Tag Archives: ship

Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Departing The Golden Gate

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Departing The Golden Gate
A ship and barge head out off the Golden Gate and into a Pacific Ocean sunset.

Departing The Golden Gate. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A ship and barge head out off the Golden Gate and into a Pacific Ocean sunset.

Oddly, so many photographs seem to have a different and unexpected context in this time of social distancing and relative confinement to our homes and neighborhoods. Some photographers are moving to photographs of things in or around their homes. (I’ve done a bit of that, too.) Some are reaching back into their image archives to discover photographs that they/we had left behind. And a few are ignoring the guidelines and heading out into the field… or else taking advantage of the loosening of restrictions as the new announcements come out. (I’m hoping for a bit of that soon, too!)

Although the evening of this photograph was eight years ago, I recall it fairly well. I had been photographing somewhere else north of the Golden Gate. I started back home in the late afternoon, pausing in this area before crossing the bridge to San Francisco — the timing was fortuitously right to be here at sunset. It was an evening of beautiful sky, with bands of clouds stretching to the horizon as a ship and barge headed out into the ocean.

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.

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Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Two Buildings, Night

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Two Buildings, Night
“Two Buildings, Night” — Night photograph of two buildings in the historic core of Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

One of the attractions of photographing at night is the way that everything changes and familiar and even mundane subjects can be transformed. Night almost automatically adds an element of mystery to subjects, even when the literal subjects might arguably be mundane. This is partly the natural associations we make with the night, but it is also the objective nature of the light — rather than working under the sun or other forms of light from the sky, we rely almost always on multiple point sources of artificial illuminations. (And exception would be working under full moon light, but that has its own implications.)

I made this photograph in the “historic core” area of the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California. For the most part many of the original structures still stand in this area. (Much more extensive redevelopment has occurred elsewhere on the island, some of which has removed the old facilities.) Here some of the buildings have been updated and put to use for more modern purposes, but the general feeling of the place remains. I have photographed in this little alley-way for about fifteen years now. Somethings stay the same and other change, and on this visit I found that I was able to use the new corner windows on the foreground building as a point of focus.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night

Roll-Up Door, Night

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Roll-Up Door, Night
“Roll-Up Door, Night” — A metal roll-up door, old windows, and buildings in multi-colored night light

This is another photograph from my recent “alumni night” with The Nocturnes at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California — a location where I did my first night photography about fifteen years ago, and to which I return at least a couple of times every year. The places is a sort of Mecca for Bay Area night photographers, almost all of whom have made the place a subject at some point. It holds very old historic ship yard buildings and structures, some areas that are essentially abandoned, a few areas undergoing redevelopment, and the effects of the ever-present San Francisco Bay that surrounds it.

Some things remain the same and others change. This photograph holds a bit of both extremes. The buildings in the scene have been there a long time and I have photographed them in the past. However, the lighting has changed significantly. This used to be an area of extremely dim light, but now there is a new facility just to the left of the area in the frame, and when anyone approaches security lights are activated and they cast a glow across the faintly green building. Its color controls with that of the more distant concrete building illuminated by an entirely different type of light.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Structures and Objects

Metal Building, Distressed Paint

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Metal Building, Distressed Paint
Metal industrial building with marks from patched paint

Metal Building, Distressed Paint. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Metal industrial building with marks from patched paint

This is another of the pre-dark twilight photographs I made on my recent visit to the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard to do night photography. A group of us assembled bit by bit, some starting close to the middle of the day and others, like me, arriving shortly before dark. About a half hour before sunset I headed out, beginning with some daylight photograph around some industrial buildings I had noticed on my way to the meet-up. By the time I got there and got set up I was only able to make a few photographers before the sun set far to the west over San Francisco, but the twilight light is also interesting to work with.

In this photograph I was interested in the objective qualities of the old building with its weathered and patched metal walls, especially in the random nature of the patched paint along with the juxtaposition of the warmer colors on the walls and the cool, blue tones on the roof, with all of the colors altered in the blue twilight. At the same time, I went with the wide and narrow landscape orientation of this photograph in an attempt to treat the colors and forms as abstract elements, too.

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