Angles of Angels

While I typically like to keep spiritual concepts distant from any sort of academia, I feel that in conjuring feelings of ethereal esthetics and heavenly warmth, this picture conveys just the appropriate image. Though it lacks in color other than natural sunlight filtered through a stained glass window, the angle and subsequently cast shadows are what really draw my attention. As someone who has been involved in their faith throughout my life, I know it's often difficult to coalesce the technical aspects of a "class" such a lighting design and the emotional spirituality encountered in a religious image, particularly because it carries a kind of personal significance to me. A church is a place of not only sanctity, but a type of home, one that welcomes and accepts without question or criticism. While the picture may seem lonely or dark, it also portrays a kind of hope or sense of light amidst the darkness, which I feel is so emblematic of having faith in a society like ours today. The angle and intensity of the light is stark and direct, showing that, while the light source may be small, it is ever present, and within its source, strong and steadfast.

Lotta lotta light bulbs

I visited the Huntington Library in San Marino a few weeks ago. The library has a collection of rare books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps and other materials in the field of British and American history and literature. The Library's collections range in time from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century. Among the items on permanent display is Chaucer'sThe Canterbury Tales.

Within the library is a science and technology museum covering the history of medicine, astronomy, ecology and electricity. I was delighted to find a room where they have on display around 200 light bulbs dating between the 1890’s to the 1960’s. Included were examples of the variety of bases, filament and globes in use before the development of current incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. The most interesting aspect of these bulbs for me was how different the filaments looked in each one. (see images!) Some were looped, some spiralled and some were in verticals lines, much more creative than the basic filament we’re all familiar with today.

Lighting From Behind

I was in Pasadena recently and while strolling in the town at night I began looking around for interesting lighting to write about for this blog. One of the things I noticed and will now describe were a lot of lights were designed so that objects were lit from behind or underneath. I found this type of lighting created a romantic mood which suited the evening nicely. The designs were well thought out because most of these ‘romantic’ lights were used in restaurant settings.

One example was in a café bar, which had lights under the tables. This created interesting shadows on the walls. That cafe also had pretty lights hanging overhead. Both types of lights meant the room was softly, yet evenly, lit as well as being decorative in appearance.

Across the street was another restaurant with it’s title positioned above the doors. As you will see if the photograph the words were lit from behind creating a halo-like glow around the words, framing them and giving them a three-dimensional look.

Lastly I came across a beautiful stone building with decorative urns sitting in alcoves halfway up the walls. They were also backlit, making them stand out.

Save the Daylight

So this past week was daylight savings, but I didn't really notice the change until Friday. I work outside, and am used to the lovely Mr. Sun beaming his UV rays all across my back and face. However on Friday, this was not the case. As 3:30 began to roll around, my surrounding turned darker and a cool breeze soared through the air. Now, you would think relief had settled over me because now I didn't have to suffer the intense rays and heat of the sun; yet, I was a tad disappointed.

I suppose when you are so used to something always being there at the exact same time in the exact same place, it is a bit disconcerting to find your environment suddenly different. Now, the weather I have no problem with- get me out of the sun any day. It was the lack of light that was disheartening. Don't get me wrong, I love the evenings, but when it's 5pm and dark out it just doesn't seem to make sense that you are hitting rush hour, or that you aren't hungry yet. I was thrown off that I was still at work even though it felt like evening, and even the mood of my environment was a bit sober. It's truly amazing how light shifts mood, especially naturally daylight for that matter. I'm sure I will adjust to the darkness coming so soon, just as I do every year. For now I'll just look at it as the eco-friendly way to "save the daylight," AKA daylight savings.

I saw many beautiful and amazing pitures of sun rising, but I thought this picture is very unique. it is an early morning day. and here is a garden in front of the house (not my house though I found this picture on the internet). trees are standing very still and the sun is comming up to sky. it is about sunlight like other beautiful sun rising pictures too, but actually, trees are blocking most of the sunlight. But that's waht makes it special; sunlights that came through trees.

