EPKPhoto's Tidbits

I just arrived at Dulles airport outside of DC for a day trip to northern VA. While in the air over the late evening ground below, I was reminded how inefficiently we use light outdoors. A great deal of the illumination from parking lots, roads, houses, and businesses is partially directed upwards, never to serve its purpose of lighting up the ground. The waste is clearly seen with all the specular lights giving a show for jetsetters. The occasional parking lot or road does it right: the ground is visibly illuminated, but the source of the light is not visible from above. It seems to me that we could save a lot of energy by better directing all of a lamp's output downwards. Simple reflectors on top of lamps would handle this effectively. This would not only allow for lower output lamps, but less light pollution, fewer negative effects on wildlife, and much better stargazing! So, could someone get on this, please?

Thus ends an era…I just got out of what is likely my last class at RIT. It has been a great run, and so many cool things lie ahead. Here's to hoping for a fulfilling career and long life ahead!

On Tuesday, February 3rd, I led a session on how to "Take Great Product Photos" in the Idea Factory at RIT.  The workshop was part of an Innovation Session — a series of sessions and workshops organized by one of my classes, Social Networks in Action.  The session went pretty well, and I got to meet several interesting entrepreneurs from the Rochester community.  My advice to the attendees mainly focused on composition and lighting techniques to easily improve their product photos.  Check out some photos and comments about the event on our class blog!