Project 365 - Day 90 - Stones

At Coronation park in Oakville, there is a "beach" of sorts off of Lake Ontario.  This beach has some sand, but it is mostly flat stones that have been worn smooth by the waves in the lake over time.  It is kind of hard to walk along this beach, so there are not a lot of people that do this - but what a great place for skipping stones!

I didn't have an assistant today to do the skipping for me while I took the shot, and also the lake was pretty rough.  But I have a great idea now for a shot.  Next time ...

The sky was grey today casting flat light over everything.  On overcast days you can see a lot of colour in the flowers and trees, but when spring has just barely sprung there is not a lot of colour to be seen - and alas I could not locate the elusive Cardinal.

So I pointed my lens down to the stones that make up the beach.

This shot is f/9.0 at 1/1600s.  ISO is 400.  24-70mm lens at 70mm.

Project 365 - Day 89 - Home Opener

Today was the home opener for TorontoFC.  It was an early game and we were really busy all day long.  I did, however, manage to get one shot off.

This is taken using my wife's Galaxy S3 phone.  It has a pretty good camera in it.  It's a reasonably good picture... :-)

I brought it into  Lightroom and cropped a bit, also changed the exposure as we were mostly blown out.  I also warmed it up a bit to correct skin tones. 

Project 365 - Day 88 - Easter Egg

Today's shot is a closeup of a coloured easter egg.  This egg was dipped in a purple-blue mixture for about 3 minutes.  Then I put my macro lens on my camera and took a close up picture.

1/400s shutter, f/4.5 and ISO800.  60mm Macro lens.

Project 365 - Day 87 - Raspberries

Picked up some fresh raspberries for Sonia for a recipe she is making this weekend.  They look awesome, so of course I had to shoot them before she started baking with them.

Disclaimer - no raspberries were hurt in the creation of this shot:

 

60mm macro with extension tubes.   1/160th of a second shutter at f/3.5  ISO is 200.  I have it on a tripod.

At first I thought it was grainy.  Then I zoomed in on the pic and realized that the "grain" is actually hair on the fruit itself.  I never knew that raspberries were so hairy ... :-)

 

Project 365 - Day 86 - Spring is coming!

When you think of spring, what do you think of?  Mr Robin looking for worms?  How about the tulips and daffodils poking their heads through the not-yet-completely-thawed ground? 

Did anyone say Golf?

Well, that's what today's shot is.  It is inspired by the most frustrating activity ever created by man.  I use the word activity because golf is not a game - games are fun.  It's also not a sport - but athletes can play golf.  But that's getting off topic.

This shot was not taken outside.  It was taken inside in my "studio" with low light and a flash off to the left with a snoot on it to direct the light into a tight circle.  I put the golf tee in a clamp and put the ball on the tee.   As an aside, this was the first time I had to actually search for a golf tee - if you ask Sonia, they are usually all over the house.  :-)

f/2.8 and ISO200.  Shutter was 1/400sec  Nikon 24-70mm lens at 50mm.

Project 365 - Day 85 - Bronte Harbour at night

On the way home from the Leaf game (buds beat the Panthers 3-2 btw), I noticed how clear the sky was and how calm the wind was.  Perfect recipe for a moon reflection shot - especially since the moon is full tonight. 

So when I got home I grabbed my camera and headed out.  There were police at my usual spot - as Coronation park is closed past 9pm and there were a couple of  "parked" cars there.  So I headed down to Bronte Harbour.

I couldn't get a good shot of the moon over the water here, but I did get the empty docks with the lighthouse in the background.  Not what I was going for, but it'll do.

Now I will have to wait until the next full moon cycle and hope to get a calm clear night.  I do have all year after all ....

Here's today's shot.

Cropped in post, but mostly out of camera this way.  I adjusted the contrast to darken the sky.  20 sec shutter at f/16.  ISO is 800.  Nikon 24-70mm at 24mm.

Project 365 - Day 84 - Moon and clouds

Driving home from the club tonight and I noticed it's a full moon.  I need a full moon shot, but the sky was just not co-operating.  When I got home, I was putting out the garbage and I saw that the clouds were going by pretty fast, creating some really eerie views of the moon.  So I ran inside, said Hi to Sonia, and grabbed my camera.

This is today's shot.

