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.