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Ruins, Dawn, Rhyolite

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Ruins, Dawn, Rhyolite

Ruins, Dawn, Rhyolite. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cloud-filtered dawn light washes over crumbling ruins in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada with Death Valley National Park, California and snow-capped Telescope Peak in the distance.

(More of my Death Valley photographs)

Looking back through my photos from Rhyolite in early April of this year, I found this image of several ruined and crumbling buildings against the backdrop of Amargosa Valley, Death Valley National Park and Telescope Peak, and an cloudy interesting dawn sky. One reason I thought I’d share this one is that it is a somewhat different image of the Rhyolite ghost town in that it doesn’t really include any of the iconic structures – just a more typical scene of buildings in a state of ongoing desert decay.

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

keywords: cloud, filtered, sky, blue, morning, dawn, sunrise, light, wash, abandoned, building, structure, wall, window, school, crumbling, ruins, ghost, town, rhyollite, nevada, mining, desert, amargosa, valley, mountains, panamint, range, telescope, peak, death valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, scenic, travel. stock, sage, brush

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Dawn Light, Rhyolite

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Dawn Light, Rhyolite

Dawn Light, Rhyolite. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn sun strikes the ruins of the bank building in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, with the mountains of California’s Death Valley National Park beyond.

This was my second visit to the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada – just outside the Death Valley National Park boundary and a few miles from the small town of Beatty. Rhyolite is the result of a very brief gold-fed boom and bust cycle in the first years of the 1900s, when it went from being one of the largest towns in Nevada (not much of a challenge… ;-) to being completely deserted in a matter of a few years after the ore more or less ran out. Some structures remain, including this iconic bank building that is probably the most recognized (and most photographed) feature of the town.

On my previous visit, almost exactly one year ago, I arrived before dawn, as I did again this year. Repeating last year’s experience, once again there were high clouds in the sky, and I was concerned about whether or not the light would be good. Last year it never got better than OK, though there were still some interesting photographs to be made. I went ahead and set up, this time standing back from the building and using a long lens to capture an image of the front wall of the bank with the Amargosa range in the distance and beyond that the snow-covered summit of 11,000″+ Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range. At sunrise the light came through below the high clouds, and a brief moment of absolutely stunning light illuminated Rhyolite and the Amargosa Range. Yes, the light really was this color – I actually have reduced the saturation a bit in post.

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

keywords: rhyolite, nevada, ghost, town, abandoned, bank, school, ruins, abandoned, structure, building, old, historic, desert, mountains, amargosa, telescope peak, panamint, range, dawn, light, sunrise, sage, brush, valley, cloud, sky, dark, death valley, national park, scenic, travel, stock, window, wall, column, brick

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

Abandoned Building, Night

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Abandoned Building, Night

Abandoned Building, Night. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California. March 8, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An abandoned building photographed under artificial light at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

This is another photograph from the early March visit to historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard with The Nocturnes for a round of (almost) full moon night photography. I’m not actually sure what this building is or was. I just happened to look up a deserted alley while walking down Nimitz Avenue, and I saw  it lit up by lurid sodium vapor lighting. For that reason the colors of the original photograph are a bit much. I had to make some subjective decisions about how to best tone them down. The brightly lit area at the lower left of the building was almost blown out in the red channel from this wild light. I decided to keep a bit of the yellowish tone but reduce it to a more “normal” looking level.

This highlights one thing I enjoy about working with night photography images made in the presence of artificial light. The whole notion of “accurate” is fairly meaningless. First, you almost never make a final photograph that is as dark as the scene actually was – in truth, you cannot “see” a scene like this at night in the way a camera can. Once you realize this, concerns about coming up with  “accurate” color rendition seem sort of pointless – and I just use my judgment and work toward a rendition that seems right to me.

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

keywords: mare island, naval, shipyard, minsy, night, photography, nocturnes, vallejo, california, usa, abandoned, industrial, structure, building, window, door, perspective, sky, steps, ladder, wire, railing, distressed, old, architecture, artificial, light, urban, historic, shadow

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

Reflection, Building B-150

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Reflection, Building B-150

Reflection, Building B-150. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California. March 7, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night reflection of building B-150 in a rainwater puddle at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

This is a more or less a photograph that I had thought about for the past year or so. On a previous visit to Mare Island Naval Shipyard I attempted another photograph using this little rainwater pool to create reflections, but that photograph was not really a success. (It included a different subject, some old trucks and trailers parked nearby.) In any case, as odd as it may sound, a visit to this little puddle was on my agenda for the early March night photography shoot at Mare Island with The Nocturnes, and after I had shot in the more central area of the historic site I wandered down Nimitz Avenue toward this spot where I found “Building B-150” nicely reflected in the water and illuminated by nearby artificial light.

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

keywords: mare island, naval, shipyard, minsy, night, photography, nocturnes, vallejo, california, usa, minsy, reflection, water, puddle, rain, building, structure, architecture, b-150, metal, light, artificial, street, asphalt, pavement, fence, sky, nocturnal, historic, nimitz, avenue