I used a tripod for this one.  1/3 of a sec on shutter, f/2.8 and ISO is 800.  It's my 24-70 lens out to 70 mm.  Cropped in post as well.

Project 365 - Day 83 - Reptilla with OCC

Today, I went to Reptillia with the Oakville Camera Club.  Reptillia is a zoo where they have different kinds of, well, reptillia.  It's located in Vaughn and is a great place for birthday parties and other functions.  We had ~ 20 people there today, and there were 3 rooms that we were spread across and rotated through.  There were a lot of subjects to photograph.

This shot is of a Red Eyed Tree Frog.  This little guy was a great model, he would hold his pose forever and would move ever so slightly to allow everyone to get a good shot. 

I had a lot of fun today, it was great to learn about all the different animals and get some great shots as well.

Click here to learn more about the Red Eyed Frog

Click here to visit the Reptilia web page

Project 365 - Day 82 - Has spring finally sprung?

This week there was a story on 680 news about Punxsutawney Phil.  It appears that a lawyer is suing Phil for being a "dirty liar".  I wonder who bribed Phil and his cousins to predict an early spring.  You can read the story here.

So this got me thinking about spring.  I remember last year the temp was in the 20s at this very time.  But not so much this year, it's cold and winter seems to be dragging on and on and on.

Today was a beautiful sunny day, and it was at least 5 deg C out there.  So I went on a mission to find a tree that had the same opinion as me - Spring is on almost here...

 

Project 365 - Day 81 - Curves

Those of you who have been reading the blog might know that my fridge died on me a couple of weeks ago.  Well tomorrow is the big day, we get a new fridge!  YAY!  And this fridge has a water filter and ice maker in it.  So it comes down to me to install the copper line to the fridge so we can hook it up after our new appliance is here.

When I bought the tube and brought it home I noticed the curves in the copper. So the photog in me thought that this would be a great shot. 

Yes, it appears I have a sickness...

 

This is straight out of camera.  No crop, no playing with levels.  I did adjust the levels but put it back to original and liked it much better.

60mm macro at f/36.  ISO800 (mostly because I forgot to change it) and 4 sec shutter.

I have a flash on the table to the left of the shot pointed right at the tubing.  

Project 365 - Day 80 - Open Mic Night

Tonight Sonia and I went to an open mic night at Whole Foods in Mississauga.  Some friends of ours had their three kids singing in the show.  They are very talented kids, and there is a lot of talent at these things. 

I got there kind of late, I actually missed all three kids.  I was planning to get shots of them singing and post one of them tonight - with the parents' permission of course.

So when I got home, I was still inspired by the night.   This shot is of a microphone with something blurred out in the background.  Can you tell what it is?

24-70mm lens at 48mm.  f/7.1 and 1/30 sec shutter.  ISO is 800.  This was hand held.  There is a light right above the mic, and another softer one aimed at the wall.

Project 365 - Day 79 - TOWARF

No, that's not a typo.  No I didn't just sneeze or anything.  Today's shot is of the TOWARF office.

I have lived in Oakville for about 17 years on and off now.  I have lived in different parts.  It was only until recently that I found out that we had a TOWARF office here.  And it was only today that I found out what a TOWARF is. 

It's the Town of Oakville Water and Air Rescue Force.  It's a Canadian Coast Guard auxiliary unit.  Huh.  Who knew.  If you're interested follow this link to find out more.

Anyway, the building is this really cool blue building with a boat launch beside it.  It's right down where I have been shooting recently, beside lakeside park in Oakville Harbour.

I was shooting the sunset and I happened to look back and see this.  So I popped off a couple of shots, and then went back to shooting birds.  This is by far the best shot of the day...

This is my 24-70mm lens, at 42mm.  Shutter is 1/250 and apeture is 7.1.  ISO is 400.  I was handholding the camera.  I had to erase a bit of the concrete pier that I was on, but other than that it was right out of camera.  No crop.

Project 365 - Day 78 - 2nd snowflake shot

It was snowing again today.  Hey, wait.  That's how I started yesterday's entry ...

Well, it WAS snowing again today.  It was a bit colder, so I thought about getting another snowflake shot.  I got everything set up and it stopped snowing.  So I cursed, and started looking for something else to shoot.  A couple of minutes later, it started again and I was able to get some shots off.

