Week 6: Joseph Vincent

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to meet Joseph Vincent, a UCI alumni and a singer/songwriter. He performed at at club in West Hollywood which me and my friends attended. The lighting in this photo was bright and completely lit up his face, but my iphone camera took an over exposed photo. I felt light the light used in the performance really helped to set the mood which was upbeat and exciting. There was also some circular lights which were bubbly like in the background which also made the mood happy.  I really enjoyed this mini concert/fan meeting.

Week 6: Strike a Pose

I took this picture when I went to the San Diego Safari Park. I love how the bird posed for me, I was actually telling her to wait for a second and pose and she did. I forgot the name of this bird but she was really friendly, she actually started following me. I like how the lighting makes it feel really relaxing and calm atmosphere. I also like how the trees’ leafs makes figures on the ground due to the shadow being created by the light of the sun. Lastly I noticed that all the strong light is on the bench but still that doesn’t throw off this interesting posing bird, though probably on stage it would.

Week 6: Street Light

I took this picture on my way to rehearsal one night.  I'm not usually home until ten or eleven, so it was weird to see the street lamps not being the only source of light.  At night, it can get a little creepy walking from the bus to my apartment when everything is covered in that unnatural, yellow streetlamp glow.

Week 6: Serenity

 It had been raining the night before, and the sound of the constant pounding on my windows had completely robbed me of any sleep. I had been exhausted from the week, and was dreading the long day ahead of me. When I opened my curtains, I saw this view...the clouds were dancing! The light was fading in and out, illuminating tiny pieces of the water. The warmth from the golden patches astonished me. I instantly said to myself, "today is going to be a good day". I was so blessed to witness this first thing in the morning!

 

 

Week 6

What I found most interesting about this picture is how different the sky looks just based on what light is hitting it. On the orange firey side, the only lights are stadium lights. On the purple side it is just the faint lights of the city. It was really mesmerizing because usually when I look at a sunset the colors are mixed but in this instance the colors were split into two.. Which makes me wonder what separates these light versus a sky mixed with color in a sunset?

Week 6: Late Night

As the one light highlights my group of co-workers I realized the impact a single light can have in a completely dark atmosphere. This photo was recently taken after an incredibly long night of hard, yet satisfying work. I work in a freshman housing community and love every minute of it. It does, however, keep me up into all hours of the night more times than not. This picture was taken after a program we put on for the residents. We were freezing cold and tired as ever but we could not help but snap one more picture to add to our scrapbook. The single light in the middle-of-the-night atmosphere highlights all of our crazy moods. For me, the light highlights a recent memory but for others, it lights a group with a lot of spunk. We are hard working troopers with the strength to keep trekking until the job is done and I believe this single light shows our strength in the darkness.

Week 6: Sailing Light

I took this photo sailing! I love being out on the water on a lovely sunny day, doing one of my favorite water sports. When I am out on the ocean I feel the happiest! To feel the breeze in my hair, the power in my crisp white sails, the ocean currents below my boat. I also love it when my boat keels over to where my sails look as though they are grazing the ocean water. When I look at this photo, the light source is coming from the right side... its about 2 in the afternoon and the sun is already moving towards the West. There is a clear light source and you can see the reflection ripples in the water.  I get a feeling of liberty from looking at this photograph... the clear vast blue sky broken by white sails gives me that sense of liberty. I love sky lighting... especially after seeing Kristine Reyes light my sky with LED's and the cyc.  This would be a fun photo to replicate with blue LED's on the cyc, and maybe some greens/yellows on the floor... I would have to ask about how to light the floor a color without making the sails look anything but white. There is also shadow play in the photograph specifically below the front sailboat that gives some dimension. If I were to give two words for this image it would be HAPPY and FREE. Then I would try to build my light cue such as in our presentations to those two words and try to capture the essence of this image.  I can't wait for Summer and Spring to Sail as much as I can and relive this moment.

Week 6: Angel[ic] Light

I took this photo at Angels Stadium last May.  I think it is incredible how easy the stadium lights are on the eyes.  It is almost as if the game is being played in broad daylight.  I feel very awake when looking on this lighting. I sense that such brightness also conjures energy for the working crowd who are attending the game at the end of a long day.  I am now very aware of how different lighting effects my energy level.

