Week 8: Mountains and Trees

I took this picture with my iPhone from the Watson Bridge in front of UCI last week. I wondered what it was about snow covered mountains with green trees in the foreground that is so beautiful. Landscape paintings commonly feature these two elements (think Bob Ross), and people visit the Sierras in droves to witness in person.  Images such as these are so commonplace, they almost become generic. The sight can be wonderful, even awe-inspiring for me and others, but oftentimes mundane.

The snow reflects all, or almost all, visible wavelengths of light, whereas the trees absorb quite a lot. Indeed, that absorption is what helps trees live. Juxtaposed reflective vs. absorptive surfaces (light vs. dark) are striking to our eyes. Another interesting contrast is how the trees draw the eye to the vertical plane with the trees, and mountains to the horizontal.  The blue sky, between the green and white in hue, and suggesting both planes at once brings it all together, giving context and  smoothing out the picture.

A trees GOBO could be used to produce a similar scene on a backdrop painted with mountains, but what would be the point? If the mountains don't change from the audience's perspective, neither would the trees.  Best to just paint the trees on. Actually, I could see how such a backdrop painted to look like my photo above could be frustrating to light. The shadows on the mountains and trees would never change, even when the lighting angles would.  The sky is blue. What about when it's night? Twilight? A blank Cyc, with perhaps free-standing mountains and trees cut-outs just downstage (not painted in detail) would give more options.