Week 10- What"s Not To Like

Ending this class, I have decided to save my favorite picture for last. It brings together so many things I love. I found this picture to be truly beautiful at the beginning of this quarter, but now I begin to find a different kind of beauty in the lighting. I love sunsets, always have. I love the warmth this one gives off while still keeping the "cool" colors the sky has most of the day. But, after working on all of these Our Town projects, I now realize just how visually captivation this image is. It brings in the joy and comfort that I found in Our Town and tried to create through my lighting. How amazing it is to find that exact type of feeling I was trying to create in real life. This was taken, looking out on Hunington Beach, which is basically in our backyard. Irvine may not be a small town like in the play, but it still is able to give me the same types of emotions. I view light everyday and still have a high appreciation for sunsets, but this specific sunset has even more meaning now after taking lighting design than I ever thought it would. Thank you for giving me that!

Week 10: Under the Tree, Staring Up at the Sky, Talking about Life

On Friday night, I was hanging out with a friend, and we had some time to kill before we were going to see Woyzeck.  We spent a good long time in the campus pub, and I had a few too many beers.  So, I decided to lie down on a concrete barrier and look up at the stars.  She told me to take a picture for the lighting blog, so I did.  I took a picture of my view staring up at the sky, and the tree.  The lens flare was a happy accident.  The flare from a nearby light caught on my camera, and it gave the image a whole new power.  J.J. Abrams be jealous of my lens flare game.  The light scattering across my camera lens created this image.  I looked at the harsh streak across the tree.  The tree is washed out by the scattering of the light across the lens.  I like that it forms a pattern blocking out the tree, making everything washed in tone and color.  It helped create a dynamic look.  The picture came to life when the flare shot across my camera and animated it.  It's a sort of action, and the flare almost aggressively announces its presence in the picture.  At that point ti's a declarative moment of action, of liveliness.  It was kind of amazing to look at.

Glowing Cat

This is my cat on top of a ping pong table. The ping pong table is located in a room with a window behind/ to the right of it. In the afternoon, the sun comes in through the window and shines on the ping pong table, (which is an unfortunate placement of the table, because it glares off of the surface and makes it difficult to see the ball). Last week I was playing ping pong with my mom around 2pm. Naturally, my cat jumped up and started playing with us and then got tired and plopped over in the middle of the table. The sunlight was directed at her, and because her fur is white, it did not absorb any of the light rays from the sunlight, instead reflecting them all back to our eyes. She was glowing. This glowing effect was even more pronounced because the ping pong table and the walls are dark blue, and absorb most of the colors of light from the sunlight, so most of the light did not get bounced off of them and they ended up with much lower intensities than she did. The initial feeling I had looking at her was awe, because she looked beautiful and almost holy, like the effect we describe from the backlight PAR. My next reaction, once I processed my thoughts of a glowing cat, was that it was hilarious, just because of the situation. I've often seen pictures of cats where the eyes glow because they reflect light, but I've never seen glowing fur before. My final reaction was again beauty and happiness. The whole situation brought joy to my day, but on top of that, the contrast of the darkness of the backround and the brightness of her fur was pleasing to my eyes. It brought to focus and attention to her instead of to the world around her, but the brightness did not hurt my eyes because it was balanced and relieved by the darkness, and did not overwhelm me. This is actually my computer wallpaper now because I enjoyed it so much.

Week 10 - LED Ferris Wheel

I am not necessarily fond of selfies, but this particular picture has some unique lighting and context that's worth sharing. On Saturday, March 5th I went on a night stroll through the Irvine Spectrum with some good friends of mine and I couldn't help but noticing the newly refurbished, colossal, and bright LED lit Ferris Wheel. I am very much afraid of heights, which explains why I was never really into the idea of riding a giant Ferris Wheel anytime soon. However, I must say that it was the first instance in my life in which a composition of beautifully colored lights lured me in to do something adventurous and daring. I decided to take a leap and go for the ride. I was quickly caught off guard by the ambient lighting in each gondola which truly set a relaxing mood for the whole ride. I was very surprised by the fact that I didn't even feel a bit uncomfortable, instead, I was thoroughly enjoying the wonderful view of the city at night. I captured this picture when I was all the way on top, and I was luckily able to include both the panoramic view as well as the fading LED lights in one shot. It was genuinely a one of a kind experience that would not have been the same if I did not pay such particular attention to lighting design. It's experiences like these that make you appreciate design classes, because you start realizing how the concepts you learn tie directly to your everyday life. Thank you, Lonnie, for such a well-executed and thorough learning experience.

Week 10: We Are Infinite

This photo was taken on the pier at Newport Beach a couple weeks back. I love this photo because it has a feeling of connection and unity. I have also started looking at light in the capacity of how it can affect a story and what pictures inspire me with ideas. Along with the circles of light I also really like the background. It's supports the lights really nicely. When looking at this picture, the feeling reminds me of the book and movie Perks Of Being A Wallflower. The ending moments in the show, have the three main characters going through a tunnel and the lead character is riding in the back trunk of the truck with his hands stretching upwards to the top of the tunnel and you can see at the end of the tunnel where the colors are changing and becoming closer by the second, encompassing the whole view. Part of the monologue that Charlie (lead character) states is,

"I can see it. This one moment when you

know you’re not a sad story. You are alive. And as you stand up and see the lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you are listening to that song, on that drive, with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment, I swear…… we are infinite."

I really connected with this picture, this story, this lighting class, and these blogs that we have been doing.

Au Revoir,

Not Goodbye,

A 

Week 8 - Art or Light or Both

This is the side of The Claire. I was walking along and looked up and thought, "That looks like a piece of modern art." Then I realized it was light. It was just the afternoon sunlight reflecting of the windows and onto the wall of the theatre. I think it's kind of lovely. I'm not sure what my emotional response is to it, but it did make me stop and stand in wonder.  I just stood there looking at this piece of art created by reflected light for about ten minutes of my day. It's kind of amazing what all can be created with just light.

Week 8- I Never Stand Alone

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"I Never Stand Alone." This is what the name of my dance team here at UCI stands for. The picture above is of me and my Big right before our performance for Care-a-thon. I remember that day clearly, as it was the first time we all performed with our official jerseys on. My team members and I were ecstatic, because we could finally come together as a team and represent who we are to the rest of the people on campus. I had my friend take this photo to commemorate this wonderful memory. In this picture, you can clearly see the source of light coming from the sun. Despite it being sunset, the sun still shines brightly in the corner, fully sculpting the silhouettes of me and friend. The sun also creates some shadows behind me and my Big as well as the trees in the background. The sky can be seen clearly in the background and the lush greenery provides a nice complement to the setting sun. All these elements come together and create a warm and happy mood. There is no darkness or harshness in the colors and the rays from the sun invoke peaceful thoughts.