I met up with a few photographers in Santa Cruz for a photowalk on Saturday. We had a great morning shooting in the redwoods, but I wasn't able to stay for the sunset. I began the drive home on Hwy 1 and made a quick stop at the lighthouse when I noticed the sky collecting color.
Photo: "Marine Hospital Morgue"
It's often hard for others to comprehend my interest in morgues. To most, morgues are considered depressing, gross or creepy. While I recognize these morgues resemble something many of us are afraid of, death, they are much like an endangered species that you have been lucky enough to stumble upon.
When many of these asylums close, they often begin to experience foot traffic by kids, explorers, scrappers and taggers. For some reason morgues seem to be where people gravitate when they explore these hospitals. Sometimes scrappers will have taken the metal parts, but most often I find that taggers have put their names all over the tile walls and morgue doors, which to me, generally makes the morgue unworthy of a photograph. It is incredibly rare to find a complete morgue, undisturbed for decades.
This morgue was in a pitch black basement. To light the scene, I used 3 flashlights: one bounced inside the hood (cool LED), one out of frame to the left (incandescent) and one out of frame to the right in the hallway (also incandescent.) My hope was to convey a natural looking scene, rather than something that appeared to have been light painted.
Photo: "Experiencing Turbulence"
Wind turbines near Palm Springs, California.
(Night. 90% moon. 5 minute exposure.)
Photo: "Charging Stations"
Inside this dark building, located near the water in the Ammunition Depot of the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard, sits banks of battery charging stations. Sadly, there is little information published about most of the buildings in this section of the shipyard. I am not certain what the batteries were used for, but a number of signs point towards a forklift charging station and maintenance building.
Base facilities included a hospital, ammunition depot, paint and rubber testing laboratories, schools and four drydocks. During WWI and WWII, the shipyard constructed almost ninety vessels.
Photo: "Layered"
The Safe Cabinet Company began in Ohio in 1905. The company manufactured safes and was in operation for 20 years before merging with The Rand Company, to form Remington Rand in 1927.
The Safe Cabinet Company headquarters in Marietta, Ohio was comprised of a a series of large multi story warehouses and a beautiful administration building constructed with large columns at the front entrance. The front half of the building contained multiple stories of offices, while the rear boasted a theatre, spanning from the basement to the second floor of the complex.
Photo: "Exceed"
Stairway leading to the attic of the Babcock Building at the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum.
The Babcock Building, known for its red roofed cupola, was constructed between 1857 and 1885 in the Italian Renaissance Revival Design and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
Photo: "The Space Between"
Corridor inside the former U.S. Marine Hospital on the Mississippi River in Tennessee.
Photo: "Swimmers"
Splash is a water-dwelling dinosaur, who plays in shallow streams all across the Pacific Northwest.
Photo: "Corridor Renovation"
Construction began on the Babcock Building at the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum in 1857 and continued for seven years.
In many of the wards, roll down fire doors were installed, after the building's original construction, to help prevent flames from spreading into other wards if a fire broke out.
Photo: "A Dinosaur's Playground
Speck, Rex and Ridge playing at Zig Zag Falls in Oregon.
Photo: "Low Tide"
Low tide at the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Northern California.
(Night. 30 seconds. Lit by ambient light.)
Photo: "No Heat"
This main hospital building at the Tennessee U.S. Marine Hospital was constructed in the 1930's. It replaced the 1887 hospital building that played a role in the in the study of yellow fever.
Photo: "Crayon Box Rain"
I left San Francisco before the sun came up last Wednesday, to head south for the holiday. Just as I got out of the drizzly weather, I was greeted with a gorgeous, orange sunrise followed by a vibrant rainbow on the I-5.
Photo: "Blinded"
Second floor room inside the former U.S. Marine Hospital in Tennessee, constructed in the 1930's to replace the former hospital building from the 1800's.
Photo: "Swaying Sun"
I got back to San Francisco this morning after a weekend in San Diego visiting family for the holiday.
I drove most of the way last night, camped out in the Subaru and finished the drive this morning. The first hour of the drive was a bit boring, but I happily arrived in Santa Nella, one of the few decent stops along the I-5, during blue hour, so I picked out a spot along a farm road and shot the sunrise in the cold crisp air for an hour. It certainly helped to break up the early morning drive.