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Commentary, Photographs: Night

Yellow Wall with Door and Numbers

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Yellow Wall with Door and Numbers
Yellow Wall with Door and Numbers

Yellow Wall with Door and Numbers. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. May 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The wall of an abandoned building with a metal door and painted numbers and text at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Illuminated by gaudy yellow sodium vapor lamps.

It may be difficult (if not impossible) to make sense out of this image without some explanation. In a side alley off of Nimitz Street at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard I previously found a large abandoned building that is lit at night by bright and garish sodium vapor lamps. When I photographed the building the first time I shot at the end nearest to the main street, and I ended up toning down the intense yellow tones that this type of artificial lighting produces when it shines on a subject like this building. This time I went further back into the alley and near the back of the building found a strange area around an old metal door where the weathered wall and window had been covered by strange marking apparently made with spray paint – numbered squares along the lower part of the wall and, above and out of this frame, seemingly random bits of numbers and text – with all of this interrupted by crossing pipes, conduit, boards, and general decay. With nothing in the frame but the wall, here shot straight on, the bizarrely lit surface seems to me like an almost complete abstraction.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

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

Night Scene, Mare Island

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Night Scene, Mare Island
Night Scene, Mare Island

Night Scene, Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. May 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of pipes, barricades, trash receptacles, and wall with alarm – Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

I suppose this more or less qualifies as a photograph of nothing. What we have here are: a couple of barricade posts, part of a dumpster, some pipes and valves, a trash can, a textured concrete wall lit from above by a single lamp, a fire alarm, and shadows from various of these objects. I saw this as I walked along Nimitz street along the waterfront at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard and, for some reason, just felt that it was a picture waiting to be recorded.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 40mm
ISO 200, f/16, 13 seconds

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, vallejo, california, usa, north america, historic, night, photography, minsy, pipes, valves, barricades, pole, trash, can, receptacle, dumpster, wall, fire, alarm, light, artificial, glow, asphalt, concrete, cement, industrial, urban, nocturne, stock

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

Alley, Mare Island

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Alley, Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. May 30, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Artificial light illuminates an alley and an old industrial building at historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

On the second-to-last night of May I had a chance to do a bit more night photography at Mare Island Naval Ship Yard after Ivan Makarov contacted me to say that he was organizing a small group for a visit. We gathered before sunset near the “historic core” area of the island, and before long we all headed off to photograph the diverse and interesting subjects found here.

Having shot the “classics” at Mare Island many, many times I decided to start out with a different subject. Instead of heading for the old brick buildings and the immense ship yard structures, before it became dark I headed into a park like area where old cement bunkers sit among trees. By the time I finished there and walked back to where I had last seen the group… they were all gone! I went ahead and shot alone for the next hour and a half or so, mostly looking for detail shots of smaller subjects. Near the end of my shoot I happened to walk past this alley and decided to make one more exposure before packing up and heading home.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 45mm
ISO 400, f/16, 20 seconds

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, vallejo, california, usa, north america, historic, night, photography, minsy, artificial, light, glow, column, building, brick, window, wall, dark, sky, night, nocturne, alley, street, asphalt, shadow, drain, gutter, drain, perspective, industrial, urban, factory, stock

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

Brick and Concrete Buildings, Mare Island

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Brick and Concrete Buildings, Mare Island
Brick and Concrete Buildings, Mare Island

Brick and Concrete Buildings, Mare Island. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. February 6, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photography of brick and concrete buildings under artificial lighting with star trails at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

The Mare Island night photography well has still not quite run dry – so here is one more from my February 6 shoot there with The Nocturnes. I spent a fair amount of time poking around the spaces near this brilliantly lit concrete building and the darker brick building beyond, photographing the two buildings from various angles and directions. The contrast between the artificially lit plain concrete walls of the foreground building and the darker and more textured brick walls of the further building was striking, and I’ve been intrigued for some time by the reflections and glow of the windows up high on the roof. This exposure was long enough that the high clouds moved and created the linear blurred shapes you see in the sky, interspersed with subtle but numerous star trails.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, historic, vallejo, california, usa, nocturnes, night, photography, structures, minsy, concrete, brick, building, wall, window, light, reflection, shadow, fence, roof, sky, cloud, star, trail, yellow, vent, architecture, asphalt, puddle, industrial, stock, north america