Traditional lights on the South Bank in London with smoky glass blocking light upwards without spoiling the effect of the light |
Candle-light in a summer garden |
Looking on the ‘bright’ side now….
Lit paving in London |
Landscape lighting can be very cheering.
There is also a point where landscape light can cause problems, particularly if the wrong kind of lighting is selected. Modern lighting is thankfully very often designed to light the places where the light is desired and to avoid the places where a sense of darkness at night to aid restful sleep or encourage astronomy is key. There is still a long way to go, but there has been a remarkable improvement in creative thought in the past few years. Blocking or inhibiting light up to the sky unless where building frontages are to be lit can be achieved in simple ways.
Some lighting is for security purposes and aids restful sleep through reduction of worry.
Mural of the Northern Lights on Norwegian building |
In the last few weeks Scotland has had the unusual chance to enjoy some of the Aurora borealis – the Northern Lights. One year it was possible to see them in Sussex, when it looked like vast search lights in the sky. In Scandinavia people go skiing in Spitzbergen which doesn’t really get light as we understand it in the winter, in the same way that it doesn’t get dark during the summer. They ski lit by the Northern Lights, which must be an incredible experience. One comment I heard about the Scottish experience was a bit of reverse poetry. Apparently what this person was able to see and experience was lights chasing into the sky of a subtle form in mixtures of pink and orange – “a bit like looking across the lights of London, I suppose”….. This was a view across the Highlands in a section where very few people live and any lights are usually twinkling headlights from cars.
Capturing sunset in New Mexico |
Some lights have cheer added to THEM |