Microsoft Mouse

This mouse is my oldest mouse.  I have had it since 2004.  It glows when it is connected to a computer.  The optical sensor brightens up when the mouse is being moved, then it dims when you stop moving it.  The red light is not very distracting at nighttime.

This light reminds me of what a robot should look like when its parts move.  If there were a show that needed this I would use bumps in lighting every-time an object moved on stage.

Medusa Light Fixture

My sister has a Medusa light fixture.  It has five lights on goosenecks and can be aimed all over the place in her apartment.  It is an example of bounce lighting and is very typical of female apartments like hers.  These fixtures take sixty-watt incandescent light bulbs.

The warm color temperature of the light looks great in her apartment and when I see people with them here in Florida I am reminded of her.

After BBQ on September 23

This photo was taken after the barbecue today.  I was driving west on University heading towards Semoran.  The rain on the road turned the road into a spread reflector, similar to that of a body of water.  The color of the light is yellow and is of a low color temperature compared to similar days without this type of weather.

Tornadoes and storefronts create unique colors in the sky.  These colors are good indicators of impending weather and are nice to look at.

Water Bottle Ocean Effect

Just for giggles I threw a half full water bottle onto the dashboard of my car to see what would happen.  As it rolled to a stop I focused on the bottle and the area right below it.  Since water sloshes, the sunlight that passed through it looked like the reflection of the ocean.  This is an example of water redirecting light by refraction.

This effect can be recreated on stage with sloshing water in front of a light, or maybe crinkled aluminum moving gently.  This type of effect is very unique to water and should be recognized by almost any person.

The Police Lights

Finally, I remembered to post about the police lights used these days.  Some police cars around school have blue, red, and white flashing lights on them.  When the lights are active during the day I can clearly see them in a line of sight.  They tend to flicker and the colors are extremely saturated.  However, at night the intensity of the lights stays the same making the brightness increase.  We talked about intensity versus brightness in class.

As a note, I think the apparent brightnesses should be similar for day and night on emergency and police vehicles.  This would make the effectiveness of the lights more equal from day to night.

Attic Sunlight

For this posting I looked in my attic access in my room.  When I poked my head into the opening I looked towards the street-side and saw the white glow from the overhang grates.  The light is coming from outside but shines upwards into the attic.  The grate has small holes in it but I cannot see spots of light on the inside of the overhang, just a glow.  The light is very white and is hard to discern color temperature inside the attic.

This light reminds me of what the inside of tree-houses in movies look like.  The glow is not enough to to illuminate the insulation sitting on the ceiling; I used my flashlight to look around.

Wireless Headset Light

I went to the drive-thru at Chick-fil-A recently.  At lunch time these guys take your order outside in the lanes.  They wear headsets that have LED lights on them.  These lights glow while communicating with the staff indoors.  The sunlight at lunchtime is very bright, yet those LEDs are still noticeable.

This is an example of brightness versus intensity.  The intensity of the LED never changes but its brightness is less at lunchtime in a parking-lot compared to what I imagine the LED looked like in the restaurant.

Sparks from an Angle Grinder

This is a photo of myself grinding a hinge off of an old road case.  You can see sparks resulting from the friction of the disk on metal.  This type of light source is very warm and is fire-like.  My right glove is reflecting a little bit of that light if you look close.  The oxidizing metal acts as a single source of light while at the same time being many small sources of light.

Recreating this effect on stage might be difficult unless pyrotechnics could be used with the assistance of electrical lighting.  This reminds me of the Rembrandt painting we looked at in class with regard to the apparent source of light.

Desk Candle Shadows

My candle on my desk makes shadows.  If you look in the picture you will see the shadows produced by the edges of the candle jar.  This flame color is a low color temperature and goes well with the tan painted walls in my room.  As the flame flickers the shadows dance up and down the wall very slightly.

This would be a great practice in lighting to try and reproduce the effect on my wall.

Closet Light

My grandmother has a bedroom in her house that has a closet with old metal doors on it.  There are slats on the doors and a light inside the closet.  When I leave the light on and shut the door a really cool effect is created.  Some of the light comes through the slats to the floor in the room.  This closet was built before you had to have globes over the 60 or 75 watt bulbs.

