03/08:
The glass roof of the AMC building next to Target.
At sunset the orange and subtle purple light reflecting off of the glass decor made the building almost look like it was on fire. It was really cool to see it at a distance in contrast with the plain white building and the big red AMC letters just below it. I almost wish the building was that color normally and not just at sunset.
Rych standing in the front of the class.
During class on a sunny day the light comes through the window so nicely that the whiteboard reflects the light and Rych almost looks like he is glowing. It’s an interesting contrast to a cloudy day when it’s mostly shadows against the white board.
The dim lights backstage.
When working backstage the yellow/ white lights are placed perfectly where they are needed in order to be helpful. But they also withhold light just enough that anyone else walking backstage ends up with a silhouette. Watching the actors and run crew walk backstage and seeing the way they move within the confines of the lights and seeing the different shadows cast at different angles is really cool.
The string lights that hang in the lounge in my dorm.
They cast a subtle but nice glow over the room, creating a very serene and comforting environment. They’re not so bright as to expose every inch of the room, but they do light up above the couch, which tends to be the heart of the room.
02/09/2024
While walking past Emily Lowe Hall just after sundown there was a street light shining brightly against bare tree branches.
The light was cast on only some of the branches, leaving the surrounding branches and trees in shadow and darkness. The lit branches casts shadows in different directions, in thin and unique shapes around it.
Date: 4/26/23
Time: 6:46pm
Location: Hofstra Game Room
Objective: Grid array of overhead fluorescent lights interspliced into parts of the tiled drop ceiling. Each is covered by a semi translucent plastic square. Neutral-to-slightly-warm light. Top heavy, but the white floor helps to fill the space.
Subjective: Incredibly even soft lighting – but pretty soul-less. If not for the interior decorations it is would be incredibly banal. The minimalist lighting style calls no attention to itself. It feels quiet and muted.
Date: 4/14/23
Time: 5:45pm
Location: Fyhre Hibachi
Objective observation: There’s a lot of natural light coming in through the big front windows, and there are magenta LED strip lights at interval along the wall.
Subjective observation: The magenta lights on the wall give an element of whimsy to an otherwise fairly nice, straight-laced restaurant. They’re charming, but still classy, and the natural light through the windows is refreshing.
Date: 3/30/23
Time: 12:41pm
Location: The grid in the Schaeffer Theater
Objective observation: The main light is the one in the process of being focused. It’s a singular circle of off-white light originating from the grid and landing in a circle on the floor of the Black Box and illuminating you, professor, standing right in the center. There is also a light on the opposite end of the catwalk, a lamp on the desk where the gels and gobos live, which is giving off a significantly yellow-er light with green undertones.
Subjective observation: The light has the drama and theatrics of a stage scene, even though it’s only the focus. However, seeing it from above makes it seem a lot more practical and less whimsical, particularly for the light in question which does not yet have a gel in it. It’s a spotlight with zero direction.
Date: 3/17/23
Time: 3:11pm
Location: the Red Line on the DC Metro
Objective observation: The train has yellow lights in strips all along the edges of the ceiling, but they’re not very strong. Most of the light in the car is natural, coming in from the big windows. The sky outside is a monochromatic light gray – it was just raining – so everything is illuminated with fairly plain white light.
Subjective observation: It’s oddly pleasant for a Metro system. The abundance of natural light gives the space a clean feeling that is unusual for a train like this. Conversely, when we go through a tunnel and the ceiling lights are the only source of light, they become a sickly kind of yellow without support from the natural outside light.
Date: 3/10/23
Time: Noon
Location: women’s changing room in the Fitness Center at Hofstra
Objective: fluorescent square lighting tiles lining the ceiling make the entire room brightly and evenly lit. The floor has a reflective property that makes it shinier directly underneath the ceiling lights.
Subjective: I know this sounds obvious, but it feels like a gym changing room. There are no shadowy spaces, nowhere for anything to get lost, just tons of locker-covered walls and floors and benches. It’s comfortingly bare and the kind of place where you might want to hunker down in case of an apocalypse, or go to avoid nightmares. Everything is aggressively illuminated. No secrets here.