a lark when I saw an announcement of a free event, showed up, and became hooked.) This structure is one half of a pair of gigantic overhead tracks that I believe originally supported some sort of lift mechanism that moved heavy mechanical systems (probably engines) to ships that were under construction. The buildings were originally various shops connected to the shipbuilding work, though today, years after the facility was decommissioned, many of them have been taken over for other purposes.

The relationship between night photographs and objective reality is a complex thing. I think of it as revealing “what the camera sees” more than as capturing what we see at night. In truth, in places like this and in lightning like this… we can’t really see much at all. But by extending the exposure times we can make images out of what is largely unseen. (A close examination of this photograph will reveal star trails made as the earth rotated beneath the night sky over the course of a several minute exposure.) In the end, many decisions about such images — luminosity, color, and more — must be subjective, since there really is no objective reality that corresponds to what the camera sees.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Travel

Bay Bridge, Morning Fog

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Bay Bridge, Morning Fog
The San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, with morning fog bank above Treasure Island

Bay Bridge, Morning Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, with morning fog bank above Treasure Island.

On the day I made this photograph I headed up to San Francisco to visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where a special Andy Warhol exhibit is soon coming to a close. I’m close enough to San Francisco that I can take the train up for these visits, and that also affords me the time to do some walking around in this city, which of course involves photography. Because I had a specific schedule for the MOMA exhibit, I took a familiar walking path along the Bay waterfront to the Ferry Building before turning inland to get to the Museum.

The early morning light along the bay is often special — the atmosphere often glows in the backlight. Somewhat to my surprise, given the recent warm temperatures, there was a fog bank out in the bay, laying across Treasure Island. I paused at this familiar spot to photograph the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge near where it comes ashore, and the very bright sky and fog created a dramatic silhouette.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature

Shooting Star Flower

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Shooting Star Flower
Shooting star wildflowers, photographed in San Francisco Bay Area hills

Shooting Star Flower. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shooting star wildflowers, photographed in San Francisco Bay Area hills.

Shooting stars are among my favorite wildflowers. I know that I have seen them for years — they grow in the California coastal hills where I have hiked since I was a child — but my first strong memory of them comes from the Sierra Nevada. Decades ago I summited Mount Whitney for the first time, near the end of a two-week backpack trip that had started on the opposite, west side of the range. As we descended we crossed a creek and there was a dense field of these flowers.

In addition to liking this flower, there is another reason for posting this photograph. After doing close-up work with a variety of compromises over the years — “diopters,” extension tubes on regular lenses — I finally picked up an actual macro lens, the Fujifilm XF 80mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro Lens for my Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera. I took it out for the first time recently, photographing spring wildflowers in a nearby canyon that I’ve visited for years.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Commentary, Ideas

Printing is on my Mind

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There are so many more opportunities to see so much more photography today, given the astonishing number new electronic ways to share photographs and to find the photographs of others. Through blogs, Flickr, the many photo web sites and discussion forums, photographer’s web sites, email, you name it, we all experience a flood of visual media. While not all of it is great stuff, quite a lot of it is interesting and the sheer variety is astonishing. I don’t know how much time you spend intentionally looking at photographs, but I suspect that I may look at over 100 per day. (I’m not counting the images that we are exposed to by don’t actually give attention to – add those to the mix and the total would be much, much higher.)

But one thing has perhaps been lost in all of this, and that is the appreciation for the printed photograph. Continue reading Printing is on my Mind →