Southern California Light

Maybe it's just that I grew up in California, but I never saw anything special in a sunset. It was just more color where there hadn't been much variation before. This picture was taken during last spring break in Carlsbad, which is an hour south of UCI. There's a great little camping spot on some bluffs above the beach-- this was the view from my tent.

This was my first attempt at capturing the quality and feeling of light, and it turned out just as beautiful as it was when I was actually there. The light is so soft and silvery on the water-- when I look at this picture, I can feel the breeze as night rolled over our campsite, and how the special bright smell that only beaches with kelp forests nearby have wafted up to mix with the smells of our dinner. Most sunsets (in my opinion) have a very harsh quality, with jagged, intense reds and oranges, which I used to think was just the sun surviving an assassination attempt but bleeding all over the ocean. This sunset, on the other hand, couldn't have been rendered any more pastorally if Thomas Kinkade himself painted it.

This picture was the first time I had experienced true Southern California light-- away from light, dust, and smoke pollution of Los Angeles and Orange County-- and I understood why the pioneers of filmmaking chose this place to shoot movies. The light is so flattering, warm, and enveloping. It heightens every detail and truly brings meaning to the slang "golden hour."

I also had a brilliant camping trip, which may have had something to do with why I like this picture so much. May.

First Blog

This is the picture that I took it last year, at santa monica beach. I lived in Santa monica for over 2 years, but I used to think that the santa monica beach was not pretty. However, one of my best friends from Virgina visited to see me and asked me to bring her to the santa monica beach. So we went there togather when sun was about to go down. And it was absolutely beautiful. I automatically picked up my camera and took this picture.
The shining sun's light was dazzling on the sea gracefully and my friend was standing in front of it and was shown in blacklight by sun. The sky was clear blue but becoming darker as the sun goes by. The horizon of the sea has clear and bright color like it wanted to swallow the sun because it was brighter than itself. Yes, so it was not just about the santa monica beach; the light, the sun was making a perfect vision. The sun made so many different colors for sea, sky, and even sun itself.
I became a fan of the santa monica beach ever since. Also, I would never forget the sun's artistic choices that it made on the santa monica beach.

lighting on assignment

This last weekend I shot volleyball players from UCI, Argentina, Netherlands and Korea. I was trying to replicate this Power Rangers poster below:
I shot it in one of the gyms with all the lights out. It was big enough of a room so that the light would not spill out far enough to hit any walls. I knew that I would need a relatively soft light to light the main part of the players faces. For the main soft light I angled it so that the light would fall off on the face and fade to black. Then I used an additional light more to the left of the camera and set to a higher power, to give more of an outline on the edge of the face.

I shot each player individually and then merged the photos later in photoshop. One thing I did not intend to have was the shadow cast on the players faces from the nose. It was from the more powerful light that I used to outline the players from the side. Hopefully I can learn of a better angle to place that light in order to cut down on that specific shadow.

I had a lot of fun just messing with the lighting on this shoot. It was pretty simple but it showed fundamental ways to manipulate light.

Capturing moving light

I am a bit of an amateur photographer and correct lighting is the key to producing the best photo. But I also love looking at light as the subject of a photo. In particular I like catching moving light with my camera because light moves too fast for the naked eye to process fully. These are two photos I took of fast moving light. One is of fireworks and the other is of two fire dancers with flaming torches.

Both of the dancers have a torch in each hand. You would expect to see only 2 rings but due to the speed that the dancers are spinning their torches more than two ring are visible. The naked eye can’t process the light fast enough so it just looks like one thick ring of light, however the camera freezes the light and it is possible to count many rings.

This is similar for the fireworks. I love photographing fireworks because that way you can see the zigzagging or curved path they take, not just the explosion at the end which is over far too quickly.

The interplay of light and shadow

This is from a trip I took to Peru last year, this is in Cusco at the botanic garden, which houses one sample of each of the endemic plants of the Cusco area. I find the interplay between light and shadow here very interesting because it adds character to the natural beauty of this tree and, for me at least, the angle at which light is hitting almost creates a fracture in the structure of the tree right down the center where there is a large patch of dark contrasted on either side by hard edges of bright light reflected from the color of the flowers. Its sort of like a mirror image where the tree becomes 2 separate units flowing into each other(it sort of reminds me of rams charging each other with a head butt). It’s an interesting paradox for me how light creates the illusion of 2 separate bodies in motion towards each other and simultaneously also held together as part of a single whole. I think it’s called scotoma (the mind sees what it chooses to see) so of course interpretation of the effect of light here is subjective but for me light in this case gives the tree a surrealistic feel; 2 converging images as an independent image in the mind but at the same time a single image of the tree. What that says to me is that light can be used as a very powerful mechanism to convey messages at conscious and subconscious levels.

