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.

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. :)