Week 2: Approaching the Island...

While on a ferry trip ride over to Balboa Island, I managed to capture this snapshot of the approaching island and its fantastic reflection on the ocean below. The lights on the buildings created a diffused look through the ripples of the water, producing a brush stroke effect. This photo is very much like a painting in which the artist has used small brush strokes to accentuate the reflection of the solid buildings in the water. It goes back to our discussion in class about translating “light” as brush strokes. What also intrigued me about this photo was the fact that a big portion of this picture is in darkness thus drawing the eye to the main source of light in the photo. In my eyes this comes across as very theatrical considering that in many productions we start with an unlit stage, a clean slate if you will, where once lighting comes to play we can light key features on stage, bringing attention to the beauty of the scenery or the performance. Yet using the element of darkness is very powerful in sense that it creates a strong contrast between what is lit and what is not. The lighting in this picture is serene as the reflection of light in the water softly blends within each color of light and diffuses out into the dark ocean water.