Week 8: Obsession | Still figuring out color

So, I have always had an obsession for fall. In particular fallen leaves. As I began to think about why, I feel I have always been fond of the colors during this time of year, as well as the sense of renewal that comes with the trees shedding their leaves. This made me begin to think about how I am still a bit confused about certain concepts of light and how our eye perceives color, so I decided to utilize this blog to "obsess" a bit more to see if I could articulate my understanding of color in relation to light thus far.

With my slowly growing understanding of light and color, I am enjoying the way it makes me perceive how I see color in relation to light. At this point, what I am particularly drawn to is the concept that color that is being seen is actually what is being reflected back to the eye. It is very trippy for me to conceive that what I am seeing perhaps is not exactly what I am seeing. Woah paradigm shift.

Within this photo, I am particularly drawn to the middle section where the leaves layer over the green grass. As Lonnie proves time and time again within class, it makes complete sense because of the eyes' natural tendency to desire both warms and cools. As I begin to look closer at the points on certain leaves where there is "white light," I think about the angle in which the light is hitting the leaves in relation to my eye's point of view. This light is perceived as "white" because all colors are being absorbed into the leaf, and due to the angle at which I am viewing the leaf, my eye is perceiving the light to be "white." Comparing where the leaves layer over the grass to where the leaves layer over the cement, my eye is less drawn to the area of cement because there is less of a contrast between the cement color and the leaf colors. With the cement having warmer tones in it than the grass, there is less contrast between the warm color leaves and the warm tones in the cement, and therefore my eye is drawn towards the grass area due to the balance of warms and cools. Of course one could mention that the leaves layering over the grass is more central to the photo which also could contribute to where the eye is drawn, but since this is not a photography class, I will stay focused on the idea of color in relation to light.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving (though we could definitely get very political with this), I am grateful for these weekly blogs and their ability to connect daily life with concepts we discuss in class. Being able to "zoom out" and find connections between personal experiences and learned information has been a transformative aspect of my graduate experience thus far and lighting class has been an integral part of that experience. So thank you! Learning is so wonderful :)