Laboratory

Just bought a digital camera, but alas, I can't get it to work on my computer, so my camera phone will have to do for another post. Apologies if the image doesn't turn up perfectly.

As I was walking back to my dorm last night after rehearsal, I walked past one of the science labs in between the Claire and Campus Village, and was pulled in by something of a lemon-limelight shooting from one of the windows. Inside the window were shelves of beakers and test tubes and bottles, and it felt EXACTLY like one of those over-the-top Dr. Frankenstein laboratories. It was in a very noir-meets-Star-Trek-meets-1940's Horror Flick, and the shadows were great (adding to the hightened reality). The entire window was being backlit, and the items on the shelves became almost icon-like. To boot, some of the funny-shaped beakers acted as convex and concave lenses (sort of) and projected the backlight in other cool convergent and divergent directions. Very very neat. It could see how a whole conceptual design for a show could be gotten from just a single image like this. This was one of the first times I've actually noticed in a non-theatrical real time situation a type of lighting setting that was still very naturally stylized.

Went walking along the beach on Sunday night, about 6:45ish. Wasn't expecting to see anything pretty, just kind of needed to get out and get some air. Anyway, as I'm walking, I'm blinded --not by the sun going down, but the reflection of the sky in the water rushing back to the ocean. My impromptu camera phone doesn't do much justice to the image, but you could see all of these amazing colors shooting from the ground. It reminded me of the inside of an abelone shell, and how different colors shine in a metallic sort of way. It was almost like having three skies (the actual, the one in the water, and the one being reflected in the wet sand) all ontop of one another. I thought about how cool it would be to use an abelone type metal covering the walls of a theatre set, and what great spectacle it'd be with the right type of lighting. The stage would become a type of refractor, or mimic the inside of the lighting instrument itself. Cool to think about. =^)

Don't "Let the Sunshine In"

So I love the rain. Honestly, nothing puts me in a better mood than knowing it's going to rain so I can throw on my cute flowered rain-boots and stomp in the puddles and laugh and play like I was 7 years old again. Therefore, you could understand my excitement when the forecast for this week showed a "Chance of Showers" for Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course, knowing today was Tuesday-THE day- I was ready for those showers. Lo and behold, it didn't rain.

I'm ready to give mother nature another try, and am hoping that tomorrow will be better. In the meantime, I was walking to class today, understandably saddened by the weather, when I looked up at the sky and thought, "Wow it's bright!" Through the dark clouds and the foggy marine layer, I noticed that good old Mr. Sun was trying to peek his way in and see what was going on. Besides the fact that that ain't gonna happen, I was also interested in how much light was shining through the clouds. Since this was right after lighting, I started thinking about how the clouds acted like a dimmer to the sun, and why, when it is supposed to be dark and cloudy, do the clouds not do their job and block the sun? It was blinding to look up at the sky and when I took this picture I was interested to find that the image of the sun came out fairly sharp, when standing there in reality it was too bright to even tell where the sun was.

To conclude, I appreciate light now that I'm beginning to learn a little more of how it works. I would also like to say that if the sun ever decides to butt in on my rainy day again, I will literally knock the living daylight out of it. Thank you, that is all. :)