Daylight Saving Time — A Gift of More Light to Cyanotype Artists

©Tiffany Means

More daylight means more time to “bake” sun prints!

For us Northern Hemispherans, Daylight Saving Time is now upon us.

To be honest, I'm never as excited to "spring forward" as I am to "fall back." Introvert that I am, having an extra hour to hibernate is more my vibe. 🙃 But if there’s one silver lining to DST, it’s that spring is near. And spring means more daylight for cyanos!

Why is there more daylight this time of year? Well, while we’re busy living our best tiny lives on the surface of our spaceship Earth, the Earth itself is tilting increasingly towards the sun, resulting in incrementally longer and longer periods of daylight hours until we reach equal periods of day and night on the spring equinox. (It falls on March 20th this year.) Daylight Saving capitalizes on this by temporarily shifting business hours to capture more of this increased daylight.

And remember: not only are we receiving more light, but that light is becoming more intense, too. (Hence, spring’s warmer air temperatures.)

Of course, you'll still want to aim for exposing your cyanotype prints during the10 AM - 3 PM window when the sun is typically at its strongest. But now, if it's 3:30 PM and you want to squeeze in one last late afternoon "bake," you’ll no longer need to chase that fading patch of sunlight, nor call it a loss as twilight swiftly envelopes you and your art.

Stealing an hour of my sleep, but shortening my cyanotype exposure times? I suppose we'll call it even, Daylight Saving Time.