This picture got my attention because it reminds me leko lights. the sun light came through the trees and lights on some part of the grass. it seems as a spot light on stage. when leko is used with high intensity, it creates hard edge on the floor and spots on something directly; usually actors. Although there is nothing on the grass to spot on, the sunlight definitly makes a round spot shape on the grass. I thought "maybe this is how people got idea of a spot light!" I could see why nautre was always the best lightening designer.

Burning Man!

My picture for this week is a gigapan (a high-resolution panorama photo). It may take a minute or two to load, but it's worth the wait! Click here to view it.

As I said in class today, I attended Burning Man this summer. It will take too long to explain here, but I invite you to click on the link above and explore!

The important thing to keep in mind for this post is this: nothing and no one lives there except for this one week out of the year, when roughly 40,000 crazed hippies descend upon it with a vengeance.

Therefore, there is no infrastructure. There's one dinky cellphone tower which went down before the festival even began because it can't handle the volume of calls. There are no roads except the ones we build for that week. There is no electricity besides the generators we bring. Most importantly, there is no light but the light we make.

The picture I'm discussing in this post was taken the night of the Burn, which is the night a massive wooden effigy of a man is burned. It is perhaps the most well-lit night of the festival, when Black Rock City's population peaks. At the center, you can see the Man burning. The brightly lit shapes clustered around it are not buildings, but art cars, which can be as small as a golf cart, or as large as a Victorian house on a truck bed.

People, too, are lit. On the playa, the environment can go from very bright to very dark very quickly. Though art cars and bikers are encouraged to travel below 5 mph, it still hurts to get hit by either. Therefore, people are encouraged not to be "darkwads" and carry "glow" with them at all times. Every person has a blinkie, glowstick, flashlight, or Elwire on them at all times.

Over the course of the week and a half that I was there, I managed to go through 4 "glow", all of which pooped out on me (except, ironically, for a cheap, seizure-inducing blinkie necklace). I started out with flashlights, and when those died on me, I panicked.

I was completely in the dark, and a safety hazard to myself and those around me. It was still early in the week, so the city was still very dark. I couldn't even get to the bathroom by myself without tripping over every pebble my boots came across.

It was the first time I was completely in the dark-- there was no light switch, no cellphone, nothing. I sat with the feeling of being lost for a while, and actually wound up enjoying it a little. When my eyes adjusted enough, I noticed there was moonlight, and enough to see by to guide me back to my camp. Luckily, I was rescued by generous burners more prepared than I along the way.

I will never forget how small I felt in the dark, and what a true blessing having light on command is.

Indoor Light - Little Lamp, Lots of Light

A bit late, so sorry, but better late than never! :)

I chose this image because after Jaymi mentioned looking for natural light, I became very curious as to the effect of a simple lamp in a room. I share a room with a friend in our apartment, and we only use one lamp to light the entire room. It's really interesting because our window doesn't allow in a lot of sunlight, so to light that lamp is to really give us something to see by. The picture doesn't really showcase it, but it does really light the room. I just think it's funny how so much of it bounces off of the ceiling (as shown through the big almost spotlight effect it has right above and below the lamp shade).

The thing that fascinates me most about it is the way the light bounces and reflects off of the walls, creating that spread that covers the entire room. It's not a very big lamp, but the light covers such a large amount of area. Is it the bulb? The lamp itself? The smallness of the room? Could be all of them. I don't expect that much light from such a small lighting source though, so it, to me, is a very interesting source of light.

I think simply looking at this manufactured light gives me an idea of how bulbs work in general. It's a sort of efficiency we can't find anywhere else in natural light. The color is very yellow orange, but it seems more natural than theme park light, but it's too bright and concentrated to be outside light. I can only wonder at the inner workings of the filament that make this bulb so incredibly bright and efficient to use for us.