Week 6:The Sky Opens

 

I took this picture after a heavy hail storm. It was a miserably rainy day, and all of the sudden I look outside and there is this little light trying to squeeze through the clouds. It was beautiful. It reminded me of when we have the backlight on the single chair in the middle. There is a strong sense of source, yet not all is revealed because the front is left in darkness. I think this ray of sun represents how important a source of light is. As people, we want to know that there is light and specifically where it is coming from. That is what makes light beautiful and an emotional experience. I love this picture, to me it looks hopeful and energized, which is how I would like my lighting to be portrayed onstage as well. 

Week 6: Confetti

I was at a show recently to see a DJ I really love perform. At the performance, I was really intrigued by the use of color and how it effected the setting and such. A particular moment that captured my eye was when confetti was shot out at the audience. I noticed that the white confetti turned into various shades of pink and purple while it feel from the ceiling. The way the small pieces of paper transformed their color was quite interesting to me as well as hard to miss. I sincerely enjoyed this blog post because of the memory it brought back. The colors chosen to light up the stage and the club were tones of reds and pinks. These hues created an intimate, yet illuminating party atmosphere while effectively maintaining an appealing image to the eye.

Week 6: Shadows

I took this picture on photobooth so forgive the quality, I don't have a nice digital camera or a camera phone, so this was the best I could do! This week, I found myself really captivated by the crisp shadows created by light around 3 in the afternoon. This midday light is very hot and intense, and cuts fine lines on the ground. While studying, I noticed that the ground below me had a long rectangle of light, outlined very finely by shadow. The crispness created a sense of definition. The result is a strong look created by both hot lights and clear angles, coupled together. It wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it were a cold light with a strong line or vice versa. I immediately thought about how lighting design would benefit from such sharp angles and hot lights. Looking at the shadows, I felt a sense of urgency, power, and precision. The white light turned anything pale or light-colored into white, anything darkish into black, and sliced across the cement. The sliver of light almost felt alive, as if it had its own objective and path, and cut across anything in its way. The shade looked as if it had been split in half by the stroke of the sunlight. I loved the intense effect caused by this hot, powerful, and direct light.

Week 6: My Little Angel's Glow

This is my sister's little baby, Nori! I love her very much, and if it isn't obvious already, she's absolutely adorable.

For this week, I chose this picture because it reminded me of our first lighting project in class. In this photo, there is a strong source of light coming from the right that is casting a long shadow on the left of the photo. The source of light is a combination of sunlight coming in through a window and a light in my bathroom. as you can see, it's creating a very glow like look to my sister's dog. This can be due to her white coat, but also the combination of the two sources of light coming in from the same direction. The result is a white glow that makes her look like an adorable angel! Or maybe thats just how she really is, and the light just helps accentuate it. All in all, this is one of my favorite photos that I've taken of Nori and I think the lighting has a lot to do with it.

Thats it for this week!

-Erika Quintana

Week 6: Foggy Night

I took this picture with my phone the other night while walking back to Camino from the ARC. It was really foggy out and made all the lights look extra bright and fuzzy, especially over the ARC field with it's huge stadium style lighting. I found the contrast in this picture between bright white colors on the right and dark almost red colors on the left very interesting. That, coupled with the fog gives the whole scene an eerie feel.

Week 6 Hope

The reason why I chose to picture because it really gives me the sense of hope. It is pretty incredible how such light can make one person feel. For instance, in this photograph, I get the sense of "Heaven-like" and I think it because everything around the light is grey or pitch black. The only part that has light is a sense of "hope." Just like in class, we talk about how lighting gives context and I believe the context of this photograph is "Hope" or "Found." I really enjoy lighting class because seeing photographs is more astonishing than ever and I am more fond of what the exterior and interior of a photograph is. Like I mentioned before, this photograph has a sense of "hope" quality and that is how exactly I feel when I see this picture. No colors but white and black. Light and Dark. Good and evil. This may sound corny but I see the world as there is always good and evil. Even if one doesn't believe in the evil, the evil still believes in that one person. It is very pessimistic, but I think that is how our world works. We as humans, have to cope to change and try to benefit ourselves even through the worst times of your lives. That is what I get from this photograph.  

Week 6: Smokey Cinthia's Café

 This post is not about smoke on the water, or when it get's in your eyes, but smoke from incense- and also fog and haze effects. 