Since there little diffusion due to the absence of a globe, the beams are really crisp through the slats.  I am not sure how it would look if there was a globe on the light.  My guess is that the beams would be softer.

Swimming Pool Floodlight

At my house there is a floodlight aimed at our swimming pool.  Sometimes I turn it on at night when I go out there.  It shines into the pool and onto the cement around it.  The color produced is blue from the pool liner.  As I move towards and away from the edge of the pool the bottom appears be shallower than it really is.  I think this has something to do with the refraction we talked about in class.

The color makes me think about being thirteen years old or so.  I went to a pool at a resort then, and remember the color being very blue in the pool.

Signal Indicator Lights

One of my analog sound mixing consoles has green signal indicators on the channel strips.  They light when signal reaches -10dB on the channel.  They have an attitude in my opinion because they are timid when they meter synths.  The green is sharp and looks even sharper when my eye is directly over the LED.

These indicators are not very damped in their response and look warm to me.  When I put the edge of my finger over one of them I see a halo through my flesh.  This could make a really cool Halloween decoration if I had stronger LEDs.

Pickle Jar

The pickle jar on my desk has green juice inside it.  I shined my lamp light through the juice.  It is a cloudy green.  There is also a lot of yellow in the color as well.  I was thinking about my post tonight and made this one by holding the jar to the light.

I cannot tell if the color is warm or cool.  The 100 watt light behind it is definitely warm though, so it appears warm.  This pickle jar looks like a Dale Chihuly piece of artwork, and reminds me of his glass.

Fluorescent Office Light

This is a picture of an old fashioned overhead office light I took this morning.  Notice the grated reflectors that keep light moving in a generally downward direction.  The fluorescence is definitely harsh, but with the grated diffuser it becomes less harsh from the sides.

These type of fixtures remind me of elementary school.  We had these lights everywhere.  Memory is so strong when it comes to what we see and how it makes us feel.  I can bring myself right back to elementary looking at a row of these lights.

Lamp Next to Bed

When I moved into the house I am in now, the people I am renting from had a bedside light that I used.  My renter said it was a hooker light because of the shade on it.  Its shade is dark red with red beads dangling from the edge.  This gives it a nice warm look when the ten watt light is on.  The light is also extremely dim.  It is just bright enough to light the room at night when I for the toilet.

This light is warm and makes me feel sleepy.  It is a good transition from sleep to utility light in the middle of the night.

MS Office Installation CD

The install disk for MS Office we received when we first came to school has some cool reflections.  When my desk lamp shines on it the rim gives off a copper color in an iridescent way.  The use of light in this case is for two reasons.  One is to 

abate counterfeiting of the disks.  Two is that it looks real appealing to the eye.

The colors the disk gives off are definitely warm.  If I were to use these colors and their iridescent property I would be to make clothing that makes people really excited and ready to sing the song "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire.

Old iMac Internal Light

I have an iMac that has internal lights.  I discovered this at night when I saw the off computer glowing on my desk.  The light is shining through the grille of the internal speakers on the bottom of the computer screen.  The light appears cool white and the grille makes the light spotted on my desk.  The grille is a gobo!

My feelings towards the light are like this.  How can a little light be idling inside my computer when it is supposed to be turned off?  Cool light, I wish I had a camera that could capture it.  It is so dim I cannot see it unless I have been in the dark for a long time.

Motion Sensor on Front Door

Just before one in the morning on September 8 after my LCD lab I opened my front door in the dark.  As a I approached my house the door light came on.  I think it uses an asymmetric reflector.  When the light senses me the intensity ramps up over a split second, not instantly.  It is very white and on the warm side of color temperature.

I expect it now and I usually squint before I reach my front door.  It also reminds me of the Halloween time of year in Michigan.  This is because I have a memory of walking through my neighborhood asking for candy and seeing these type of lights working.

HP LaserJet 1018 Power

I have a small laser printer with a green power indicator and an amber activity indicator.  It is located on a shelf in my bedroom.  Sometimes I forget to turn it off at night and when I get up in the dark I see it shining like a flashlight on my ceiling.  During the day I cannot see it on the ceiling but at night it is very bright.

