Tower, Night Sky - a photo on Flickriver

Tower, Night Sky

            Tower, Night Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tower against night sky at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This is not the first nor the only photograph I’ve made of this structure. It comes from the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the place where I did my first serious night photography almost two decades ago. (It happened on more or less a lark when I saw an announcement of a free event, showed up, and became hooked.) This structure is one half of a pair of gigantic overhead tracks that I believe originally supported some sort of lift mechanism that moved heavy mechanical systems (probably engines) to ships that were under construction. The buildings were originally various shops connected to the shipbuilding work, though today, years after the facility was decommissioned, many of them have been taken over for other purposes.

The relationship between night photographs and objective reality is a complex thing. I think of it as revealing “what the camera sees” more than as capturing what we see at night. In truth, in places like this and in lightning like this… we can’t really see much at all. But by extending the exposure times we can make images out of what is largely unseen. (A close examination of this photograph will reveal star trails made as the earth rotated beneath the night sky over the course of a several minute exposure.) In the end, many decisions about such images — luminosity, color, and more — must be subjective, since there really is no objective reality that corresponds to what the camera sees.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Taken on: March 16, 2013

Tags:

tower

buildings

ship

yard

mare island

naval

building

night

sky

dark

nocturne

vallejo

san franciso

bay

area

california

usa

north

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/16.0, 177 sec, 28mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	177
Focal Length:	28mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Bulb
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 22.1 (Macintosh)
Show full info

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