 I enjoy lighting incense in the home mostly because of the nice scents, but recently I have noticed the way it plays with light and vice versa. I'm sure there are some fun quantum physics explanations, but I am basically writing about the general neatness of light coming through smoke and how you can see beams more clearly. I tried getting a good picture of what I'm describing, but either my affordable consumer level camera or lack of photography knowledge were getting in the way. If you ever light incense in the daytime and look closely at the thick little streams that come right from the end, you might be able to see a bit of the color spectrum- it's pretty neat. In general, I mostly see blues and cool colors.

Pachouli brand incense makes great swirls

  Smoke/fog/haze in the theatre in my bit of experience can be finicky but is really fun if done right. My first time really having to mess with fog and haze machines was in a community theatre production of London's famous Woman in Black. It's a classic two-actor ghost tale that is really chilling... as it is set in a 'pea soup fog' infested country side of England, we had two dry-ice fog machines and one liquid machine. After building some tubing and stuff to help it roll out we achieved a really neat billowy effect and it blanketed the stage as in a marsh... in a few scenes, the actor(s) are using real candle light as a primary or only source of the lighting on stage, and it was super creepy and awesome.
  If you got to see Orlando here, Dan had some pretty cool haze at the end of the show (that set off fire alarms one tech night because one door wasn't shut or open or who knows what, haha)... Whether it's in rock concerts (lasers and LED!), special effects, seedy cafés where actors smoke herbal cigarrettes, or in your own house--- yep, it's pretty cool.

Week 4

Knowing what this piece of scenery looks like during and the transformation it makes to night is amazing. The colors on the rock are more muted and pail during the day, but once the lights hit them colors become warm and vibrant. The texture of the rock becomes more defined as well.

A Face on the Ceiling

This picture is a picture of one of my favorite features that an amazing restaurant in Las Vegas possesses. The eatery, China Poblano, contains these large, round, hanging features that become many varieties of projections. The walls light up in various colors that match the bulbs lighting the dining area, but they changed frequently while new figures were projected on the colorful slates. 

I found this use of color and lighting to be extremely creative and tactful, especially in the bolstering of China Poblano's edgy energy. The face that is projected in the picture above was put together by lines of light and I captured the full piece before the image morphed into a colorful rose. I have never seen light used in this manner and was intrigued to learn that lighting can serve as artwork as well. This was the background of my phone for a while because I found such beauty and creativity behind the picture. I hope this projection is as beautiful and interesting to others as it is to me. 

Week 4: Signs

Every time I have have to come back down to school, my dad takes me out before dropping me off at my apartment.  After winter break we ended up going to see the space shuttle and the natural history museum in LA.  I'm kind of a nerd and I freaked out pretty hard when we got to see the dinosaurs.

The thing I really noticed about the lighting in the museum was the different way that the warm lights focused on the skeletons contrasted with the natural light filtering in from the windows throughout the building.  It separated the exhibits from the people walking around.  The lights also highlighted the details of each of the exhibits.  Without the appropriate lighting it would have been difficult to see the cracks and divots in the bones.

Week 4 Zion I

I took a trip down to Pacific Beach to see a hip-hop show with my best friend. This was a beautifully lit show. The colors were vibrant and matched perfectly to the songs. I felt incredibly excited to watch these artists perform, and the lights completely set the mood. I took this picture during a very passionate song, and the purple lights complemented the intensity.

Carmen Munoz

I took this picture at a park in Mexico. It was one of those days not too hot, not too cold just right, a beautiful sunny day. I noticed how the sun light reflected on the leafs, for example the tree on the right side, the top is reflecting its green color and then it starts dimming down more so in the middle. Some of the other trees leafs are not reflecting its color, it is darker. The angle of the sun created shadows throughout the park. The park gave me the feeling of loneliness really calm and peaceful for a park. The park is up in a hill so pretty much you get a great view of the land. Though I think it will be dangerous for children but there is a fence that goes around. By the comment of loneliness I do not mean it in a bad way. I think we should all take some days to just be with ourselves and enjoy our own company, reevaluate life. Also I love the vintage, rusted look to the swings and the small jungle gym, the way the light hit them. 

Week 4: Date Night

When I was taking this picture I didn't take the lighting into consideration. My boyfriend was in town for the week and I really wanted to have a picture of the two of us. Looking back at this photo I really should have waited for a better opportunity! You can hardly see our faces from the overhead light and there's a glare everywhere. This relates me back to theatre lighting because front lighting is really vital so you can see the actors. The first objective is to light the actors so the audience can see them, and if you haven't got that it's failing the first job!
I guess the failure of this picture means that my boyfriend is going to have to take me out again for another chance at better lighting, so I still win! :)
Oddly enough though, I really like the warm color of the lighting, it really makes me reminiscent of the scene and how I felt with him, a sort of warm and fuzzy feeling. Is that cheesy or what? But that also shows how important gel color is for the mood of a piece, it really gives you a deeper feeling to add onto what's happening on stage.

