Blog - Page 9 of 22 - Light Can Help You

THINK LIGHT: Field of (viewing) Dreams

A diagram of a human's field of view, both peripheral and macular

My THINK LIGHT series is my outlet for being a lighting geek. Perhaps I should rephrase that – this is my outlet for being a lighting pseudo-geek. I do love the science, geometry, biology, psychology, and technology of light, but I am no scientist, biologist, psychologist, or technologist. There is a limit to how geeky […]

1THING: New Build Front Porches

three doors demonstrating three styles of porchlights. The first is a standard light, described as "Glare, Slip, & Waste." The second is a lantern with light shooting out the top and bottom, described as "Safe & Waste." The third is a modified version of the first with most of the light directed downwards to the path. This is described as "Glow, Safe, & Wonder."

I go on a nightly neighborhood lighting patrol. Sort of. When our family divvied up the dog duties, I drew the just-before-bed nightly walk. Albus, our 9-year-old cockapoo, gamely trots around the block while I curse the neighborhood porchlights. Okay, I do not curse the porchlights. But I do wonder how my neighbors would react […]

1THING: Plug In Dining Rooms

Today we are going boldly into the great unknown, the vast universe beyond the dining room. Ahem. Sometimes I get a little carried away. Okay, often I get a little carried away. Especially when it comes to coming up with creative ways to talk about light and lighting. So please forgive me when I wax poetic – […]

THINK LIGHT: Has anyone seen my light meter?

An illustration of the head of a white man with brown hair. One of his eyes is replaced by a reader from a light reader, a cord connects to the meter. Script below the head reads "the lighting cyborg"

This post might make some of my lighting colleagues a little angry, because I’m going to claim that light meters are nearly useless tools. I’m going to claim that the numbers we produce, the foot-candle levels or lux we calculate and measure, the math behind lighting design is all rather pointless. (And before you write […]

1THING: New Build Dining Rooms

An illustration of two figures with their arms around each others' shoulders. They are encompassed by a bright yellow circle behind them. Below them, script text reads "get comfortable with a lighting hug."

This post brings dining rooms into my 1THING: New Build series, but you’ll have to skip ahead or slog through some early morning musings to get there. Sorry. Blogging is a bit of weird phenomenon. Here I sit, week after week, writing about lighting with no deadlines, no paycheck, and no guarantee that what I write will […]

GEAR TALK: Low Voltage Lighting

An illustration of an astronaut in a flying saucer with a glass dome. The top speech bubble reads "We come from the FUTURE..." and the bottom bubble reads "to bring you LOW VOLTAGE lighting." The words FUTURE and LOW VOLTAGE are bold and red. The astronaut looks very friendly.

My Gear Talk series is an excuse to geek out a bit while attempting to simplify some of the complex conversations we have about lighting. It is less about the theory, science, and application and more about the tools. And one of those tools has almost nothing to do with the photons themselves: voltage. We live in […]

1THING: Plug In Bedroom Lighting

A silhouetted figure reading on a bed in a bedroom. There is a ceiling fan on the ceiling and a table across the room on the other side of the image. The ceiling fan has a light. A big, bright arrow points from the light to the face of the figure. White text near the light reads "this light can hurt you" and points with a thin, white arrow to the ceiling fan light. Script text below the image reads "How to make a bedroom more comfortable..."

When it comes to plug-in lighting upgrades in the bedroom, the bedside table lamp is a runaway favorite. Both useful and ubiquitous, this staple of decorative lighting needs no introduction. And devoting an entire blog post to them might be considered a waste of time. That means I will probably write about bedside lamps someday, […]

THINK LIGHT: I wanna new (light) drug.

Illustrated diagram with two rows. Row one: medicine bottle green arrow to mouth green arrow to brain green arrow to silhouette figure thinking "I feel better!" Row two: light bulb green arrow to eye green arrow to brain green arrow to silhouette figure thinking "I feel better." Script at the bottom of the graphic states "light is a drug."

After more than twenty years in the lighting profession it is tempting to think I know it all. The truth, of course, is that I possess but a tiny fraction of the collected knowledge of light- and our body of understanding is growing much faster than I can learn. Let me give you an example. […]

1THING: New Build Bedrooms

An illustrated depiction of a bedroom featuring a bed fit for two, two lamps on either side, and a ceiling fan. Script text at the bottom reads "Lamps are great...but usually not enough."

I am having fun with both 1THING series, and this week’s post on bedrooms is no exception. I am pretty good at overcomplicating things, so the mental gymnastics of forcing myself to make a single choice is proving to be good exercise. Plus, I think I might quit my job so I can just sketch and doodle […]

What is Lighting Design?

On the left, there is a light switch connected to two light fixtures by a wire. All three items have a red tag with a white $ indicating that this is an affordable setup. On the right, there is the same setup with slight variations on details, making the items more elegant. The red tags on these show two and three $ indicating that it is more expensive. Below the left section, text reads in quotation marks "regular lighting." The text below the right section reads in quotation marks "lighting design."

“What do you do for a living?” inquired my seat mate on a recent flight. “I am a lighting designer,” I replied. [BLANK STARE] Explaining my job is, well, difficult at best. If people have any awareness of lighting design, it likely falls into the sentiments displayed in the image above. Our lighting plans, so […]

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