A corner store with boarded-up windows in the Chinatown district of San Francisco.
There probably isn’t a whole lot to say about the subject of this photograph other than it is a boarded-up corner store in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, photographed in morning light last July. The components of the scene are kind of odd, I think: a bit of a flag, green awnings and painted wall, the slanting sidewalk with some poles and boxes, and the layers of older and newer boards and graffiti over the windows. I also though the light was interesting, partly because it was short period when the San Francisco fog is breaking up and the light is brighter but still soft, and partly because of the diagonal shadows cast across the vertical and horizontal shapes of the wall.
Night photography of an old yellow building with dark windows against a backdrop of dark sky with star trails, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California.
This is probably a fairly conventional image of Mare Island buildings in some ways and it includes the ever popular star trails! One aspect of doing night photography – especially when exposures are measured in minutes rather than seconds, much less fractions of seconds, and double-especially when you must wait for a second dark-frame exposure to complete – is that you have a lot of time to stand around and observe and think about what you see. A whole lot of time. Before I made this photograph, I had made one of a nearby wall with some interesting windows and a door and illuminated by some light that passed through some intervening stuff, producing interesting shadows. The alley where I was shooting was quite dark, necessitating fairly long exposures, so as I made that previous photograph I had perhaps 10-15 minutes of “standing around time,” during which I was able to observe my surroundings pretty closely.
Lately one subject that I’ve been experimenting with is the upper stories of buildings, shot from below and with sky beyond. Near where I was shooting and next to a nearby alley was this large (apparently) concrete building with dark windows, and its pointed prow against a backdrop of relatively dark sky. I noticed that this section of sky held more bright stars that some other areas and that if I lined things up just right I could position some to either side of the point at the corner of the building.
Night photograph of two large yellow buildings, shadows, and streaks for clouds moving across the sky above the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California.
Night photograph of two large yellow buildings, shadows, and streaks for clouds moving across the sky above the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, California.
This seems to be the week for photographs that result from a combination of preparation and serendipity. I made an attempt to photograph these specific buildings a year or so ago. I was not successful, and I managed to get spooked and learn a little lesson in the process. Most of the time night photography at Mare Island, and at many other places, is an incredibly quiet and peaceful and slow experience. There are often very few other people about, and in the darkness you can believe that you are entirely alone. Much of the work is done very slowly – wandering around looking for compositions in the near darkness first, and then patiently (or not so patiently!) waiting for long exposures to complete, sometimes more than once. On that first try here I had set up in an abandoned parking lot next to these buildings on a very quiet evening and was standing quietly by my tripod when I heard the sound of a car moving a somewhat fast. A sixth sense told me to pay attention… and a moment later a car came speeding around the corner of a near by building and into the parking lot! I don’t think I’ve ever grabbed my gear and run so fast! (The resulting photo is sort of funny and captures my panicked escape after perhaps 2/3 of the exposure had completed – the image of the buildings is there, but superimposed on it is a wild pattern of light formed as I spun around carrying the camera without even taking time to close the shutter.)
However, since then I have wanted to try shooting these buildings again. Late in the evening of this most recent shoot I noticed that some translucent clouds were passing overhead. When such clouds are lit from below and have a chance to move during a long exposure they can form very interesting patterns. I quickly wandered over toward that same notorious parking lot… and this time found a safer spot on a raised sidewalk along the front of some buildings… which also gave me a better angle on the buildings. The clouds were moving away and to the right, so I had to work quickly to get set up and start exposures. The first one (not shown here) was a slightly wider shot. Then I thought about the zig-zagging angles and shapes of the buildings roof lines and corners and noticed that the same shapes were mirrored in the shadow cast by a nearby building. With this in mind I decided to try a tighter crop on the buildings, and I ended up with the photograph seen here.
An old and dilapidated tire shop with a single palm tree.
And now a break for something completely different from the Yosemite photographs I’ve posted for the better part of the past two weeks. Last weekend I had a couple hours of free time during the middle of the day – the toughest time for light, especially so close to the summer solstice. So I decided to go out for an urban walk and see if I could make some photographs that took on this bright and harsh light instead of trying to avoid it.
I have photographed this building before. It is an older garage that is now a tire shop. The building is, despite being painted and so forth, quite dilapidated – window and door frames don’t line up, the stucco is cracked and patched, and walls and roof lines intersect at odd angles. The paint job on the building couldn’t be more, well, boring. The building is roughly gray, with some blocky black lettering and the painted image of a tire. There is no vegetation and a plain sidewalk runs in front of it. The whole thing just seemed perfect for a harsh, midday light photograph.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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