In between shots, as I was trying to catch snowflakes - I swear my neighbours must think I am nuts - I put my brown glove over the camera to keep it safe.  I was walking around trying to catch a good flake, and then separate piles of other flakes, all while trying not to melt the snow.  It wasn't working that well.  I turned to the camera, and the glove was pretty much covered.  Good thing I had it there.  As I shook off the glove, this one flake landed on one of the fingers.

Today's flake is not as clean as the last one.  The snow was not as dry, it was clumping and falling erratically. 

f/32 at 5.0 sec shutter.  It's my 60mm lens with all three extension tubes.  ISO is 800.

Project 365 - Day 77 - Snowing again

It's snowing again today, hopefully for the last time this season.  So I decided to go out and try and get another snowflake shot.  No luck though, it was too warm.  The flakes were melting as soon as they hit any surface I tried to catch them on.  I even went as far as freezing a lens cap and taking it out, but it still didn't work.

So I shot some things around the garden.

Today's shot is of a piece of garden art that we have.  It's a boy and a girl on a bench under an umbrella, and the boy is holding his hand out to see if it's still raining.  But his hand is full of snow.  So it is kind of like a statement - enough of the snow already and let's bring on Spring!  :-)

Project 365 - Day 76 - Montreal

We were only in Montreal for less than 24 hours.  Most of that was spent with family and friends, and we were up very late on Saturday night.  Thus, we got up kind of late on Sunday morning.

Thankfully, Montreal is not short on photogenic subjects.

Today's photo is of St Georges Anglican Church in Montreal.  I took this shot to show the contrast between the old church and the new glass building beside it.  I also wanted to capture the reflection of the church in the newer building.  

Here's the shot:

Now, this was shot with my 24-70mm lens out to 24mm.  I corrected the angles in lightroom to some degree and I also erased an ugly bus stop sign and a fire hydrant on the front corner.  The traffic light was also red, but I removed that as well, I found it distracting.

The reason why I shot with the 24-70 was that I only brought one lens with me to Montreal.  This made me think about my shot, and take the ones I could with that lens.  It's good to challenge yourself this way from time to time, but I sure do wish I had my Tokina 11-16 for this - would have made it easier to get the entire church in frame.

24-70mm lens at 29mm.  ISO400.  1/800 at f/5.6.  Yes, the sky was that blue ... it was a beautiful day in Montreal today - even though TorontoFC lost yesterday...

Project 365 - Day 75 - Blogging against the odds...

We got up at 6 am yesterday to make our way to Lamport stadium t get on the TFC bus to Montreal.  We were going there to join upwards of 5000 other supporters who had made their way via different methods of transportation.  our bus was one of 9 leaving from Lamport stadium.  There were aso supporter goup arranged busses and of course some fans were flying, driving, ad taking te train.

The 401 was closed along the way which introduced a 1 1/2 hour delay into our trip.  when we got to the stadium in Montreal we were ushered in. There as us no opportunity to get off a couple of good shots.

So I got this one.

I took this on my phone.  It's not the best shot, but it tells a story.

Then, I attempted to blog via my phone while on the road.  Fail.  Blogger will not let me attach an image via the mobile app.

So, I had to wait until I got home.  Which is why I am blogging this now .... :-)

Project 365 - Day 74 - Sunset by the Escarpment

Today I went on a little road trip to an area where you could see the Niagara Escarpment.  My intention was to grab a nice sunset shot.  The only thing standing in my way was the appearance of clouds in an otherwise blue sky.

It had been such a nice day today, sky was blue with big fluffy clouds, and I was looking forward to this shot all day.  But as soon as I started driving up there, the clouds rolled in and when I got close to the spot I wanted the sky was a big light grey sheet.

But then I came across this field that was littered with geese.  They were flying all around, some taking off and some landing.  As the sun got lower in the sky it did light up the clouds in a neat way, and I noticed that some of the geese were flying towards the sun.  So I removed my 11-16 Sigma lens and slapped on the trusty 24-70mm lens.  Voila.  Today's shot.

I cropped this to get rid of a lot of the foreground.  The field is basically a wheat field that has been recently turned over - so it's nothing but mud right now.  So that's gone.  It's shot at 70mm at 1/2500 sec and f/6.3  No flashes, no tripod and ISO400.

Here's the shot:

Project 365 - Day 73 - How does it work?

