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.:
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short timers
