Week 8: The Trees that Dance

So I looked over the other blogs really quickly and thought it was kind of funny that water and ducks are already posted. BUT I still really wanted to talk about this photo I took during the last day of filming Allison & Jeremy because when I took it, I thought.. hmm... this will work for lighting somehow. And here it is! 

We were filming at this really nice park filled with trees and ducks, but it was this pond that made me stop. The sun was in just the right position to hit the leaves in the trees, cast shadows, and bring light to the pond to cause reflections. And then the ducks disrupting those reflections. It's a photo with much to look at. But my favorite part is actually how well you can actually see the distance in this photo- the depth from the bottom of the picture to the top. Most of the reason I think this is possible is because of the angle of the light (and my camera). We see the trees and their reflections straight on because they are well lit, but then their shadows are at an angle because of the direction of the light. 

In this photo, the trees almost remind me of dancers, being lit from one side to show the form. The shadows have so much movement in them, which also adds to the effect of the trees "dancing."We touched on the fact that light can create another creature on stage by casting shadows in our last class, and I think this photo speaks to that. Reflection also serves as another form that's being lit in this photo, which is kind of fun even though I know this wouldn't work realistically on a stage. 

One last think I'd like to mention is how my eye keeps getting drawn to the tree with the squiggle trunk. That tree is lit so that half of it is in light and the other half in shadow. This tree resembles the movement of a dancer in quite freaky ways- and also shows how lighting from one angle can make something thats far away still eye catching. 

Ah... Nature. 

-Erika