When I was a kid, I liked to take things apart and see how they went together.  When I was finished playing with a toy, I would take it apart to investigate.  I would then reassemble it, usually end up with some spare parts, and from time to time the toy actually worked after this endeavour.  I lost more good toys that way ....

Today I decided to pay homage to that time of my life, pretending that I no longer have the urge to pull things apart.  Let's face it, if it has a screw in it I am going to take that screw out.  I love it when something at work breaks and the warranty has expired - or better yet when it's deemed trash.  I usually end up making it worse but at least I learn how things work.

This shot is part of a power supply in a router.  I pulled the box apart and yanked this power supply out.  I ended up trimming off the supply leads on the circuit board because they were interfering with the shot.  This router was scrap anyway, so I didn't sacrifice a good router.  And those of you who work with me, don't worry - it was my router ... :-)

60mm lens with no extension tubes this time.  f/5.6 at 1/25 second.  ISO 400.  I also used a tripod.

I used my LED flashlight to light this from the top.

Post was just to clean up the resistor a bit - it was smeared with dust and some carbon residue.

I think I'm done with MACRO for a while.  Maybe ... I do love this lens ... ;-)

Project 365 - Day 72 - Macro fun ... again

Today I was experimenting with some macro shots.  I took a bunch of household items and shot them with my macro lens and all three extension tubes.  Results were mixed, with most of the images lacking any kind of interesting quality.  I guess shooting something that is common in macro mode only makes it more commoner ... :-)

But I did have a couple of winners, and one of those was the coffee beans that I shot.  The surface of the beans is pretty cool, I didn't realize that they had such texture and colours. 

The shot, as I said, was 3 extension tubes on my 60mm lens.  I used two LED lights to light the beans, one from each side.  ISO400 f/36 and 13 sec shutter.

Here's the shot:

Project 365 - Day 71 - Macro shot again

Today I got the parts for the fridge.  I had to take the panel off the freezer compartment to put the new part in, and while I was in there I noticed the fins on the condensor coils.  Photo op you say?  Always!

I got in close with my macro and 36mm extension tube attached.  The lens would not auto focus, so I had to angle myself in the freezer while getting a good angle on the fins themselves, holding a light so I could see, and focus with the other hand.  So if the freezer still doesn't work after this, it could have been me... :-)

Took about 6 shots, this is by far the best. 

1/1000 shutter at f/8.0.  ISO 800 and 60mm lens.  Cropped for content and adjusted the white balance to get the blues out.

Project 365 - Day 70 - Oakville@Night

Camera club night tonight.  It was a show and share night, where people shared their pictures.  It's always inspiring to see others' work.  You learn from everyone and every shot.  When you stop learning, I think that's when you stop shooting.

So when the club was finished for the night, I came home.  It was raining and leaving QE Park I noticed that the reflections were incredible in the parking lot.  So I raced home, said hello to the wife and the dog (yes, in that order), grabbed my camera and back out the door I went.

I went to downtown Oakville.  The trees are still lit up with Christmas lights.  It was late enough that there was not a lot of traffic going by, so it minimized the light trails.

I set up in front of the butcher shop and propped my umbrella over the camera.  Sure, I was getting wet but water doesn't hurt me - much (it's more soap that I'm afraid of).  First lesson of the night?  Bring entire camera bag with clamps to allow the umbrella to be clamped to tripod thus eliminating the need to hold said umbrella over the camera while making 3 to 10 second exposures.

I experimented with running down the sidewalk to be in the picture, and trying to catch someone walking through.  But apparently when you want someone in the shot they are polite and get out of the way of your shot.

This particular shot is 1.6 seconds at f/20.  ISO is 800, I like to keep it low so I had thought I kept it at 400.  Second lesson of the night (one I refuse to actually remember) check the camera.  I cropped for content and adjusted the white balance and contrast.  I also cloned out one headlight of a guy who was just sitting there the entire time in his car with the lights on.  I attempted to put the light out of frame, but with the longer exposure it kept bleeding through.

Project 365 - Day 69 - Crystals

Our fridge quit on us this week.  It is the upstairs fridge, we have another one in the basement.  It's at least 14 years old, so it was time to go.  At this moment we are in the middle of trying to get it working again.  It doesn't look serious, so we might be lucky.

But that's not the point of this.

