Abandoned Navy Factory (HDR)

[rustyjaw]

A friend and I sometimes take a trip about an hour north of San Francisco to shoot at an abandoned naval shipyard called Mare Island. Mare Island is the oldest shipyard on the west coast, established in 1854. Our second trip was in April of 2007 and while there, we found our way into a large concrete structure, 5 stories tall. Once inside, it became apparent that the building was in the early stages of demolition, there were large holes (larger than a doorway) punched in the walls, the huge freight elevator shafts were filling up with debris as if they were being used as garbage chutes, and most of the floors had a thin layer of water covering them. I assumed that the water was used by the demolition crew to keep particulates out of the air.

I looked up the building and found out that it was called "Building 866," built in 1955 it was an electronics factory and repair site for the shipyard.

This location produced several of my favorite photos of this year and the first trip was also my initiation into HDR photography. I had dabbled in it prior, testing out one or two attempts, but the conditions in Building 866 seemed perfect for HDR. After that initial visit, I went back in October to find the demolition well underway, and then again in November for a final visit, the building is now completely gone.

Here are some of my favorite shots from Building 866, click titles for flickr page. The first 5 were taken with my PowerShot S80, the rest are with a Rebel XTi.:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/200/482822165_ea32a9e28b.jpg
open door policy II (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/482822165/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/225/488445992_053037dee3.jpg
presence (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/488445992/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/221/491266420_1435261d72.jpg
hall of mirrors I (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/491266420/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/221/492616697_3a8aa15dd1.jpg
hall of mirrors II (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/492616697/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/493674720_13acad65c1.jpg
short timers (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/493674720/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/1830645755_6955c78835.jpg
rest/room (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/1830645755/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2376/1815267878_b8fc5ba712.jpg
viewpoint (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/1815267878/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/1842448420_7cf892289d.jpg
departure (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/1842448420/)

[Chandler.]

Awesome work. I love Hall of Mirrors I and the bathroom one. Top notch stuff. Did you have to dodge any security guards?

[rustyjaw]

Awesome work. I love Hall of Mirrors I and the bathroom one. Top notch stuff. Did you have to dodge any security guards?

Actually, the general area is patrolled by security, but we were safe once inside here. Although, our 3rd visit to the location was on a saturday in October and had to be aborted because the demolition crew showed up for work! Luckily we weren't spotted. We went back the following Sunday and no one was there.

[etaV8R]

SURGICAL STRIKE!
Great photos.

[DiscoLizard]

Wow. Great shots.

[poloman]

You have impressed me... :)

[jrjphoto]

Lovely.

[lecherro]

These are awesome. 3&4 are my favs. The reflections are SWEET.

[FlyingPhotog]

This post should be a "Sticky" to show EXACTLY what HDR can actually achieve. No halos, no funky outlines, no weird contrast just brilliant highlights in the same frame as perfect shadows. These are brilliant, just brilliant. Well Done!!

[TheReal7]

WOW...these are awesome. Any hope on getting a highres version of image 4 for my wallpaper on my dual monitors? :)

[SlowBlink]

Great ninja skills on getting the shots. I love industrial spaces, the corrosion and decay is amazing. Ditto on what FP said. Nice to see HDR done right.

[Jim G]

Awesome stuff - those reflections are grand.

[ZeroOne86]

I agree this is HDR done right. For me I believe HDR works best on buildings or other structure (e.g; bridges, things of that nature) at least from what least from what I've seen. There are only a few instances where it works on anything else. I'm also like abandoned building shots it's cool to see what time has done to these buildings and think of what they use to look like. I too was curious if you had to go ninja to get these photos. Good to hear you dodged them.

[SezzySue]

those are ALL just wonderful, fabulous job

[puddlepirate44]

Awesome shots! Especially like the hall of mirrors 1 and 2.

Another reason there's water on the floor is for the particulates, which, most likely, given the time period, would be asbestos. :shock:

[rustyjaw]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

puddlepirate44, yes I'm sure asbestos was an issue in this building, but at the point we first entered I doubt there was much left as everything but the concrete skeleton was gutted. I think one of the first steps in the demolition was to remove all the asbestos.

