Reflecting on Light...

1) It's an interesting pattern, it stands out from it's white background...it's not quite yellow, definitely not gold, but I can still see it against the white it shimmers on...square-like patterns...tesselations it would seem, and they don't change, despite the ripples in the water. It doesn't help to differentiate in depth perception, but it definitely looks bigger up close when under water. The only other colors are the light blue in the dark shadows of the poo. It's an interesting set-up; all the light directly from the sun illuminating everything on the pool deck, the only shadows in the area above the water being underneath the patio chairs..the shadows within the pool hiding the angle of the sun being the darkest area around, allowing for the blending of the blue and the white of the pools colors. Water is an interesting element for light to travel through, and the only thing I've seen that makes the patterns that it does....

2) I lay in my bed, and the room is fairly dark. It's night out, but even during the day there would be little daylight seeping in through the slits of my windows due to the blackout curtains installed. I enjoy the dark...there is a certain mystique to it. But as I sit there, staring at the wall, I can see different colors reflecting off the white wall... some brighter than others. I know the tv is still on, and it dimly illuminates the opposite wall, while still creating harsh shadows from my flung open closet doors and hard edged furniter surrounding it. There are a few other sources as well that supply less than the television...my alarm clock on the dim setting displays the time in low-lit yellow-green numbers... the power button on my Wii is a very tiny yellow...unless someone sends me a message, where a bright blue light brings out the whole room into a flickering glow...the blending colors of the lights distinguish enough of the room for me to read and catch sight of things around the room, but the room remains fairly dark, just how I like it...

B&W Pictures

These are some photos I particularly like....

Finding Sounds

So working in our group to locate sounds was an interesting task...we met up in the library and just decided to explore a bit to see what kinds of sounds we could get. I mean, thinking about it, the library has it's pros and cons. Cons: we're not going to hit too many sounds on their own because a library is a place of quiet...but at the same time, it gave us a good location to make a lot of the sounds so we could get a fairly clear recording, and there were plenty of options and materials to choose from...but after a while, our minds were stretched from coming up with sounds...it probably had to do with the lack of time we had to get everything done...we were in a hurry...but we decided to take a drive to the pool at Trask and get sounds on the way...we thought it sounded awesome before listening to it through the camera...listening to the swim team and the divers just kicking and their strokes cutting through the water was surprisingly pleasent to the ear...we had a good time getting in the sounds...you could probably tell the by the goofing off we did for some of the sounds...i.e. me "singing" in the shower...it was bad on purpose, I swear!!! Just trying to make it funny and all....and in terms of logging and capturing...well, it doesn't seem too difficult...we've yet to capture the actual sounds since the room or the group members hasven't been available...basically meaning I've been out of town and the only time I could go there were classes in there, but whatever...it'll be done this week no problem...so all in all, SOUND IS INTERESTING...that is all...

Assignment: Sounds

Hmmm...so many sounds I heard this weekend...some pretty interesting ones...some annoying ones...and some that literally made me think I was about to die...but who wants to hear about that?

Well I guess I'll get started...so you know how I like tennis, right? Do you ever watch tennis on TV? Some matches can be pretty boring, sure...but some get really entertaining and lively...you almost feel like you're there, because you are immersed in the match. Does that ever happen to you? No? Oh well...for people like me it does, and not just because I'm watching an excellent match, but because I can hear everything that's going on...the grunts of the players, the curses slipping through under their breath, the squeaks of their brand new shoes twisting on the hard courts, and the bounce of the ball off the ground and the strings....but how can we hear those things so well? Hmmm....I think I might have that answer....










See all those mics? So that's how they capture all that sound for tv...they even have a guy sitting in the middle aiming a shotgun mic back and forth during the points...it's kind of ridiculous...but at the same time, it helps. The sound of a tennis ball is a unique thing...I can't really think of too many other sounds as unique as it in sports. Basketball and soccer balls, when bounce, come off more as a thud. Their noises are bigger as well, and for some reason feel like they echo, if only because they are bigger...I really don't know. But the sound of a tennis ball changes...it's different when it bounces on the court versus the strings...and even between a hard court and a soft court...very unique sound, just like the opening of a can of tennis balls...but any tennis player would recognize it.....and on such a large stage as the courts at the U.S. Open, the sounds are really overwhelming when you stop to think about them...


So what other sounds did I experience this weekend? Well, since I'm on the topic of the U.S. Open...how about the crowds? Or just masses of people in general...the low rumblings to the all out cheers, the silence on the subways versus the crashing of noises on a walk through NYC? There were so many different variations I heard over the weekend of large groups of people, in all different circumstances. Yays and boos in an overcrowded stadium. Silence and yelling in the confines of the Long Island Railroad cars...the talking on cellphones versus the incessant advertising of shows and plays and comedy acts as I strolled through the streets of Manhattan...the human voice is really something interesting...though I have trouble hearing anyways, the distinction between words are lost to me as they all seem to mesh together, I know I couldn't of heard my friends speaking anyways due to all that was going on around us...we were all repeating ourselves to be heard over the loud roar of the cities' streets...the gasps from worried onlookers as firetrucks and ambulances raced down Broadway...well, now it's starting to make sense why we couldn't hear one another...but there's nothing quite like a large group of people doing, or for this matter cheering, in unison....









And how about something from some pretty pictures? The sound of water...fountains in this instance. They sounded like any other normal fountain I suppose...but not the kind that just trickle down a statue...and they don't sound like a water fountain that you drink out of...nor water from the tap of your sink...or an ocean wave...hey, I guess different types of water areas do have their own unique sounds, don't they? God knows what I would've given to have just normal tap water served up there...I'll tell you what the other kind of water sounds like...the kind they sell in a bottle...sounds a little like "cha-ching"....but anyways, back to the original thought process...these fountains were pretty big...obviously, from the pictures you can see that...and you could hear them from quite far away...or maybe that was just the other fountain right under us. Anyways, they would have the typical gushing sound of air being pushed up to propel these light bits of water, followed by a slow trickle at first of droplets of water that didn't quite make it all the way up and were caught in the wind to fall back town to the pond of water, splashing as they land, soon followed by the louder and larger amounts that come crashing down ever gracefully in their synchronized manner....oh well, enjoy the pictures...and just be glad I didn't write about the deathly sounds of trains and planes and mass transit in general...










See, I really was there!!!