Parking Lot Views



Looking up...

It's not every day that this "techy" generation looks up from their phones and notices some amazing natural phenomenon like a bird gliding through the sky effortlessly, or a rainbow, or the sun coming through the clouds in angelic rays. For this lighting blog, I was going to post a picture of my sister's face being illuminated by her phone, but I realized that that idea is not going to inspire the message that I want. Its so typical to see other's and our own faces being lit up by the LED display of our various devices. I thought to myself, I want to post a picture that will, instead of praising brightened visages as things of beauty and inspiration, make people want to notice more things outside and beyond their screens.

 

This image was taken as I walked to my car after class around 5:30. The sun was not all the way down yet, but these gas lights in the parking lot were pre programmed to go on at their specific time. The thing that captured my attention was the quality of the light given off and how, when paired with the tree and its leaves, made quite an interesting sight.

 

To me, this "street light" glow gives an effect of mysteriousness and adventure. In all those cliché detective cartoons, the sly spy is always waiting under a street lamp for the detective, ready to either pass him a note with information or ambush him and kidnap him. In other ways, street light can be adventurous, because whenever I go out with friends, and we're out till past the sun goes down, we plan our shenanigans walking down the street, going in and out from the big pools of light from the street lamps. Another aspect of this picture that is interesting to me is the color and intensity of the light. It's a bright yellow- amber, but very orange around the edges, and it actually changes the color of the tree! Despite how close the leaves are to the lamp, it creates a barrier from the light, in turn making the tree look two- toned. All in all, there is so much to be seen when we disconnect from the every- bright displays of our phones, and focus on what has been around us all along.