colors of home

In my earnest googling efforts, i came across a picture that, admittedly, make me a little Antelope Valley nostalgic. I don't often miss home, but it is undeniable to say that the desert, and the subsequent emotions brought on by the frequently witnessed colors of a Lancaster sunset, always make me a little homesick. When I did cross country, all of our runs always took place in the early evening, and we'd wrap up right about when the sun started to fall. When my friend Amy decided she wanted to pursue photography, I'd become her "desert rat guinea pig" and be subject to frequent random photo shoots amidst desert scenario. I recall, this was one of the first time I remember trying to "manipulate" light; I suppose it would be more accurate to say that it was one of the first times I started to visualize the consequence of natural light and photography. We battled time and falling shadows to avoid the flash; we ran from dilapidated building to building to try to evade the fading sun and keep the highlights intact. Most times, the colors were warm and orange, but sometimes we had the rare pleasure of witnessing a truly awe-inspiring myriad of colors. Purple somehow managed to fuse with red and yellow, flickers of white and then at the top, dark blackness. As soon as our cameras starting flashing, we gave in. Nothing compares to natural light. Not even the finest Canon model.

Putting It Together

I went to South Coast Rep.'s production of "Putting it Together" yesterday, but my roommate took away our internet router for the weekend; well, it's monday and the router's back, so I'm free to blog :)

The production itself was fun and the Sondheim music was gorgeous, but what really strung the musical together was the lights. (Because I wasn't allowed to snap pictures, the only photos I have access to are from their site http://www.scr.org/ --it's not perfect, but you'll be able to get the idea.)

I'm a sap for pink/purple/blue lights all mixing together on stage, and my eyes were continually fed some really awesome calming pastels. The picture with all five actors shows a little bit of it, but no where near what the audience actually experienced. There was a very soothing atmosphere created by it, and for me, further brought out the beauty in the music. Sondheim music can often be very complicated, busy, and precise, and the notes and lyrics would have gotten lost in bad or stark lighting, had they decided to go that direction.

I could see how the lighting designer must have worked closely with the costumer, because the lights fit wonderfully with the colors chosen in the costumes. The picture must be with slightly different costumes, because the costuem pieces visually-popped a lot more in-person. The dresses worn by ladies blended nicely with the lights; the younger lover in blue often being circled in purple and blue lights, and the older harsher wife in red often being blanked in a whiteout spotlight contrasted with black backgrounds. The middle actor's tie was a flashy dark purple, and whenever the three were on stage together the lights would seem to glow and bounce off of them very very well.

Another thing which I thought was fantastic was that the liquor bottles behind the bar were light from underneath and were strongly alluminated (almost like lava lamps). The second picture shows a little bit of it, but doesn't do the actual lighting any justice. You can see it a little bit in the top left of the second picture where they wine glasses are lit a bit. Whether it was an actual light below or on top of the bottles and glasses I couldn't tell, but I knew it was no accident and loved the effect it gave of.

Overall, I was impressed at how well the lighting and other aspects of the show all fit together and worked as one. So often it seems like one element of a production is sacrificed for the another, but in this show, they were all very codependent upon each other (with the lights and staging being the glue that actually "put it all together" --in my view).

Hopefully we'll be able to learn some of those techniques used and be able to create similar pictures during class. I look forward to it! -Daniel Mitchell

Functional Art

This was taken in a restaurant with a cell phone, so it's probably not the best quality photograph, but you get the idea.

When I first saw this lighting display, I just thought it looked cool. But then I thought about the lighting applications that we discussed in class, and I appreciated it much more, both for its functionality and for its artistic flair. I've never noticed that in random public places, such as in restaurants and retail stores, there is actual lighting DESIGN taking place instead of just lights for the purpose of being able to see. It's neat that the designers are able to add to an entire atmosphere of a business.

In this particular design, you can see that the artist chose to create a lantern-type effect by hiding the lights behind a paper shield. Instead of just dimming the lights to create a darker space, the artist added to the feel of the restaurant with the shape, design, and colors of the paper, all of which compliment each other nicely. You can also see that there are other lights to supplement those which are being shielded. I'm glad that the artist added more light instead of thinking, "Not enough light is coming through. I better scratch that design and come up with something else." It is a perfect way of adding a different feeling to lighting while still hanging on to the obvious functionality of being able to see your food.

Harsh light

A couple weeks ago I modeled alternative bridal dresses for a fashion designer. I noticed when we went to the indoor shots that they used a single bright light very low and pointed it directly at us. Normally when I go to shoot, photographers generally use several lights with umbrellas and reflectors and snoots and barn doors and a bunch of other lighting accessories, but these two photographers just had the single light with nothing over it or on it. The light was incredibly bright and low and I thought the photos would end up just looking like a snapshot you would get with an on camera flash. However I was pretty surprised at the results when I got the photos back. The single low light gave kind of an eerie feeling, as you could see the harsh shadows directly behind me. You can also see how the shadow is bigger than I am, giving an even creepier feeling. Yet when you have that creepy low light lighting with tea and bridal dresses, it creates a very interesting contrast between femininity and prettiness with creepy eeriness. It creates an interesting lighting effect I hadn't considered doing before and I actually like it.

