Tag Archives: wet

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

Stairway, Rain

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Stairway, Rain - Black and white photograph of a stairway and a portion of a front wall of a building on a rainy evening at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California
Black and white photograph of a stairway and a portion of a front wall of a building on a rainy evening at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

Stairway, Rain. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. November 17, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a stairway and a portion of a front wall of Building 45 on a rainy evening at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

I interrupt the almost-steady stream of landscape photographs from the American Southwest (of which there are many more to come) to share a photograph of night photography at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California. Depending upon where you see/read this, you may not know that I have been photographing this place at night for a half-dozen years or more, joining a large number of other night photographers who continue to be fascinated by the place. The San Francisco Bay Area group known as The Nocturnes has been instrumental in uncovering the photographic potential of this wonderful location and in ensuring its respectful treatment by photographers, and I was there with them again this week. I’m certain that many people who drive past and see “Mare Island” signs have no idea of how long this place has existed (well back into the 1800s) nor of its historic importance (the first US west coast major ship yard) or some of its “issues,” including the transition from the military to civilian uses and all of the things that this entails.

The whole area, but especially that around the “historic core,” is quite an amazing photographic resource, especially for those who have worked to “see” it at night. There are a number of obvious, impressive, and iconic features – the gantry structures, the power plant, many old buildings, dry docks, and more – yet return visits begin to reveal smaller and subtler features that you could miss on a single visit. There was one wrinkle in this week’s shoot – RAIN! When we assembled there before sunset – for photograph sharing and talk – we knew that a weather front was headed our way, but we hoped that it might hold off long enough to let us complete some shooting first. I wasn’t so sure. (The weather radar app showed a front very close to us!) As soon as it was dark enough, I quickly went to work at this building that I had seen earlier in the day when I arrived. It was already beginning to sprinkle when I got there, and soon the rain increased to the point where I had to work under an umbrella as I completed some relatively long exposures. (For real fun, try juggling camera, lenses, bags, tripod, and an umbrella… in increasing wind… and rain… while trying to attach camera to said tripod and compose and focus!) I had time to make five or six photographs at this location before I had to seek shelter along with my Nocturnes colleagues on the front porch of one of the old officers’ mansions.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Winter Surf, Asilomar Beach, Twilight

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Winter Surf, Asilmar Beach, Twilight - Pacific Grove, California.
Winter Surf, Asilomar Beach, Twilight

Winter Surf, Asilomar Beach, Twilight. Pacific Grove, California. December 19, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter surf at twilight at Asilomar Beach, Pacific Grove, California.

I was in the Monterey Peninsula area for several days in mid-December for mostly non-photographic reasons, but I managed to get away and make some photographs on several occasions. On this evening I had just enough time to quickly head over to the Pacific Grove area at Asilomar Beach in the evening. I arrived a bit before sunset and quickly found a spot with several photographic possibilities.

I began by shooting along a the beach toward the setting sun, and including the figures of lots of people who were out strolling along this beach. I though that the silhouettes of the people were interesting, along with the colors of the late-day sky and their reflections on the water and the wet areas of the sand. After the sun dropped below the horizon I mostly stopped photographing people – my shutter speeds had to be too low to stop their motion – and I began to work with longer exposures that allowed the water to blur to a greater or lesser extent, while focusing more on the intense colors of the post-sunset period.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Dew on Lupine and Grasses

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Dew on Lupine and Grasses
Dew on Lupine and Grasses

Dew on Lupine and Grasses. Castle Rock State Park, California. April 24, 2005. © Copyright 2005. G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dew from morning fog collects on meadow grasses and lupine flowers, Santa Cruz Mountains.

It is a wonder that I even consider this photograph worth posting. (Hope I’m not wrong about this!) I made this photograph six years ago when I was doing my very first investigation of digital SLR shooting after having been a film photographer (at least apart from some earlier more or less point and shoot stuff) for many years. To “test the waters” I had picked up a very inexpensive and modest Canon “Digital Rebel” XT DSLR and a single zoom lens. The camera actually wasn’t a bad performer at all. While these models were small and lightweight and lacked some features of their more expensive brethren, they had essentially the same sensors and for those who shoot the way I generally did the other features were mostly superfluous. The first DSLR-sourced print I ever sold came from this camera. The lens was another story. For my “test” I simply picked up a reasonably inexpensive wide range 17-85mm variable aperture lens. This lens has its pluses and minuses (read more here), but for me the minuses were eventually deal-breakers. However, this little handheld photograph was made with that very modest lens, and as long as I don’t try to make it too big I think it works fine.

The scene is a typical one in the oak and grassland areas of Central California that surround the area where I live. This particular scene was at Castle Rock State Park, in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Silicon Valley and the coast. At this time of year the weather can evolve in any of several directions, including rain, fog, brilliant sun and heat, and more – but on this day I was shooting in very damp coastal fog along the top of the ridges.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Lupine and Fog

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Lupine and Fog
Lupine and Fog

Lupine and Fog. Mission Peak, Fremont, California. April 16, 2005.© Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring lupine blossoms grow on fog-shrouded slopes of Mission Peak above Fremont, California.

While doing a major review of the past half-dozen years of raw files this week I have come across quite a few photographs that I had more or less forgotten. (I’ve also deleted a lot of old raw files, but that is a different story.) While I had forgotten this photograph, I remember the day I took it quite well and the memory of the photograph came back as soon as I found it.

Mission Peak is more than 2000′ feet above the Mission San Jose (part of Fremont) area of the San Francisco Bay Area, in the East Bay a bit north of San Jose. The peak is a very popular hiking location due to its proximity to urban areas, its quick access to near-wilderness, and the fact the summit provides a spectacular view of the southern parts of the San Francisco Bay, ranging from the South Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains all the way up to San Francisco and, on clear days, beyond. On this day it was not clear, at least not at the start of the hike – it was extremely foggy, quite wet, and rather cold. But anyone who photographs flowers much knows that soft and diffused light can be your friend, and this fog certainly provided that light. The fog-obscured hills beyond are covered in the intense green (what I call the “impossible green”) of the California grasslands in spring.

By the way, I recall that as I continued on up the trail past these flowers and approached the summit of the peak I emerged above the fog bank to find hillsides carpeted with more lupine and with California golden poppy flowers.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)