Week 4: TV Time

I don't have a television in my apartment.  My sister and I prefer it that way.  In its place we do have a view in our living room, though, through the sliding glass door which leads to our deck.  When I get home from class and flop down on the couch, this is what I see.  As the sun is on its way down, the light plays on the leaves of the trees in the middle of the complex.  The greens are so vibrant, and the light is so warm that my beautiful view makes it easy to relax after a long day. In my down time--which would typically be "TV time" in another person's living room-- my eyes rest on a healthier light.

Week 4

This photo makes me think about Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The dichotomy of two worlds with one knowing nothing about the other. The difference between reality for some and reality for others, which I think is different for everyone. It also gives a feeling of brokenness with hope and joy just a short ways away. The light is calling for all of those in despair to be renewed and given new life.

Bryant C.

Week 4:The Beauty of the Mission

I recently traveled to Mission San Juan Capistrano and it was beautiful! The weather was perfect and there was not too large of a crowd so we could take our time going through the exhibits. My boyfriend was taking pictures of the mission with his handy, dandy camera and snapped this of me. We were standing in an outside, covered walkway in the back end of the courtyard.

The courtyard was filled with green grass, cacti plants, vibrant colored flowers, trees lusciously filled with green leaves, blossomed bushes that housed humming birds and a large fountain filled with water plants and Koi fish. The mission grounds were filled with so much history and have been well kept as a place for remembrance.

The day we traveled there was absolutely beautiful. It was a slightly cold temperature but the sun warmed our bodies as we weaved through the grounds. The sun brightened the greenery and made the diverse colors of the plants shine. The Vitamin D lightened people’s moods and warmed their heart as they looked at the vibrant courtyard landscape. Birds, squirrels, and other critters ran around the property to bask in the warm light. In my opinion, the sun was a necessary ingredient when I traveled to Mission San Juan Capistrano because of the beauty it brought to life. It added a special touch of splendor to this historic masterpiece.

Week 4: Morning Light

I took this picture on PhotoBooth so please forgive the quality. This photo doesn't really do justice to the light I saw. I've noticed over the course of these blog entries that photographs rarely seem to capture the feeling of the light that I'm experiencing.  That fact might be the fault of the quality of my camera, but I honestly feel that the process of flattening this ethereal experience sucks out a lot of the emotions and nuances of light. Anyway, enough of that rambling! I woke up one day after sleeping in and couldn't help but notice the warmth of the light. It wasn't physically warm, but the light had a warm tint to it. It made me feel like the world outside of my room was like a desert - barren, dry, and hot. It seems like light with colors with an orange tint create a hotter, dryer world than those with bluer or purple tints. It didn't seem like a relentless, unforgiving dryness - the warm colors weren't intense enough for that. It never became uninviting, but the light definitely created an interesting world unlike the one I normally associate with the city of Irvine.

Week 4: Leafy Twinkles & Splashes

Promise: it was purely coincidental that I'm also posting about trees/nature... haha, yay!

La Verna, Italy

    Since starting the class I'm noticing the simple but important influences of light in daily life. As Leah posted, I also like taking walks through Aldrich Park, and also naps. When school is in session I don't go hiking or exploring as often as I'd like to, but when the opportunity arises it's very refreshing to be away from the man-made.
    Last Summer I was super lucky to get to be a part of travel-study, and seeing a bit of Europe for 5 weeks was a wonderful life experience. The architecture, different cultures, and the expanses of land that I am not accustomed to in Irvine were awesome. The picture above is from a class trip to La Verna where a very old monastery sits near the top of the mountains. History has it that St. Francis walked through those very woods in meditation/prayer, spoke with the animals, and received 'stigmata'. These woods, of course, are absolutely the most memorable and one of the most serene I've ever been able to be in. The light coming through twinkled, danced, and sometimes sang... I love the feeling of walking through cool shadows and getting sparse splashes of sun.

Twinkles & Splashes- magic!