While moving stuff from one fridge to the other, I came across a really old bottle of maple syrup.  It was mostly crystal at the bottom, and I rinsed it out to put the bottle in the recycle bin.  When I dumped out the water, a couple of neat sugar crystals cane out as well.  So I saved them ... of course.

Today's pic is a macro shot of those crystals.  I used my 60mm lens with a 36mm extension tube as well to get nice and close.  The lens ended up about 2 inches from the crystals, but I wanted them to fill the frame enough and still have some room around them.

I used two lights here, each at 45 deg from the lens.  One was gelled orange and one was gelled blue.  Each crystal seemed to take on one colour.

The shutter is 2 seconds at f/16.  ISO is 400.  I was using a tripod.

Here's the shot:

Project 365 - Day 68 - Sunrise over Lake Ontario

Last night when I got home from an evening out, I set the alarm for 5:50.  Yeah, that's 5:50 am.  One thing I forgot to do was set the alarm for the day.  Sonia woke up at 6:10 and woke me up - thankfully ...

So off I headed, without my morning coffee no less, to Oakville Harbour again.

It was odd this morning, because there were only a handful of geese there to greet me.  Must be getting warmer and the geese have moved on to northern areas.  I'm sure our paths will cross later.

I set up on the beach and grabbed some shots of the sunrise.  Then, when the sun had fully breached the horizon and the colour was all but gone, I moved on to one of my favourite subjects of late - the lighthouse.

I got this shot with the sun harsh and blaring on the left side of the house.  As I was shooting, a few geese flew by the lighthouse and added to the overall picture.

Here's the shot.

Project 365 - Day 67 - Cloudy sky

While I was driving home tonight I caught this fleeting moment.  The are was littered with light poles and houses, and it was tough to get a nice clear shot, but I got a good part of the sky.  I had a shot where there were some geese flying into the sun, but they were really really far off and they looked like specs of dirt on my sensor.  So I didn't use that shot.

I erased two streetlamps in this picture and cropped for content.  Fixed the white balance, and adjusted tones to be more lifelike.

Project 365 - Day 66 - Lighthouse

Went down to Oakville harbour again today to get a shot of the lighthouse with some geese or seagulls in the picture.  It was a grey day, with little cloud detail.  The lighthouse did pop against the grey sky though. 

This time there were no birds on the walkway leading up to the lighthouse, so I was able to get a "clean" shot of the house.  I did, however, have to dodge the odd goose turd (they are the size of a small dog).  I sometimes don't watch where I am going as I am trying to see things like a camera - and that's when I step in something ewwy...  Good thing there is still a little bit of snow on the ground.

Today's shot was taken just around dusk.  There was not a lot of sunset colour, the sun is actually setting off to the right of this shot, about 45 deg off.  This is almost due south.  I desaturated the blue to bring the sky down to grey and cropped in post.

Here's today's shot...

Project 365 - Day 65 - mmm ... beer...

TorontoFC has a new beer sponsor and they brought out a limited collection bottle, or can, actually a bottle shaped can ... whatever.  The front of the bottle-can is a soccer ball with the TFC logo in the centre, and a bunch of fans under neath.  Today's shot is a shot of three can-bottles lined up so everyone can see the actual logo.  It's not perfect, but it works pretty well.

I used a flash with a bounce card to light the underside of the crowns.

I cropped out the UPCs on the sides of the bottles and adjusted the white balance to bringt out the whites.  And that's all for post processing...

Project 365 - Day 64 - Oakville at night

I had the photographer's version of writer's block today.  Nothing was working out, nothing inspired me.  So I took a drive to one of my recent locations, down at Oakville harbour.  It totally paid off.

The sky over the lake and over the northern part of Oakville was very cool.  As soon as I got out of the van I could hear my friends the geese calling to me.  When I walked around the corner, I saw them - and let me tell you I have never seen that many geese in one spot at one time.  But I told them "I'm not here to shoot you guys today".  They seemed relieved ... I wonder why.

It was incredibly windy and cold.  I had to use a very slow shutter to allow enough light in.  Because of the wind, there was considerable camera shake even with the tripod.  So I braced myself against the tripod and tried not to move for the shutter duration.  That was tough.  But it worked out.

You'll notice the geese in the foreground are blurry.  This is because they don't follow orders - I asked them to stay still.  :-)  The water was very wavy as well - you can see ripples on one part of the open water where there are no geese.

