Space and Light

Our holiday yurt provided an ideal setting for the exercise on space and light. I was excited to use the yurt for this project as photographs I had viewed on the website showed a distinct circle of light on the floor to the right of the main bed. I was a little disappointed to see that the growing leafy trees above and a build up of dirt on the hard to reach roof window had filtered the light over the years, leading to a much more subtle effect.

Despite the filtering, this morning shot does show an area of pronounced light, just to the right of my friend, bathing her in its glow. The shadow under the bedside table emphasises the direction of the light. In this image, I used the darkened areas in front of my husband and the table to lead the eye in and emphasise the area of light in the centre.

Later in the day, the shadow of the bedside table shows the same directional light but that strong morning glow has gone, leaving much flatter light in this area of the room. The rest of the yurt however shows much stronger, more defined shadows as the midday sun floods in. I changed my perspective slightly as I felt that the strong, defined shadow under the table should be part of the main focus in this image

As the day draws in, the yurt lighting is at its finest as the evening sun filters through the trees and creates a stunning, orange glow on the side walls. The roof window still gives a definite, yet softer edged shadow beneath the table, however the strong glow on the walls has diminished the shadow under the bedside table. My perspective has changed yet again to make the glowing wall the subject in this image.

Sitting outside the yurt one morning, I noticed that the sun kept disappearing behind the clouds, creating very different lighting effects where my husband had been reading with his morning coffee. In the first image, the light is very flat, giving little interest to the image. The second image has much more contrast; it is purely down to luck that the main patches of light have landed on the table, and behind the yurt in the distance, the two main subjects of the image. As a result of the stronger light, the colours in the greenery, mug and book are much more vibrant; warmer tones are also more evident in the wooden table. Aside from physical aesthetics, the dappled sunlight brings a feeling of warmth associated with summer holidays. If these images were designed to advertise holidays, most people would definitely opt for the one on the right.