Tailslide

This picture of a surfer doing a backside tailslide is the background for my desktop. The first thing that I realized about this picture is that there is no glare despite the intense and seemingly ubiquitous reflection from the sun. Another thing that I realized is that the source of light is at a 45 degree angle since his shadow offset at a 45 degree angle. The surfer’s back is well lit; however his front torso is shaded from the sun, suggesting that the light source is on the left side of the picture. The surfer’s face is not well lit, detracting focus from his facial expression and pulling focus onto the positioning of his body. It probably is not noon since the surfer’s shadow is not directly under him.

Autumn - October 4, 2009

I did not grow up in Southern California, so it was not until I moved here that I appreciated the beauty of a beautiful, clean sunset. The stars begin to twinkle in the sky above, created an almost magical atmosphere. The surroundings are blue, except for a pure strip of yellow just above the horizon. The muted color palette gives off such a peacefulness. The light also outlines everything enough to see the beautiful silhouettes of nature without detracting from the picture as a whole.

I took this picture on my way home from Target this past week... I wish I could have gotten a better view, but I also didn't want to crash my car. This was what the sunset looked like from my car on Thursday (10/1/09). The light is fantastic, but what caught my eye was rather the absence of light. Do you see how the shadows of the cloud make the sky look like flames? I thought it gave a look of a heaven and hell metaphor. At the bottom there is this fire that melts into the blue sky. I think the colors are what really make it a statement. The bright yellow and orange really contrasts with the dark clock tower and makes it pop right out.

This photo was taken at Corona del Mar a few weeks ago. I started working as an attendant at Middle Earth at the beginning of September and we decided to have a bonfire at Corona del Mar to celebrate the end of our two weeks of training before move in weekend. At Corona del Mar, there is a brick wall at the edge of the beach that all of the attendants sat on to watch the sunset. It was a great bonding experience and this photo was taken to remember that day. I particularly like the lighting in this photo because of the high concentration of orange hues in the center where the sun is. You can see the bright yellow sun in the center and the rays of orange glows that emanate from it. You can even see the orange reflection from the sun in the dark blue water. In the sky you can see how the orange gets lighter and lighter before you see the light blue sky peek out in the top left hand corner of the photo. The brightness of the sun even reflects on the clouds, making them look especially fluffy and light. Watching a sunset as amazing as the one featured here definitely served as the perfect ending to Middle Earth training.

It's difficult to be so attentive to light when it's a phenomenon I feel we so often take for granted. Think about it; how agitating is it to walk into your bathroom with a flickering fluorescent lamp going on and off, or a recent power outage while you're trying to study (recent happening), or when the pool lights don't turn on in a timely manner and you find yourself nervously swimming in the dark. As a lifeguard, I don't realize how often I look down into the evening lap swim session into an iridescent, seemingly ghostly glow emitted by the circular pool lights in each lane line. It's an unnatural green and turquoise, giving the pool (what seems to me, anyways), an illusion of warmth and...excuse the creepiness, "growth." Why do people choose blue as the plastering color of choice when building the foundation of a pool? Over time, it fades to a greenish hue, and everytime I observe, all I can think about is algae-esque formations and creatures, regardless of the fact that I know very well the chlorine will make this near impossible. Still, I remember seeing pictures of cyanobacteria in biology, and for some reason, the frosty, greenish-blue-yellow illumination brought on by evening pool lights conjure those images. Weird, I know. It's a first blog attempt.

Here comes the sun...

This picture was taken by my sister, and it's one of my new favorites. I personally love it for a lot of reasons, but I definitely noticed how amazingly the sunlight is captured in this shot. It wasn't even late enough in the day to be a sunset, and in fact, the sky had been clouded over for most of our hike, but one we reached this field, the sun took on a completely different quality. It was as if the grass absorbed but reflected the light and cast it back into the sky. The light in the corner of the picture definitely indicates where the light source came from, but even while I was standing in that grass, the sunrays hit from that exact angle, even without the influence of the camera lens, and it shot individual rays all across the hill. Everything became golden, and it was beautiful. Maybe the overcast sky helped, filtering the light so it spilled out and spread all across the green. No matter how it happened, it was a beautiful moment to be a part of, and looking at it now, it really makes me think about natural sunlight and how we see it. To me, it just invoked this peaceful, happy feeling that I know I felt while being a part of that picture.