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“No matter how strong the winds of life may be, let your hurricane lamp shine for deep within your heart is love.” -- John
Last night my family was perplexed when I took a bag of antique lightbulbs and an old lamp fixture outside near midnight. Photographers do weird things when creativity strikes:) With camera in hand, I began taking photographs of these antique treasures. After hours of processing, I wasn’t completely satisfied with what I saw, but it was late, so off to bed I went with those creative wheels turning. In the morning my idea materialized requiring me to “up the ante.” Off to the store we went to purchase more light bulbs. In the search, I found a huge (1 ft. long) tear drop Edison bulb. We rushed home excited at what I might create though it was late. Hours of hard work later I arrived at the image above. Along the way, many things were learned.
Light bulbs are hard to photograph if you want to get detail. First, at minimum is a ten-stop difference between the exposure of the filament and the glass sphere containing it. Second, no matter how well you clean the light, imperfections show up, even some on the inside. Third, there are a host of reflections to contend with. Finally, sharpness is a struggle due to shooting through glass. Maybe there are some life lessons here:)
But with enough gumption and time, my hard work revealed what eyes cannot see and in turn awoke the retired physicist in me. Lights are fascinating when you consider the physics and engineering behind them. The light above is not an authentic Edison rendition since the “filament” is tiny tubes of LED lights.
In 1879 Thomas Edison changed the world forever when he turned on the first light bulb ever created. He used a carbon-filament in his first incandescent lamp. Light is created when electricity flowing through filament causes its temperature to rise immensely resulting in glowing. The fragile hot filament is protected by a glass sphere filled with inert gas. As the incandescent lamp evolved, carbon filaments were replaced with Tungsten filaments. Though you can still purchase lights with Tungsten filaments, they are being phased out for more energy efficient LED lights.
LED lights are made with very small light diodes. These diodes are energy efficient and have long life spans, though they don’t have the romance of the old-fashioned lights. If you look closely, you will see this lamp is made with two thin LED tube-strips twisted around a core glass tube. The light looks like illuminated DNA inside of a glass sphere. Hair like wires stretch out to hold the “LED filament in place. You can see each individual diode light. From a distance it gives a guitar string appearance which is how a tungsten filament looks. This work of engineering is amazing and beautiful!
My fascination with lights was inherited from my father who was a master electrician. He learned the trade in the NAVY and often told us stories of how he oversaw lighting the boat up like a Christmas tree when they came into port. He was always fascinated with lighting especially massive lighting displays he saw in large buildings along his travels.
As I was working through this project, one of my favorite songs came to mind. It is entitled “Hurricane Lamp” and was written by Jeffery Foucault. Go listen to the version where he sings it with his wife, Kris Delmhorst (Song Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM6O-snF2QI). The song’s theme is about not letting the light in your heart go out no matter what.
Even in the last year of his life, Daddy’s “hurricane lamp of love” shined brighter than ever before, though disease was over taking him. What allowed daddy to be filled with joy and love, despite his circumstance, was his eternal hope, Jesus! Maybe today you are facing an overwhelming problem and feel like your hope is burning out, but remember God, creator of all things, is bigger than any problem you are facing. You are God’s precious child and oh, how He loves you! He will fight for you so let your "Hurricane Lamp" burn bright!
“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be
against us?” - Romans 8:31
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” - John 1:4-5
“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” - John 1:9-13
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