Delight in light both dim and bright

The HDR (high dynamic range) camera setting records brightest and darkest parts of the window-lit hallway holiday scene.

While most articles in this blog use a visual subject as a springboard to possible insights about thinking and imaginative powers more generally, this time it is light all by itself that is the main subject. When a potential composition catches the photographer’s eye, it may be primarily the prominent geometry (below), the interplay of colors and surfaces, the decisive moment in which an instant of intersecting forms produces some visual tension or release, or simply the kind and amount and pattern of light itself, like the above example.

Zig-zag bridge at the Japanese Garden pond in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park (4 Dec. 2022).

The basic principle of illumination is a marvel, a source of wonder, an overlooked miracle: what the photons touch and one’s eyeballs receive is presence and defined focus and visible meaning. But what is partly or wholly absent of light correspondingly does not define anything identifiable or make visible anything knowable.

The top picture differs from many others by merging three exposures into a single finished photo so that dark areas are well exposed, but so are the brightest parts. While a single picture would do disservice to the lowest light or highest light areas, this HDR setting allows a wider range of light values to be recorded well. As an aside, maybe a similar merging of multiple interpretations in one’s thinking also results in a wider range of values to understand, compared to a single view. The following picture is also set to HDR exposure.

Early December light of late afternoon shines on this pile of books while the foreground is draped in shadow. (1 Dec. 2022).

In summary, the subject of light is something worthy of awe all by itself, never mind the things that the photons fall upon. The light waves in all their particles are both functional ways to get about one’s daily life, but also they present scenes of visual delight for no other purpose than to witness and marvel at. Perhaps there is similar worth in pausing to acknowledge the wonder of plain and simple consciousness. Just as light is a thing of amazement, so too is thought a thing hard to explain or create. Both in its presence and in its absence it makes itself known. Turning to the word roots for Photography (Writing + Light), it is easy to see than whatever else a photograph may express, it does so only with the aid of light – either as essential element or as a subject to ponder all by itself, regardless of what else may appear in the frame.