Enough about that, here's the shot:

This is my Sigma 11-16 lens at 16mm.  f/22, ISO800 and 20 second shutter.  I love the way the clear night sky is actually blue...I reduced the saturation a bit (yes, reduced) as the sky was too blue and detracted from the shot.

I will definitely keep coming back here - especially when it is warmer ... ;-)

Project 365 - Day 63 - I'm keeping an eye on the internet

Okay, so I went ahead and attempted the self-eye-portrait again.  It was pretty successful.  I turned my 24-70 into a macro lens with the extension tubes.  It's a better piece of glass, so it allowed a better shot than my 60mm.  I had it out to 70mm and used a tripod and remote release cable to trip the shutter.  I think I went through about 50 shots on manual focus before I got a couple of reasonably good ones.  I was using an off camera flash as well.  It was tough, but I got it..

Here's the shot...

Obviously, I changed it to black and white.  The flash lit some stuff on the table in front of me, so you can see that in the bottom of the eye. 

Project 365 - Day 62 - Splashpad...

It's funny what you fail to notice when you are busy shooting.  I was sitting on top of this hill at Lakeside park in Mississauga.  It wasn't a hill as much as it was a man made mound with setps leading up from a splashpad.  This mound had an observation deck on the top of it, where you could use those long range binocular thingies that you usually see on top of a tall monument somewhere - where you have to pay to see things way off in the distance.  Well this mound afforded me with a good place to shoot birds as they were flying by.

At one point, I was looking down at my camera checking the settings on the menu.  I noticed a black circle under my feet.  The circle was filled with holes, and kind of looked like a shower head - but upside down.  It was then that I noticed I was standing on a splashpad jet.  Then I noticed the other jets around the actual splashpad. 

In my defence it is March, and there are no screaming wet kids to give the secret away ... :-)

So today's picture is a shot of the actuator for this splashpad.  This is a button that a kid will press for the water to shoot up from the ground.  Something tells me that I won't be up here shooting in the summer months ... ;-)

 

24-70mm lens at 60mm.  f/5.0 at 1/1000 sec shutter.  ISO is 400.  Good depth of field blurring out the mount and giving it some dimension.

Project 365 - Day 61 - Panning bird shot!

Went out again this morning, this time to Lakeside park in Mississauga.  More geese to shoot as they flew across the lake and in front of the camera.  I have this technique pretty well down now.

This shot is at ISO400 and f/5.0  Shutter is 1/1000s, so it pretty much freezes the wing action.  Got a nice shot of 5 birds as they flew across the top of the tree line.

I had to bump up the blue to bring out the sky - it was pretty dull today.

Going out tomorrow am to see if I can't get a nice clear sky for some sunrise shots - we'll see... :-)

Here's today's shot.

Project 365 - Day 60 - The eye of the beholder

Today's shot was inspired by my friend Rafal Kiermacz - and I didn't even know it.  :-)

Rafal is also doing a project 365 where he posts a picture a day.  You can find his blog here.  I encourage you to read it, he's a very good photographer.  Yesterday, Day 59, he posted a picture of an eye.  Now, I had just spent the evening shooting my own eye, trying to get the depth of field down so you could see enough of the eye, and was reasonably successful.  Do you know how difficult it is to shoot your own eye when you have to keep checking to make sure the focus is good, and hold a light shining into your eye?  It's a pain in the butt.  But like I said, I was reasonably happy with one of the shots I had, so I went to the computer to see it on the big screen.

That's when I saw his post from yesterday.  (Insert awww sound here). So back to the drawing board - so to speak.

What I came up with was a different eye altogether.  It is the opening of the lens called the aperture.  This opening acts like the pupil in the eye, opening to let enough light in for the camera to make a good image.  This is where the term "open up" and "close down" come in.  A small number in the aperture (for instance f/2.8) means that the blades are basically wide open.  A larger number, F/22, means that the blades are closed down more.

Hopefully that didn't bore you and you're still with me ... :-)  Before I lose any more readers, here's the shot:

This is my 60mm lens with 2 extension tubes (36mm and 22mm) looking down on my 24-70mm lens.  The 24-70mm lens has an apeture of about f22 or so I would think.  I have my LED flashlight shining on an angle, and that's creating the green ring of lights.