Illuminating

It’s one thing to utilize light to your advantage while taking photographs.  It’s quite another to attempt to photograph the light itself so it shows itself to its best advantage.  I’ve attempted the second, here.

I sometimes get comments about the soft and/or golden lighting effects in certain photos.  (Here and here, for example.)  It’s not a filter or a post-edit process or a camera trick.  It’s simply the result of using this particular lamp to indirectly light my photo space.

I have a vintage 1950s pole tension lamp next to my bed.  It came from the house my parents moved into when I was in college.  Their house was built in 1951 and the lamp was original to the home.

Besides the sunlight that comes in the window (which doesn’t so much create a golden glow as accent the naturally-occurring golds {and silvers} – particularly in my hair), this lamp is the only wired lighting I have in my bedroom.  If I position myself so the light is behind me, I can take photos just about any time during the day (though late afternoon is typically best) and the resulting composition{s} have a naturally soft-glow edge to them.

I have been known to complain (facetiously) to my spouse that I “don’t feel like a grown-up” because there are certain ‘normal’ boudoir-esque ‘adult’ things I lack:  a dresser and nightstand that match my bed, proper curtains on my bedroom window, an overhead light in my sleeping space, etc.

But despite the overall lack-of-grown-up-ness in the bedchamber decor, the bedroom lighting has allowed for some golden grown-up photo opportunities.  So while I may make a faux foot-stomping fuss, it’s nothing serious.  You’ll never hear me truly lamenting the available luminescence.

I’ve found it to be quite illuminating.  😉