Tag Archives: ship

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

Green Shop Doors

May 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Green doors to an immense industrial shop building, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

I’m intrigued by doorways, especially doorways painted in interesting colors, or which suggest a size different from their reality, or which hint at something beyond the doors. These doors, both the obvious small door at the left, and the larger three section doors to its right that you’ll see if you look a bit more closely, are along the front of a gigantic shop building at Mare Island. Many years ago they were, no doubt, devoted to work related to the ship construction that went on here for many decades. That work ended decades ago, the facility was decommissioned, and much of it was left vacant for a long time.

More recently things have begun to move again on the island. While some areas still lie dormant and others have succumbed to weather and vandals, many others still stand and quite a few of them are now used by small operations. Looking through the windows on this night, portions of the interior were dimly lit and it appeared that a few workers were busy inside. Incongruously, it looked like at least one computer screen glowed on a desk near a window.

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

Ship Yard Crane, Night Sky

April 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A gigantic ship yard crane extends high into the night sky, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

For many of us, these gigantic cranes, towering above the historic ship yard buildings and docks, are the iconic structures of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California. The facility has been here since the 1800s, when it was the first naval ship yard on the west coast of the United States, and its history is quite remarkable. I won’t even begin to try to recount it here since a) it is so extensive and b) I’m far from an expert! In the 1990s it was decommissioned and since that time parts of the facility have fallen into ruin, others have been maintained in more or less their condition at that time, and some have been converted to other uses ranging from industrial to housing.

I have photographed here at night for about a decade. It used to be that these towering structures were mostly just parked in somewhat inaccessible locations behind fences along the waterfront. (The folks I photograph with here have a policy of not going into areas that are off-limits, and this had led to generally very good relations with the folks who oversee the place.) More recently the dry dock facility has been put back to use to dismantle very old ships from the “mothball fleet” that had been moored nearby, and now when I visit I often find the cranes have moved and may even be in more accessible locations. The first thing that struck me on this night’s visit was the effect of the security lights playing over the structure—and the fact that the lights are still the older and very colorful lights rather than the newer, more energy-efficient, and very boring LED lighting!

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

Building 237, Early Evening

April 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening light on the face of Building 237, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California

This is one of the rarest of photographs from me—a daytime photo from Mare Island! Although I have photographed here for quite a few years, virtually all of my photographs from this location have been made at night, when the industrial environment of the place is transferred by darkness and artificial light into something mysterious.

By day, many of the subjects that I find so interesting and even colorful at night are often quite bland and boring. Building 237 is the subject of one of my favorite photographs from Mare Island, “Yellow Buildings, Shadows, Moving Clouds.” In that photograph, these buildings glow with an intensely yellow light from nearby artificial lightning, and the motion of clouds during the long exposure creates an aura in the dark sky above them. But during the daytime, the color of the buildings is a somewhat faded and drab sort of yellow-tan shade, and this is even more washed out in typical daytime light. On this visit, largely because the sun sets later by the clock during daylight savings time, we found ourselves ready to photograph well before it was dare, so I decided to go out and look for golden hour light as the day ended. Here that light subtly colors the front face of building 237, whose color contrasts with the cold, blue tones of the next-door building that is already in full shadow.

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

Ship Yard Crane

April 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Giant ship yard crane against night sky at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

These towering cranes, remnants of the active period of ship building at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, are an iconic feature of the place. Among the many photographs of the locations, especially those by night photographers, they are among the features most often captured. Several of them tower along the waterfront, and their height and their retro-industrial appearance command attention.

Although I have photographed at Mare Island a lot, I have very few photographs of these objects. On most of the occasions when I have photographed there they have been parked too far away (they move on tracks), too poorly lit, or have been obscured by fences and other objects. Recently the ship yard has seen renewed activity as it is being used to partially dismantle some of the old ships of the “mothball fleet” that has long been anchored in the delta near the Carquinez Bridge. On my most recent visit to photograph here at night I found that several of these structures had moved to more accessible areas and that they were better lit. This one was behind a fence, but since I wanted to emphasize its height towering against the backdrop of the night sky I was able to shoot up at a steep angle and keep the fence out of the frame. The perspective distortion, the cut off upper portion, and the sense that the structure is leaning amplify, for me, the mysterious and other-worldly quality of these slightly anthropomorphic structures.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ship

Green Shop Doors

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Ship Yard Crane, Night Sky

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Building 237, Early Evening

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.