First light

I was coming back from Anaheim this weekend because I spent some time with family I have there. We went to fishing on Saturday very early in the morning, not my favorite pass time but oh well. In any case we began our morning very early and I caught some cool pictures of the first creeping lights and the sensation those images inspired stayed with me all day. I have always been fascinated by dawn and dusk but I had never really stopped to think about why. Besides the incredibly cool light show and color patterns I have come to the conclusion that these two events are pivotal as they are events that mark a transition in daily ritual. So, we began in the very early hours before sun rise, groggy and still adjusting to the lack of light, we moved slowly and lazily. As we began traveling down the road everything slowly started to come to life as the rays of light glimpsed over the horizon, the previously dead, empty city began to bustle and hustle and we were suddenly no longer ''just packing'' we were on an adventure! We began singing and laughing as a general energetic joviality came over us. The sun was burning very bright with strong yellows emanating from the sky. With this particular picture there was a very blatant contrast between the ground still covered in darkness and the sky now painted in bright colors and i thought that was really interesting because it anchored in the notion I was beginning to develop of how a simple event of transitioning from dark to light can stir such powerful emotions. It seemed to me as if the ground was frozen in time while the top half of the horizon exponentially quickened its pace; there was movement and rigidity created in a single event with a single light source. For us in the car, we became actively excited(like electrons in a filament) to pursue our endeavors with intention and purpose. Metaphorically this served as a good example of how electricity works, but it also illustrated for me another important principle of light, which is that light has powerful symbolism and can help inform a situation in subtle yet undeniable ways to the human psyche. As the day wore on the sensation of a new experience that accompanied that new day inspired in me a sense of accomplishment.

Arturo Dirzo

6:30AM Shifts

I drive the shuttle for work and I take on morning shifts on Wednesdays and Fridays. Morning shifts means 6:30AM-10:15AM. Most of the time during my morning shifts, I only shuttle students to campus rather than both ways. Every time I look back in my passenger mirror, the one that you see in the photo, there is this gorgeous moment that I would love to take that snap shot where the sun touches in through the windows and onto the passenger seats. It's quite a beauty, but while during this moment, I am unable to take that snap shot. So here is my snapshot of it through what I can get. What makes it even more pretty is that it's this moment that I can't seem to get enough of or to be able to get it in a photo that still amazes me. It sort-of helps me reflect on the statement, "I wonder what stories were here that people would cross in and out of the shuttle for their lives." It just helps my four hour shifts move a long.

Rain and saturation

I grew up here, in Marin County. This is the back road to my grandmother's house, deep in Lucas Valley, about 10 miles from the old Skywalker Ranch. I took this picture two days before Christmas. It had been raining, so the clouds were puffy and so white it almost hurt to look directly at them. The air was incredibly clean (especially compared to Los Angeles and Orange County), and with the recent rain, the color saturation on the world around me had deepened. I love that about rain-- it makes colors make up their minds. Gray asphalt becomes black, faded center lines shine yellow like the sun, and the trees are so green you can almost see them growing. The air is clear, so the sky doesn't have that hot-day yellow haze to it-- it's bright blue and it knows it. I love that kind of precision of color. I don't mind a shade of a certain color-- as long as it's bold and saturated, I love it. I'm not sure how I would replicate this onstage, as saturation just makes everything darker. Perhaps I would have to depend on the set designer for that, and augment the saturation with my lighting.

It was about 2pm, and the sun was already in late-afternoon mode, with the shortened days. The picture makes me feel open and free-- I'd like to replicate that in a cue onstage.

I found this cool picture on google. The white christmas dawn, the whole small town is drowned by the snow. there are no street lights on the street, but small town people are celebrating the white christmas in their own way; by lighting candles on the street. candles are arranged vertically. they light on snow, and it look like a small circles. the sky is starting to be clear since it is becoming light blue. the colors of this picture, there are only blue and yellowish white; blue, where they have no lights but yellowish white, where they have lights. This contrast makes this picture more beautiful. the colors, by this light, are very calm and peaceful. So I was surprised again that how the lights were making the mood; a peaceful white christmas dawn. Although they used small lights, candles, it made difference. If there were no lights, it would look like very cold and lonely picture. I could imagine how the people in the past used candles as lights on theatre. Candles can be lights. and it can make a big change. :)

Angel Bunny

My bunny is my baby. He is the closest thing I can find to a living stuffed animal and he is one of my favorite subjects to photograph and follow. This particular day, I had my camera out to catch him playing, and when he put his paws up on his cage door, I knew I had to snap that picture. Because the light comes straight down on him from the window, it lights up his head first, giving him an angelic halo-effect. It's an example of how lighting from a certain angle can portray different emotions. In this case, coming straight from above with white light, as opposed to a colored light, makes any subject appear ethereal or supernatural.

Newport Fog and ACHROMATIC LIGHTING...whoa.