    Aside from the more natural environments, I've noticed the plants in my home a bit more--- most of the one's I'm trying to keep alive enjoy being in muted light, but their leaves still move toward the window.
   Another special place that I don't have a picture of is Muldoon's Pub in Newport Beach. A good friend and I have been going there annually for about 5 years now on St. Paddy's Day--- and this is all relevant because this pub has an atrium with a large tree growing out the middle up past the second story. Every year we arrive in the morning for the band's first set and dance shamelessly under this tree, it's a good time, go if you can.

Lighting and Composition

One thing I noticed when taking photography is that the lighting that is captured from the iris of the camera, is not the same as what we see with the human eye. This makes me appreciate so much more how our eyes are able to see images and colors so sharply, clearly, and to the exact degree of what the color actually is. This photograph captured the colors very nicely, but not exactly; it did though capture some lighting effects that I might be able to describe with my growing lighting knowledge. What you don't see in this photograph are the Globe type lights used in carnival lighting (located on the down left side of the unsuspected photography victim). These lights are lighting his profile in a very sharp way showing all the details of his face and clothes). What is creating the shadow on his left side of his face (the part we can actually see) is because there are no buildings in that direction. There is a marina with docked sail boats. This did not provide enough light to flood him in bright lights such as his right side. I loved the movement in this image, with the blurred lights in the background, the night sky above, and the linear fragments that compose the image. There is a central focus on the man due to the the lighting, the lines of the buildings, and the lighting focusing on him causing everything else to be blurry. HIS black coat also doesnt absorb any of the colors which is a nice grounding contrast to all the other warm and cool hues going on in the background. If I were to try to replicate this on the stage, I think I would wash the back wall of the theater with Fresnels to make  that beautiful blue hue, then I would light from stage right at an angle to have the same effect and hue of the Globe Lights and with some more darker blues from the Marina on SL.  This was a pretty cool night and I love the lighting, the movement, the colors, and the composition. I would think that when designing lighting we as designers also need to think about the composition on the stage just like when we are taking photographs.... When I look at taking photos, I try to make sure the composition matches up with the best lighting and it compliments the photography subject.

Week 4: Nature Walk

I took my 8 year old sister on a nature walk the other day in this beautiful foresty area. She absolutely loved it and we had such a good time together. I ended up taking so many pictures because I kept thinking of this class and how the lighting played such a large part in what made all the scenery so interesting. But this picture in particular caught my attention because of the stark contrast of bright sunlight and then the shadowed trees in the background. It has a very ominous and forbearing feel, especially since my sister is happily marching right into it! Who knows what could be beyond there! But she's always been one for adventure.

Week 4: Message in a Staircase

This photo was taken at "The CAMP" in Costa Mesa. The shopping center is filled with yummy places to eat and shop. The theme here is eco-friendly and buying locally, which I find to be awesome! I've walked past this staircase once in the daylight, and while the sun did an amazing job at allowing me to read every single line, I can't help but enjoy the lighting at night.

In this photo, we can almost make out all the words, even the ones that are far away, and I believe we owe that to the wonderful side lighting that is provided. I don't know about you guys, but my eyes are automatically drawn to the words in the middle of the stair case, "READ A BOOK IN THE HAMMOCK," etc. We owe that to the proximity of the light to the words, and I like that these particular sentences receive lots of attention. I do realize that the bright green also helps in the words being legible at night, but without those lights, the words would've been hard to make out!  Also, the green keeps in theme with the idea of "being green."

Enjoy! And definitely check out this cute place!

-Erika Quintana

Week 4, Gloomy, Yet Not So Gloomy

It is amazing what light can make us feel. This photo I took right after I left the ARC on campus is an example of what I mean about the mood light brings to us. I could make a dozen stories with this photo because of the lighting. In my production theory class, which I'm sure most of you are taking or have taken, we are on the light design and this quote that really drew my attention was "lighting discriminates between where the show is happening and where it is not. Lighting is the opposite of masking. It says "Look here. This is the show." Lighting helps with all sorts of story telling. What I really enjoy about this photo I randomly took is that it has sunlight but it really doesn't. This photo gives me hope, like there is something at the end waiting for me, some sunlight, even though it was clearly a grey and gloomy day. I can really relate to this photo because I am still new to Southern California and I really don't know my way around here, so for me, this literally makes me feel where I am, lost but not forgotten. I think that is why I am pretty stoked to work on our projects because I would love to share and express my feelings through lighting.