Tag Archives: vallejo

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

Exit, Yellow Doors, Blue Windows

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Exit, Yellow Doors, Blue Windows
Exit sign above doors to outside area illuminated by dusk light

Exit, Yellow Doors, Blue Windows. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. November 7, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Exit sign above doors to outside area illuminated by dusk light

After meeting up with my fellow night photographers (associated with The Nocturnes, the long-standing San Francisco night photography community) to share photographs and pizza, we all got ready to head out into the night as darkness came on. After the social time I began to get myself into the rather different frame of mind necessary to photographing this subject. Before I even left the building I began to look around inside, and I decided to walk slowly into some corners of this facility that I had not looked at before. As I did I found myself in a bit of a dead-end spot where this door, lit by indoor artificial lighting, let to the developing twilight on the other side.

I associate a number of things with photographing at night. Of course, subjects often take on a very different appearance at night, and rather prosaic subjects can acquire a feeling of mystery. In practical terms, I’m absolutely fascinated by this world that is illuminated by lighting that is far more varied than what we typically see in daylight. Rather that more or less one kind of lighting, there could be many — the blues of twilight, the daylight-like color balance of moonlight, the wild colors of artificial light from tungsten, sodium vapor, fluorescent and other kinds of light. But beyond all of that, I associate the sense of profound stillness and quite with this kind of photography, where I frequently stand alone in dark and quiet places for many minutes as I wait for exposures to complete.

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

A Dark Corner

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A Dark Corner
A pathway ends at a dead end and cement walls, night photography at Mare Island

A Dark Corner. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. November 7. 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pathway ends at a dead end and cement walls, night photography at Mare Island

Since I have photographed on this sprawling decommissioned ship yard for over a decade, I’m now more and more on the lookout for new subjects and locations there. Somehow I always seem to find them by poking around in (literally!) odd, dark corners. A first time visitor to the ship yard is most likely to be captivated by some of the larger and iconic subjects — the cranes, the old architecture, the tower at the old power plant, and more. But eventually one finds things missed on earlier visits.

I worked my way toward this odd little corner bit by bit. I first stopped to look at the front of a building that I not really spent much time with in the past. Near its front entrance I found a stairway leading up toward a dark terrace above. At first I spent some time making photograph of the stairs. Over the course of long exposures my eyes adapted to the darkness and I began to become aware of other shapes and textures and qualities of light nearby. The light in such places at night is often tremendously varied, coming from almost every kind of lightning imaginable. Sodium vapor lamps glow with an intense yellow color, led light can appear almost like daylight, fluorescent lamps can be greenish, and the glow of the city of Vallejo across the water has a reddish-brown quality. Here an overhead light sent beams of slightly blue-green light downwards, almost parallel to the surface of the concrete walls. That light from the town across the water found its way to these walls too, turning the close wall on the left an intense red-brown color and lending a faint glow to the back wall.

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.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Windows in Windows

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Windows in Windows
Layers of windows and reflections at night, illuminated by ship yard security lights

Windows in Windows. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. November 7, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Layers of windows and reflections at night, illuminated by ship yard security lights

This is a prosaic subject that, to me at least, becomes more mysterious the more I look at it. As I walked down a very familiar alley way — perhaps the most familiar one to typical Mare Island night photographers, and a place I have been in many, many times — I looked at parts of it differently. Perhaps this was because the alley was closed off this time or maybe because one of the huge overhead structures that looms able this area was covered with immense scaffolding. Possibly it was the fact that interior lights in a neighboring building were, for the first time I can remember, still on and shedding light on the alley.

In any case, I went straight to this corner window that I had not really even noticed in the past. I was attracted by they interesting reflected light and the converging lines of the window frame, and then I began to notice the many layers of light and shape in the subject — especially the light coming thought another set of windows around the far corner of the building.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Yellow Wall, Warning Signs

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Yellow Wall, Warning Signs
Night photograph of yellow building wall, doorway, windows, and warning signs, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

Yellow Wall, Warning Signs. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. November 7, 2015© Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of yellow building wall, doorway, windows, and warning signs, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

This will be the first of a series of night photographs, made on a recent visit to the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California. I have been photographing at night here for more than a decade now. As I return I continue to find new things to photograph as the lighting is always different and the buildings themselves change. For example, on this visit I found that a dry dock area that has recently been used to dismantle old ships is lit in such a way as to light familiar buildings in new ways, and that some ship yard equipment that used to be behind security fences was now more accessible.

The architecture of this old building is found all over Mare Island and in other military and similar locations all over the country. (At a recent exhibit in San Francisco many viewers of one of my Mare Island photographs were almost certain that the photograph was from Hunters Point — and I can see why, as the same sort of architecture is found there.) Many buildings near this one appear to have been damaged in a north bay earthquake that happened not too long ago — a chunk of the building’s roof is damaged, some of the hanging conduit may have come down in the quake, and a corner of the next door brick building is gone.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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