Archive for February 9th, 2011

1st Light Observation Week 2

1) DATE-TIME-LOCATION: 02/09/11 6:30pm NAB Second Floor

2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: Street Lamp flickering to the left of the front of the NAB

3) SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: As I walked out for a break, my eye was instantly drawn to right. The street lamp, which already had two bulbs out was flickering with it’s last glimpse of life. The soft strobe like effect looming over the crooked, barren branch’s of the tree directly underneath it gave an appearance of a hand crawling to the sky despratly for a chance.

Sun Picture

2) From treehugger.com

3)  Sun Photo

4) When most people hear “sun” they think of the little ball of light in our sky. For myself, I think of the sun as a solitary star among many millions in our universe. To capture this unique feeling of how small and fairly weak we are in the larger scheme of things, I chose to use a picture of the sun itself during a solar flare. The picture is taken so that you can see the ejections of plasma more visibly. The picture exudes power as we see solar forces at work. The wide range of oranges and yellows create a feeling of immediate danger, and rightly so as solar flares are probably very hot. The wide arcs create interesting light patterns across the surface. The near white light near the surface is a reminder of how white hot and bright the sun is. This picture is truly representative of how powerful our sun is and how amazing cosmic forces can be.

2nd lighting observation

1) Feb. 9th – 8:45 a.m – parking lot next to the main lot in front of student center: As I was walking to class through the parking lot the sun was out and shinning and the shadows that extended over the cars was my second lighting moment.

2)  When I was walking to my 9 am class on Wednesday morning the sun was incredibly bright and the shadows on the pavement extended far out into the street past the cars.

3) After I parked my car in the side parking lot next to the student center I was walking to class in the freezing cold bundled up trying hard to keep as warm as possible in the 19 degree day. I was realizing as I was walking how bright the sun was and how even in this cold air the sun was doing its best to give us some heat. The majority of my walk I kept my head down trying to avoid the breeze and by doing so I had my lighting “moment.” I noticed that the shadows of the cars stretched like mountains on the pavement in front of me. They seemed to extend higher and longer than I’ve ever noticed before, so much so that the shadow almost ran into the car in the next row.  Sun extended over the car casting large blob shadows of the car down onto the pavement in back of each car. These shadows could have gone on for miles if not blocked by the next row of cars. The dark light of the shadow contrasted next to either side of the bright sunlight made the shadows even more obvious and prominent.

Photo Observation 2

2) http://blog.ratestogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/cal1.jpg

3) Theme: The Sun

4) I chose a sunset because I feel like it is one of the only times we really get to look at the sun.  I also think it fits because the sun can be associated with the color yellow and this picture demonstrates it perfectly and how the sun can create a yellowish light during a sunset.  Also in this picture are shades of orange and red, which are colors that come to my mind when thinking about the sun.  When these colors are combined they give me a feeling of warmth as well and therefore represent the sun to me.

Lighting Observation 2 (Week 2)

1) 2/8/2011 – about 10pm – 10th floor of library

2) Looking out over Long Island and seeing city lights at night.

3)  Late at night and from a high advantage point I realized that looking down upon the city gave me the feeling of quiteness and peace.  There is something about the yellow light of the streetlights and how they were evenly spaced that created a relaxed feeling for me.  Also looking down and seeing an occasional light inside a house that spilled out of a window was also calming because I associated it with winding down and geting ready for bed at the end of a day.  The other interesting dynamic of this moment was that the New York skyline was in the background and the way it was brightly lit gave me the opposite impression.  I felt as though there was a high contrast with a calm and tranquil city in the foreground and a background that felt busy and chaotic.  The skyline was bright and had some bold colors which I believe helped create this feeling, as well as the fact that the light was very concentrated too.

Lighting Observation 1 (Week 2)

1) 2/5/2011 – around noon – Hockey Rink in New Jersey

2) Bright flourencent light shining on to the rink surface.

3) While playing roller hockey this past weekend I had an unusual lighting moment that I have never had before in a hockey rink.  Even though it was lunchtime the insane amout of flourescent light that was in the hockey rink made it feel like it was very early in the morning.  I was having trouble opening my eyes because of how brightly lit this rink was.  The thing that struck me the most was the reflection of the light off the rink surface.  At first glance the rink floor looked like glass or ice.  It was raining that day which could have contributed to this effect but we play indoors so I was tremedoulsy confused.  Not only did the light create this reflection but it immediately gave me a cold feeling as I walked in the door, eventhough it was not cold at all.  As the day went on my eyes adjusted but I never once felt sleepy or tired in that rink, always awake and alert.