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Energy Efficient Lighting Solutions for Aging Eyes

As people get older there is more time to really enjoy the homes they have built for themselves. The kids have grown and moved away, and being physically comfortable has, perhaps, become more important than it once was.  Knowing that aging eyes need a better kind of light and more of it to be comfortable, remodeling the lighting in your home improves comfort threefold.

“Baby boomers are finding that they need three to four times as much light and that glare is hard on the eyes,” says Norm Brown, CLC, of Norburn Lighting & Bath Centre in Burnaby, B.C., and a consultant for the American Lighting Association (ALA). “Fluorescent light bulbs are easier to see by than regular light bulbs. LED lights are being used more for their reduced glare, as well as Halogen, for their white light quality. You can choose energy-efficient bulbs in many styles for redecorating your whole house.”

Capitol Lighting offers ceiling, wall-mounted and portable fixtures, and recessed and track lighting in energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs as well as light-emitting diode (LED) lights to help aging eyes. Shop from thousands of fluorescent lights and energy efficient lighting solutions when remodeling your home’’s lighting at 1800lighting.com today! Aging eyes can see more clearly with energy efficient lighting solutions from Capitol Lighting.

I have a great deal of interest in digital photography, but my life is as crazy as anyone else’s. My son, family, and work keep me busy from dawn to midnight every day. I’ve never had time to cultivate any photography skills, even though I’ve always been very interested, sitting on the edge of my seat, if you will, for a chance to take some digital photos in order to learn a little about how capturing light can create astonishing works of art.

My interview with Matthew Danser had given me my long sought “excuse” to try out some photography techniques. But it also required that I put in an honest effort. The thought in the back of my head: These photos are going to suck. Probably a lot. And they will most likely be seen by the thousands of people who visit this blog monthly. Second gulp.

But I’m the kind of person so riddled with ADHD that even my paranoia about being judged on a mass scale can only last about three minutes before the audacity to try anything resurfaces and action is taken. So here’s what happens when a total amateur who has no idea what he is doing tries to “Paint with Light.”

A one-dollar flashlight from – you guessed it – the Dollar General. One dollar. Even. Gotta love it. Especially since it’s all I could afford, seeing as how I’m still paying off the aforementioned Nikon that I bought to take photos of our baby son. (True, a million pictures have been taken of him during his first year-and-a-half on Earth. However, 999,999 of those photos were taken with an iPhone. Go figya.)

THE PLAN, STAN:

The plan was to wait until it was dark in the apartment and do some light painting. I knew that I could use the Shutter mode on my camera to set it to take exposures of up to thirty seconds. I saw that my camera also had an option for bulb release, so, invoking Danser, who recalls how his girlfriend had to hold down the button on his camera for a full thirteen minutes, I determined that if I asked really nicely, I might be able to persuade my wife to hold down the trigger to get exposures longer than thirty seconds. Otherwise, thirty seconds was my window of time to do all the light painting I could.

I started off pretty timidly. I had seen photos online in which people used long exposures to create squiggly lines. The most popular examples are pictures of traffic at night, headlights and tail lights streaming, giving you a sense of the fluid motion of busy intersections. You’ve also seen those nature pics in which streams and rivers and clouds and stars become gauzy with movement because of long exposures.

But what I really like about Danser’s work is the use of color. The effect of running inside the hut and popping off red-gelled flashes shown at the beginning of this blog post (Matthew Danser! And happy lightpainting, everyone!

Routine electrical service and maintenance is critical for all home or commercial buildings in the Des Moines Iowa area.   When you have routine electrical service done, it will keep your important electrical systems running longer and help you avoid expensive future repairs. In the event that there is an issue with your electrical system, your electrician can identify it during this routine visit so that repairs can be done before the problem becomes larger or even becomes an electrical fire.  Schedule your local electrician today and have your electrical system checked out.

We all know that lowering the thermostat a degree or two in the winter will also lower our energy bills, and that turning off the lights when you leave a room conserves energy. There's a lot more you can do to protect your wallet from high utility bills. The U.S. Department of Energy shares eight ways to help you get more bang for your energy buck.