Here are a few more faves from Building 866, again all HDR (except for "last rites")

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2188/1809020832_e483f2d341.jpg
remains (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/1809020832/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2353/1810257871_187ad173ba.jpg
ground-up (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/1810257871/)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1349/543952116_3114ea8d2e.jpg
last rites (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/543952116/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/490001601_9c48b79c81.jpg
asunder (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/490001601/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/483849016_f7a3cc2220.jpg
C13, D13... (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/483849016/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2328/2073618415_7c30076e8b.jpg
upstairs/downstairs (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/2073618415/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2330/1799731971_5e5645cae3.jpg
limb from limb (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/1799731971/)


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/2051297544_5c40d79639.jpg
dangerdanger (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/2051297544/)

The rest from Building 866 can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/tags/building866/

[flumpki]

I really like the whole series. The 'hall of mirrors' shots stick out obviously, but for my tastes, I really like the 'viewpoint' shot. There's a lot of texture and I like the perspective. I also like the 'open door policy' shot. All in all a great series for people to enjoy something that no longer exists.

Of the newly added pics, I really like 'limb for limb'. Again, this series is a great example of how powerful HDR can be.

[etaV8R]

Do you have a set technique for your HDR photos? 3, 5, more pics per shot? Tripod? Am I correct to believe the way to do this is having a fixed f-stop and varying the shutter speed? Thanks

[tesarver]

some great shots

[SlowBlink]

I keep coming back to this thread. Great Eye!

[rustyjaw]

Thanks again everyone!

Do you have a set technique for your HDR photos? 3, 5, more pics per shot? Tripod? Am I correct to believe the way to do this is having a fixed f-stop and varying the shutter speed? Thanks

All of these shots are 3 exposure HDRs, 2 stops apart. With my S80 there were some limitations to this, for example, in any mode other than manual, the max exposure time was 1sec. This caused some of the shots in darker places to have more noise than I prefer. The XTi is more flexible in this regard since it will do 30sec.

The S80 shots were on a gorillapod, the XTi shots are on a Velbon UltraMaxi F (because it weighs only 2lbs).

These are all tonemapped with Photomatix.

[coach51]

Awesome tour!

[Davis]

Wow those are some awesome shots, and an awesome location!

[Mike-DT6]

Great photos. Excellent use of HDR too.

Mike

:-)

[jevidon]

Best HDR usage I have ever witnessed. Keep it up.

[Anke]

Interesting series of shots, but its the "mirror" shots that make it.

[rustyjaw]

Thanks so much for the compliments.

I loved this location. I was sad the last time I left because it was such an inspiring place but by then it was also nearly leveled and I knew it was my last visit. I hope to find more inspiring places in 2008!

One last image post with a short backstory from Building 866. In the photo posted above (from the PoswerShot S80):

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1349/543952116_3114ea8d2e.jpg
last rites (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tendril/543952116/)

The brownish square at the very center of the shot is where a telephone was mounted to the wall. It didn't take long to figure that out as I walked up to the wall, but what I didn't see until I got closer was that the wall surrounding the phone had writing all over it, here's a closeup shot:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1268/543948294_7cbf383e0d.jpg (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1268/543948294_21c6f45c5c_o.jpg)
[click on the image to get a full-resolution look (2055 x 3080)]

Over the years, factory workers had used the wall around the phone to jot down phone numbers! Everything from a neighboring building to my favorite, "phone sex"! It was strangely nostalgic to see this impromptu notebook of sorts there, still on the wall, a human touch on this giant concrete skeleton.

(by the way, I just remembered that "last rites" is not HDR, all the other images are)

[FlyingPhotog]

^^^

Makes me want to bring a torch and save that little slice of factory life. Interesting backstory. And again, superior images!!

[Chandler.]

I absolutely love the second set. The images are superb. I love everything about "Last Rites" and I love the angles in "Upstairs/Downstairs" and the pattern in "C13, D13" Really great stuff, and perfect HDR.

[rab3rd]

These are fantastic, I am just starting to dable in HDR and its nice to see some that arent over saturated halo filled shots. Thanks for sharing. Have you printed any of these? If so, how did they turn out?

Hall of mirrors II is myt favorite.

[john_s]

Great shots... especially the hall of mirrors I and II.

[Angdvl089]

These are some great shots.

[ZekaG]

HDR makes that place look better than new... Well done man.

[bikerider]

This post should be a "Sticky" to show EXACTLY what HDR can actually achieve. No halos, no funky outlines, no weird contrast just brilliant highlights in the same frame as perfect shadows. These are brilliant, just brilliant. Well Done!!

couldn't have put it better myself....so I won't!

[robgr85]

the reflections are awesome!