This light reminds me of my laptop indicators.  It is very green and very bright at night.  Also, it never flashes like the amber one.  If it ever does I will know something is very wrong with my printer.

Saturated Light at a Bar

Take a look at the floor below the patrons in this photo.  It takes on the light shining from under the bar.  This is a way for the bar to light the floor indirectly.  It especially works at night because during the day the brightness of these lights appears to be less.  This was taken in South Beach on September 5.

The light reminded me of being in an indoor bar, but this one was outside.  It was very impressive for an outside bar and made me feel excited while I was visiting my friends.

Greenhouse in Harry Potter Queue

I took some of my friends to the Islands of Adventure, Harry Potter attraction on September 6.  This is a photo taken while waiting in line for the ride.  The roof system for this area looks specifically designed to change the sunlight in a way to replicate part of the Harry Potter world.  It looks like the designers carefully chose a type of material that transmits warm colors.

It truly set the mood for the ride to come.  After this we entered the building, so this greenhouse area provided a great transition to the building we entered.  It made me feel comfortable and excited.

Korean War Veterans Memorial

This picture was taken in Washington D.C. in early July.  I took it in the monument area where the Korean War Veterans Memorial is.  This picture is of a smooth stone wall with etchings on it.  Also, the wall reflects the image of the twenty or so statues facing the wall.  This looks very intentional on the designer's part.

It was about eight in the morning.  The light made me feel happy and complimented the sincere nature of the memorial.

Styrofoam Cooler

My cheap styrofoam cooler that sits by my window has an interesting glow every morning.  It is a white cooler and since it is thin styrofoam the light passes easily.  One time I left a Dr. Pepper can inside it.  It the glow was darker than the other mornings.  When I got the journal assignment for LCD I put the can in and out of the cooler to see the darkening.

I definitely could not see the shape of the can inside the cooler.  However, the soda can does make a total difference on the amount of sunlight that passes.  It did not make me feel anything particular, just interested.

Sunrise on Highway

This is a picture I took this summer in Michigan on my way to Ohio.  I was on a highway in the morning.  Look at the road and how it reflects the light of the sun in a dispersed way.  The oil and wear spots shine even more on the road.  It is interesting how the road during the day does not appear to reflect colors well, but in the morning it reflects the orange color very well.

This was a chipper morning with almost no humidity.  The orange color complimented this and made me feel energized.

Dashboard Glowing Adjuster

My car is a Kia Soul.  It has an adjuster for the dashboard indicator intensities.  When the headlights are off, the glow is at maximum brightness so I can see the indicators in daylight.  When the headlights are on, the indicators dim a little.  There is an adjuster for how dim the indicators can get.  I notice these lights because I cannot make them any more dim.  This is distressing at night when there are no city lights on the highway; the indicators are always too bright.

I cannot tell what type of light lights these indicators.  They anger me because they are too bright.  The color palette is white, red and orange.  This makes it easy to read but it is hard to dim.

Bedsheet Curtain

When I moved into the house I am living in right now my bedroom did not have a window curtain.  I hung up an old bed-sheet; it is tan in color.  The walls in the bedroom are also similar to this tan color.  If I take a nap during the day I pull it down to cover the entire window.

You can see in the picture the light that passes through the sheet is tan in color.  This makes me feel comfortable during the day with its color.  Look at the wall around it and how it is painted beautifully.

Beads of Rain Water

While I was in my car in Orlando this year during the rain, I saw beads of water on my driver side window.  These beads look like little pictures of the scene behind them.  The scenes were mostly gray and looked similar to looking at yourself in a spoon.  When I stopped my car to get out into the rain is when I would notice them.

They made me feel tired because of the colors they had behind them: mostly grays.

Martini Glass and Glow Stick

This picture is of an orange or grapefruit martini with a high output emergency glow stick behind it.  I took it on a ship that I worked on in 2009.  The table is made with stones set into clear resin.  The source of light is the stick and it glows every direction.  This makes for a real cool effect with the glasses, and the table.  Looking closely you can see on the Corona bottle the reflection of the stick and the reflection of the martini stem reflecting the stick; that makes for two reflections on the Corona bottle.

This light makes me feel like I am having fun and ready to party.  The green color was very bright and interesting to play with.  Some people even put them into their mouths.