Light Observation #1- Late morning sun
1) 1/29/12 – 10:30AM – My Dorm Room (Netherlands)
2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: On a clear morning the sun was shining brightly on my closed window shade and light bled into the room and lit it up, no other light source was on.
3) SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: This past weekend was not the best I have ever had. I went to bed feeling pretty blue and helpless on saturday night and didn’t really have much motivation or energy as I closed my eyes. Luckily, I slept clear through the night and did not find myself tossing and turning very much. My sleep went uninterrupted all night and into the morning until around 10:30 when the sun really started to beat down hard on the single square window just to the left of my bed. Each window inside every room in the Netherlands Complex is furnished with a cheap and hardly operable window shade that takes a good five minutes to lower each night. It is the type of shade that has two long strips of fabric running from top to botom holding onto paper-thin strips of metal that when meshed together make a somewhat solid shade to block out the light from outside.
This clear morning allowed the sun to penetrate the atmosphere with ease and hit the shade with great intensity. This is when I was finally awoken from my dreams of the past and brought back into my reality. After I opened my eyes and woke my body up a little bit I threw my glasses on and looked to see what had brought me back to my reality. I scanned the window and and saw the sunlight beaming through the window, onto the tips of each white metal strip. The concentrated light on each panel was then forced through each crack between the panels and lit my room in a muted glow. The light on the window shade was brilliant and vibrant as it peaked through; its color a very pure white. The light in my room however had a colder feeling, and was flat and muted as it bounced off the walls. There were no shadows, just a soft glow. I laid in bed for a while staring in silence thinking about my dreams and rationalizing all the old stuff that had been bothering me for the past few days. I was in the same mood that I had been the night before while I laid there constantly reflecting back on the past few years of my life. Then I looked at the window and realized the irony that in my room, the lighting was so flat and cold yet right there at my window the light was so vibrant, intense and warming yet I had my window closed, shutting that rejuvenating and happy light out of my room. Turns out that after I opened my shade, my mood was able to improve and I got some energy and motivation back once again.