4th of July at Its Finest

One of the top holidays in the world that showcases light would be 4th of July. When I think about lights, I often think of a celebration or a positive subject (Festivals, Christmas, Sunrises, Sunsets, The stage when lighting up an actor's face. Obviously there is a way to make light look not so positive and to look more dark and mysterious, but for this particular blog, I will be focusing on the positive side of lighting. 

So back to 4th of July, this picture was taken by my one of my best friend's older sister when we were having fun with the giant sparklers around 10:30pm. We have so many pictures from that night and I love seeing how light falls in pictures.I was a little afraid to light up the sparkles but once they were in my hand I could not keep my eyes off the light. It was like a bunch of little tiny sparkles in the air that because I was holding it- I felt like I was creating the night (Even though that was not true, I was just steering the night). The idea of light and how it is created in so many ways is so fascinating to me. I am so excited to dive deeper into light and start to thoroughly understand it.

Au Revoir, 
A

Week 2 At the wedding

On December, I went to my brother’s wedding in Hayama, where it is surrounded with a beautiful ocean in Japan. When I first got to the station near the wedding hall, the place looked like a small town and I did not except that they would have a nice view. But after I got to the place, I was able to see the ocean from the wedding hall. When the party ended, the couple went outside to make the guests see the view from the balcony with the word “Thank you”. It was around 4:00 PM and the sun with orange and yellow color was mixed together to show the brightness. I liked how the ocean reflecting the light from the sun and showing both bright reflection and a calmed color reflection together. The rocks on the left side of the picture looks yellow because of the light from the sun, which made me feel that even dark color could be look brighter with the light. I also thought it is really interesting to have a blue ocean and a yellow ocean at the same time in one picture using light. By contrasting the right and the left side of the ocean, the right side has a darkness that shows that the nighttime is about to start. However, on the left side, it shows that the ocean is still celebrating the couple with the brightness.

Week 2: Walking through Central Park

This past Summer I had the wonderful opportunity to go to New York with my boyfriend and visit his uncle, who lives right in the heart of Manhattan. We dedicated one day to walk all over Central Park and took multiple pictures of different locations. The atmosphere around the entire park was serene, a hidden forest away from the city. Looking back at the pictures we took, this one here is a tunnel of one of the many bridges we came across in the park. In this picture I love how dark the tunnel is, and how the light creeps inside. I even enjoy how the corners naturally are dark in the picture creating a depth to the image. The architectural detail of the tunnel helps create that sense of depth as well.

Week 2- Laos

A couple of months ago, my sister went on an amazing trip to the country of Laos. After spending an adventurous three weeks in my parents' homeland, she captured bountiful astonishing photos, and this picture is the one that stood out to me in particular. I absolutely love nature and have always dreamed of visiting places such as these. My sister told me of her experience standing on this hill and seizing the moment with her camera. I remember her saying how at peace she was with herself and how just standing there made her feel like the only person in the world. She was transported to a new place where it was just her and nature. I can recall her telling me about the smell of the crisp, fresh air and how wonderful the light, cool breeze felt. She was fatigued from the hike, but being able to witness this magical moment made her forget everything. While listening to all of this, I was able to visualize perfectly the scene that was in front of her. Looking at this photograph, I can see why she had such a spiritual moment. The way the natural sunlight brushes over the lush greenery and those gorgeous mountains give the picture a bright and peaceful mood. The color scheme of the photo is breathtaking as well, from the dense green vegetation, to the earthy brown ground, to the multiple shades of blue in the sky; all these elements come together and blend perfectly, creating a work of art that no man could hope to ever recreate. Additionally, the formation of the clouds are in no way threatening, but rather give the look of soft, cushion y pillows. The sunlight helps to accent every shape present in this scene, and gives every object a softer, more welcoming edge. I can see every feature of the natural terrain clearly and it feels as if I was there with my sister. The radiant blue sky helps me feel and smell the fresh air that is always present on hills such as these. It is clear how powerful lighting is in this moment. If the sun was harsher, or if the sky was shrouded in darkness, this picture would have produced a drastically different impression. Nonetheless, the light from the sun allowed the beauty of nature to shine in this photo and has the power to take anyone on a spiritual journey to the country of Laos.

