Week 9: Night Light

As I was driving around town this evening, I was on the lookout for photo opportunities that would be appropriate for our weekly blog.   I started to notice the different outdoor lighting fixtures that were placed along roadsides, and how they illuminated the immediate area.  There were definitely similarities to some of the brushstrokes we've been looking at in class.  With all it's spill, the unfocused quality of the light reminded me of pars, and the amount of spill we see with pars was definitely similar to the quality of light in these sources.

I enjoyed the unobscured sources of light - rather different from what we do onstage, where the goal is usually to hide the actual source of light.  This reminded me of concert lighting, where things are rougher and more exposed, generally going along with the feel of the music.

I also started to think about how to create a similar look onstage:  where there are lots of small light sources in the distance, keeping the surrounding darkness at bay.  One idea would be to create some sort of toy-theatre set-up, where you could possibly use Christmas tree lights or small battery-operated fake candles, and allow their small pools of light to be surrounded by darkness.  And perhaps incorporate traditional tonals into the composition to give a more lush, rich feel to the darkness.