Week 8: Mountain Sun

Over Thanksgiving break I took a quick three day trip to Zion national park in Utah with my family. I had been to Zion previously, but I was very young and I really couldn't remember much about it. Driving to Utah it was mostly desert and not much to look at, but once we reached Zion I was really astounded at how beautiful and green the park was. While on a hike I took this picture and really loved the beams of light that shine throughout the photo. The sun is very bright and probably a little too powerful, but the way it shines on the water makes it feel almost cold. I also like how the shadows on mountains in the background seem further away than they actually were. I took many pictures on this trip, but this photo stood out from the rest because of how harsh the lighting was.

Week 8: Windows

This photo was mostly playing with light and shadows. The sun was very bright this day, and the greenery contrasted with the cement walls very ceiling. Each scene in context of the other was thereby intensified. The lighting and color scheme of the image deliver two very different ideas, one inside the other.

I found another example in this image:

It was taken in FedEx. You can see the clear, blueish sunlight on the trees outside, and the dimmer, green fluorescent on everything inside. It is just another example of layering lighting ideas which I found really interesting.

It would be fun to play with this idea of windows on stage, although it would certainly be easier to light the two scenes side by side rather than one inside the other. It certainly gives a different effect.

Week 8: Stargazer

This shot was the result of a midterm-induced study session. My unfortunate procrastination compelled me to stay up all night studying, and I dreaded the sunrise because it signaled the arrival of my school day. However, the dread for morning was somewhat diminished by the beauty of the sunrise. I happened to notice it through my window as I was gathering up my study materials. The warm glow of the sun-rays was slowly overtaking the serene blue of the night time sky. Yet, as if a sign of defiance, a single star remained in the sky, seemingly holding back the sun’s light from overtaking the expanse. I thought it looked so beautiful pouring in through my window that I knew it would make a great picture for lighting analysis. It conveyed so many different emotions. Just as I was clinging to every last second of the night in order to soak up as much study time as humanly possible, so did the solitary star stand its ground in the celestial realm above, making it’s last hurrah before being overtaken by the unavoidable path of the sun. The areas cast in shadow enhance the beauty of the colorful sunrise by providing more information. The dramatic silhouette of the rooftops creates a scenic urban mood, enhanced by the framing structure of the window itself. These powerful lines in the foreground give the picture substance and context. Without them, it would just be a sky-- a beautiful, thought provoking sky, yes, but one with no distinguishable location or angle. 

Week 8: the Beam of Human-made Lamps

    On October 19, 2012, the former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Bren Events Center at UCIrvine to give a speech for supporting Democrats and Barack Obama's president election. Approximately tens of thousands of UCI students and Irvine citizens flocked to the center and I was one of the crowd passionately taking photos to capture the meaningful time with the celebrity. The first reason I decided to take a picture of this moment was due to the uniqueness to watch numerous people gathered in one place and really gorgeous and splendid figure harmonizing with spotlights and shiny display screens on each's cellphone. Especially, the middle of crowds and the platform were illuminated by strong spotlights. It seemed like the intense beam/ray created by the vivid human lamps. Besides, the people in the center remind me of the core of the Sun which has extremely high temperature and dynamic solar energy. Consequently, these human-made  ray of lights naturally indicates enthusiasm and acclamation of the crowds. In addition, this photo has the clear contrast of the color as black shadows(surrounding edges) and white light(middle). Through this photo's analysis, I could discover the broader possibility of the new and fresh lighting design utilizing the crowd and human-made lamps. It was pretty interesting and phenomenal to my viewpoint.

Week 8-- Night Light

This picture was taken in the parking lot of the in-n-out near my house. As I was enjoying my burger and fries with my friend I noticed these trees. What really caught my attention was how the light from the street lamps were hitting the trees. It was clear where the light source was specifically hitting especially on the fuller tree in the back. You can clearly see the bright center of the pool of light and how it begins to fade out. The center is so bright but the top edges become hardly distinguishable from the night sky.  The light adds so much dimension and color to the tree. Instead of it appearing to be a pretty bland one tone green. there are multiple shades and shadow that bring life to the tree especially since it was so dark. 

Week 8: The sun and the moon

It was the early in the morning. I have never thought that the sun and the moon can be on the sky at the same time. Actually, it can be. It was the first time for me to see it. It was very strange and unique. The moon brightens because of the reflection of the sun. I thought how it could be possible even though they are on the same side of the sky. It seems a miracle according to the general theory. 

The time is that the sun is coming up and the moon is coming down. The sun represents a new world's or a new hero's birth. The moon is an old world or an old hero's vanishing. Clearly, it shows transition between the night and the day. 

Week 8: Colors In Dark Light

So this week my family decided to come join me here in Irvine due to me not being able to go home. One night while I was taking my sister to newport beach, I noticed how interesting this picture captured the colors of the trees and the buildings in the background. It got me thinking about how color looks in different tints, especially considering what we have been discussing in class with the Our Town projects. One thing I noticed is that the colors seem to be a different tint then they are when they are fully lit with the sun and I wondered how I could imitate this effect on the stage. Their is always a source light and fill light, but I think more in the terms of literally dropping two very similar colors into different lights and see how it would look on stage. This is definitely different than what is being represented in this photo, but I am interested in how I can duplicate this fading light but completely fill. Honestly this might be something very easy to do with how much light I actually send through, but its still something that has me thinking very heavily on how light can be played with onstage to create a certain effect. I will definitely play with this moving forward with my Our Town project.