Week 2 - Disneyland Trip

Last week, I took a trip to the Disneyland parks for my birthday. This picture was taken in California Adventure during their Mad T Party event. The Mad T Party is basically a nighttime event where guests are able to dance along and listen to the music of different live DJs and bands. The set up of the stage is like that of a live concert, so there were a lot of lights all over the place. Upon entering the area where the Mad T Party was being hosted, I was overwhelmed by the amount of lights that were there because it was so bright. Although this image just shows red and green lights, the lights changed colors every couple of seconds to the beat of the music. Despite the fact that there wasn't anything too unique about the lighting design (after all, it was just flashing different colors), I was impressed by how the lighting was able to turn everything into one color. When the lights changed to red, all the trees, people, and buildings also turned red. On the back of the stage, there were also multiple LED screens which I was also impressed by. First of all, it's a giant screen made of thousands of small lights. The fist thing that came to my mind when I saw it was "wow." Secondly, I applaud the designers who have to create the patterns and images that come on the screen. I assume it would be challenging to create one cohesive picture that can fit on multiple screens, especially when the picture is constantly changing and moving. Of course, Disney never disappoints with their work and things like this just add that much more to their magic.

Week 2-Soundgarden

Back in February of 2013, I went to the Fox Theater in Oakland to see Soundgarden.  At the time, and to this day, I'm still a huge fan.  The show didn't start until 8:30p.m.  It was a particularly cold night making the entrance in to the theater all the more majestic.  The air was crisp with the cold.  The bright white light emulating from the marquis was dulled by the frost in the air.  The doorway opened to a grand, old theater.  The Fox Theater was built in 1928, and was influenced by middle eastern architecture.  The building had been refurbished in the early 2000's, but it was the musk of the theater that permeated the air.  The lighting was low, but there were no heavy shadows.  It was like the building was grey.  The grey lighting dulled out the audience, and accentuated the blue hue coming from the stage.  The lights cast a dark blue aura around the drums and amps that were set up.  It was really the only light in the room except for the bar.  The bar was lit up with simple lights embedded into the ceiling.  I stood in the dark grey atmosphere in the room.  Until, the lights went black.  Pitch black except for the projection screen that was lighting up with grey, white flashing images of different animals until the Soundgarden logo came onscreen.  The crowd roared from the anticipation.  The stage once again lit up, but this time it was fully illuminated, and not with the blue tone with a vibrant white that illuminated the four members of the band.  Chris Cornell immediately launched into "Been Away Too Long".  The lights would change radically with each passing beat.  Blue, orange, red, white, green.  Each passing note caused the lights to illuminate different colors, as spotlights swung around the room illuminating the dark corners of the high ceilings.  The colors would stay consistent for certain parts of a song.  For instance "A Thousand Days Before" was struck with a vibrant green.  This brought a forlorn, almost perilous sound to the song.  It changed the sounds of the notes by infusing different colors with the song.  The picture above was taken when they played "Spoonman" which was cast with an orange light.  It didn't have any impact on the song however, but it did accent the fast-paced, frenetic aggressiveness the song carries.  The song "Flower" was accented with a purple lighting and a kaleidoscope  projection.  It was so beautiful, and oddly fit the song, giving power as the instruments became quiet during the song's break.  The concert continued well into the night, and some songs would have a color scheme, others would just have a scope of colors thrown at the audience.  I left the concert about as happy as I could be.  The night had turned out better than I could have ever hoped.

Week 2 - Late to Class

On the first Tuesday of the quarter, I looked up my class location on myEEE, but read the discussion location instead of the lecture location and was sitting in the wrong classroom. When I realized what I had done, I only had a few minutes to get to the correct classroom, which was across campus. I started to run from the Ayala Science Library area into Aldrich Park as the sun was setting and saw the most beautiful colors in the sky. I decided that stopping for a picture was worth being late to class. The clouds from all of the rain that day were smudging the sunset, so that the pink in the sky was more like soft splash of color instead of the usual fade from blue to various shades of pink and orange. There was another smaller, soft splash of yellow inside of the pink, where I think the sun was hiding. The blend of colors, with the yellow on the inside of the pink smudge reminded me of a flame, but one that is extraordinarily fluffy, soft, and safe. It was breathtaking and comforting, like the sun was trying to make up for the cold, rainy, day. The dark foliage hugging the right side and underneath the sky seemed to provide a dark and shadowy contrast to the sky, exaggerating the brightness of the sky and helping the colors in the sky to pop. I think this is interesting that I first thought of it in terms of the darkness accentuating the light, since the light of the sky behind the trees is what made them look so dark in the first place. However, it ends up seeming to work in the opposite direction to make the sky more dramatic and important. The pink in the sky is also so intense, that the reflection of it can be seen in the floor tiles, splashing color around the tables. The warm pink glow of sunset seemed to soak into the whole world, triumphing over the gray gloomy day.