The other day I was working on the 8th floor at Hoag Hospital. It was hardly 5pm when I looked outside a patient's window and noticed it was incredibly dark; not only was sunlight primarily absent from the typically sunny setting, but it suddenly occured to me how stagnant, still, and almost "stale" everything looks when fog intervenes and creates a fuzzy, ambiguous, and dim look for everything. It's funny how every building looked like a slight shade of gray, and everything appeared clouded and soft. This was similar to an off-weather occurence of rain last week, where there seemed to be an "inversion" of time when misty and cloudy weather left the morning looking like a cold and stony evening, but sunlight emerged late afternoon and cast a particularly "new-day" ambience. Though I had no means of taking a picture of Saturday afternoon's foggy and, might I add, "achromatic" environment, I retrieved one taken recently at Balboa day during a particularly foggy hour, courtesy of google.

Gels & Gobos...Lighting Design in action

The other night I was at UCI's Shocktoberfest concert. I was setting up some equipment at the same time that the production crew was setting up the stage and the lights. At one point I heard somebody say "how many Leko's", and this class was the first thing that came to mind. I started to hear a bunch of the terminoloy that we have been learning in class, it was pretty cool.

The lighting at concerts always fascinates me. The one thing that they do different in concerts sometimes is that they light the crowd. I love the contrast from the stage with the main performers to the crowd.

I really like the photo above that I took. From where I took the picture there is a pocket of light spotlighting the performer while the crowd is lit with green and yellow gels. I wish that I could have taken this same picture from straight on and the other side just to see how different the picture would have looked. Writing these blogs is making me think more about what its going to be like to light a scene. I feel like its going to be a lot more of a challenge to light a scene because the light light change several times throughout the scene. I'm still looking forward to it though.

Autumn - October 19, 2009

I have an odd obsession with landscapes, probably because I have always lived among stars, clouds, mountains and nature in general. This picture was taken on a drive from rural northern nevada to southern california. We were dealing with a lot of fires at the time and the sky was this violent orange and black color. The light is very strong and the colors intense. The orange is almost unnatural. I think this the sky an almost violent look and gives the sense that something bad is about to happen. It would be a beautiful way to show foreshadowing of a dramatic event in a play.

This past weekend I went to see the movie Where the Wild Things Are. I won't go into a full description of my personal review of the movie but something important in regards to this blog is that I walked out of that movie rather glum. Though the movie isn't your typical happily ever after kind of tale I was still thrown as to why I was feeling like I had just seen a big downer. Then as I sat down to write my blog for this week I started to think about the lighting in the movie. In all the day time time scenes the dominant color surrounding everyone is gray. Though there is some sunshine it is always under cloud cover creating a slightly gloomy overcast gray to the shot. Even in the happiest of moments of the movie it seems that the gray in not only lighting but costuming as well seems to crimp on the otherwise uplifting mood. There was also a bit of bittersweet nostalgia for me which though could be slightly attributed to the fact that I was seeing a movie inspired by a long time child hood favorite of mine I think was also helped by the choice of the overcast lighting which now that I come to think of it might have been the director's intention from the beginning. Color has such a huge part of mood, it can greatly affect and even alter your opinion on something you may have felt completely different towards otherwise.

-Jenafer Culjak

Halloween sights and orange lights

I was recently at Disneyland with my sister and my friend, and it's occurred to me how incredibly fascinating theme park light is. For those of us who have been to Disneyland (which is many, if not all of us, I hope!), I think we've all become used to the bright bulbs, the black lights in the children's rides (if only I remembered to use my camera on the Peter Pan ride!), the spotlights on California Adventure's Tower of Terror, and the overall theatrical and bright lighting of the park that makes us want to ride rollercoasters and eat lots of overpriced junk food.

The reason I chose this picture, however, is that I have particularly noticed Disneyland's use of light at nighttime, especially during the Halloween season. I love the fact that this Mickey pumpkin utilizes its carved shapes and yellow color to project a bright and festive light, making the pumpkin look lit and giving us a cheery Halloween feeling. In fact, the general lighting of the park at night is really noticeable to me. Using neon lights, showcase light bulbs, and LEDs, Disneyland doesn't put really any dimmers on Main Street. While during Halloween, it's more dark and spooky, it's still festive, using its lights to make us feel like we're in a real city.

The other thing I really like about this picture and Disneyland lighting is their use of color. As I said, they use yellow and orange, and in the shot, the whole picture is tinted with it. It feels warm and cozy...like fall! It just sets a general mood for the photo and for the whole park.

Last week the weather in Irvine was so confusing. One day you were able to go out without a jacket on, but the next day you couldn't leave the house without an umbrella. Last Wednesday, the 14th, was the middle of this confused weather and it was warm out, but still quite cloudy. I had just gotten off the shuttle and was crossing the bridge from UTC to campus and I happened to glance up at the clock at the top of Aldrich Hall. The clock looked really dark and concrete against the bright white of the coulds against spots of blue sky. Although it was still a bit cloudy, you could see that the light from the sun was reflecting off of the clouds, which made them look even whiter and fluffier. The clouds appeared to have more texture than I would normally notice. I didn't have my camera with me at the time so I snapped a picture of the clock on my cell phone. Unfortunately, my cellphone is not cooperating with me and will not upload the picture to my computer, but it was still a really interesting sight to see.