Drama 16 Stage Lighting

This is a photograph of a sunset that I took this past Thanksgiving.

This photo is the sunset and pastel colored sky that faded away from Hofstra’s campus on Thanksgiving day 2015, and, consequently, fits with the theme of sunset or sunrise.

The lighting of this photo is warm and gentle like the kiss a mother would gently place on the forehead of her sleeping babe. The colors of the sky and clouds, which are illuminated to our eyes by the orangish light of the sun, are pastel and spring-like despite the late autumn timeframe of the photo. This reveals the innocent nature of the light and the simple kindness with which the light appears to caress the sky with its caring warm glow. This care is shown most evidently through the pinkish tint to the clouds and the halo of  light surrounding the far tree line. It is Easter-like in this color scheme and pattern, and it seems to promise a rebirth like that which is natural to the leaves and plants in spring. This fits quite well given that a sunset is followed by a sunrise, which in turn is followed by a sunset. Piecing together the care, warmth, innocence, and other attributes of the light reveals a story of how the light, the sun, loves the Earth, kisses it goodnight with all the beauty and warmth that exists within its pure heart, and promises that it will be there to kiss it in the morning. This is a sunset.

1) 2012-04-08, 10:15 AM, The National Cathedral, Washington DC

2) OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION: Light through the stained glass windows above the knave hitting a black safety net strung above everybody’s heads.

3) I chose to sit in the rear balcony of the cathedral to be able to take it in all at once.  Of course the building is packed— it’s Easter sunday in one of the largest cathedrals in te United States.  I was dissapointed to see the expansive black netting covering the ceiling of the cathedral: this is a gothic cathedral, a structure designed for great shafts of light to fill the building.  Because of the repairs above, however, they had to protect the general public from falling gargoyles or something like that.  The color and the light of the stained glass above was still visible, but instead of falling to the people and stonework below, the shifting patterns of light played out across the netting above.  One of the best things about stained glass in the morning is you can physically see the sun moving across the sky as the colors change, bend, and shift before you.