The Light Itself by photosynthesis
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Description
The 1,000 watt bulb from the Cape Blanco lighthouse, seen through the concentric rings of the Fresnel lens that surrounds it. The second bulb is a spare for when the first one goes out. I was (& still am) curious about why it isn't blinding to look at such a powerful bulb (one that can be seen for great distances at sea) from right up close like this. The volunteer guide was brand new - it was actually his first day - & he wasn't sure. He thought it might have to do with the focal length or thickness of the lens. I suspect Tara, Bill or someone else here can probably enlighten me (excuse the pun) with an explanation...
Comments (14)
paul_gormley
so that's where the bulb is! nice reflections and framing
UVDan
When the guide isn't looking paste a bat signal over the lens.
giulband
very cool nice idea
ronmolina
Superb capture!
whaleman
I believe the reason is that the Fresnel lens is extremely directional so when you are close you are seeing only a small part of the bulb output, and you likely didn't have to stop down too far either. I think if you were about 20 feet away it would seem much brighter. I have an oil lantern with a Fresnel lens on it (it is an anchor lamp) and it is surprisingly bright 300 feet away from just a small wick flame. Nice shot!
jayfar
A great shot.
auntietk
I love shedding light. :) The light is so bright when you're out to sea because the light from the bulb is refracted and enhanced by the Fresnel lens. That's why all the angles and prisms and whatnot. The purpose of the lens is to magnify the light, and it does a really good job. That's the easy part. As to why you can stare right at the bulb ... maybe because it's outdoors? I never looked directly at the light bulb. It seemed pretty bright to me, so I didn't try. Bill says he looked straight at it, and he has a picture in his files that is almost identical to yours. We can't come up with any better answer, so my guess is that the difference between the ambient light on a bright sunny day and the brightness of the light bulb isn't great enough that the light bulb hurts your eyes. We must have been there on the same day, because I remember the woman downstairs said it was their first day. :) The time stamps on my pictures tells me we were there from 12:50 to 1:30 on the 5th. I love the reflection of the trees and the ocean in the top half of the lens. VERY cool!
photosynthesis
I checked my timestamps & they say we were there from 12:54 to 2:47 (including hiking down to the beach). I was puzzled by how we could have missed each other, but then I checked the current time on my camera & it's an hour slow - I assume because of daylight savings time. So we actually got there at 1:54 & we missed each other by less than a half hour!
prutzworks
cool shot and thankswhaleman and auntietk for interesting info
bmac62
Really like the clarity of your photo. As mentioned above, I took the same photo that day. Wouldn't the old light house keepers be jealous...a brilliant light that can be seen 20 or more miles at sea but does not produce soot. The miracle of electricity...
Faemike55
Very cool capture
MrsRatbag
Fantastic capture, and great collective information!
pimanjc
excellent perspective.
jgeorge
A fashinating capture!
danapommet
A great photo into the actual lens light. To bad that you didn't know that Bill and Tara were going to be there on the same day! So cool!!!!