Barefoot Landscape Lighting

May 19th, 2023 Captain Matt here and I wanted to show you something that I love to do on the white PVC fences. If you're in lighting you know how hard they can be to light because they're so reflective. What I love to do is put an up and down light at about eye level, this way there's no glare. You'll also light up the space under the fence and if there are any trees above the fence you'll light those up too. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2674

What are we going to do? We Didn't Leave Enough Wire? Captain Matt here, just wanted to share a tip I learned. When we installed these lights we didn't leave enough wire, we typically leave three to five feet at each light. For whatever reason at this section we didn't leave any extra, so over the course of the last year the wire has come loose. You can see there is too much tension, all I'm doing is cutting these wires and adding a little extender piece and adding about four feet of wire. This will give us a lot of room to hide this wire correctly. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2671

Cleaning White Landscape Lighting Fixtures Captain Matt here talking more about maintenance. As you can see this is a white light on this gorgeous white fence, and it's gotten dirty from the elements. All I'm using is a rag with a little bit of water on it to clean this fixture off. We do this every time we do a maintenance visit which is once or twice a year. Seems simple but it does make a huge difference! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2668

Josh and Brent the Beekman Boys React to a Captain Matt Original Design at the Beekman Farm Captain Matt here, we did a huge installation for Josh and Brent at their farm house in Schoharie county. I wanted to share their reaction with you guys. Lighting up a property this big was a great opportunity and we had a lot of fun doing it. Let me know what you guys think! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2665

I love the effects this lighting has. Lights For Fountains During Spring Maintenance. Captain Matt here doing some spring maintenance. There's a fountain here with in ground lights around it, they're called Mariners. There are also lights inside the fountain, and I love the effect all these different lights have on the fountain. It looks amazing at night! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2654

Quality is Remembered Long After Price is Forgotten. Captain Matt here, I want to talk about the phrase "quality is remembered ling after price is forgotten" a little bit. I was talking to a client recently and they got a quote from someone else that was lower than mine, so I said that phrase to them. If you're shopping for landscape lighting by price then we probably aren't for you. I use high quality, American made fixtures, and our quality of service is amazing before, during, and after the install. Our reputation is everything to us, ask around! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2651

Advanced Wire Hiding For Landscape Lighting  Captain Matt here, I'm doing a Gemstone light installation. I just wanted to show you something we do on all of our projects is wire hiding. Obviously if you have lights on your roof you need wiring, so I'm going to show you how we hide wires on roofs. Let me know what you think! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2648

Mercury Screen Printing Gifted Me Some Captain Matt Gear! Captain Matt here, my friends over at Mercury Screen Printing, Jeff and Doug, hooked me up! They know I've been looking for "Captain Matt" shirts and they know I love Tommy Bahama, so I went over there today and they ordered a Tommy Bahama shirt and did some screen printing on it. It looks so awesome, thank you Mercury! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2644

Mistakes Were Made. Captain Matt here, so we have an enchanter hanging from a tree here and one of our guys accidentally used something we don't use to install wiring on trees. He used a metal nail and you can see why we don't use these, the tree is going to grow. So what we use instead are these little plastic things that get screwed into the tree with a screw that is safe for the tree, and the wire is fastened with a zip tie that goes through the plastic piece. When the tree grows the plastic piece will move up and down, and when it gets too big the zip tie will snap. When you use metal staples it will damage the tree. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2641

Pitch Hoppers and Ladder Pivots. Captain Matt here, we're doing some more inventory and asset tracking. I've had quite a few guys in the Christmas lighting world ask if I like the pitch hopper or the ladder pivot. Here's an example of what's not on our trucks currently. There are about 20 pitch hoppers here and four or 5 ladder pivots. It's safe to say we absolutely love these things! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2634

Lights that are Virtually Invisible During the Day.  So I wanted to show the Gemstone lights on the soffits during the day. You cannot tell that this house has any lights installed at all. I'm going to go ahead and turn them on, now you can see that there are lights there. I'm going to turn them off again, and they disappear! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2630

What Do Gemstone Lights Look Like in the Early Morning When You're Just Waking Up? Captain Matt here and some of you guys wanted to see the Gemstones, this is how they look most of the time. This is a custom architectural setting, this is what it's on most of the time. They can be any color or pattern you want them to be though. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2627

Not Everyone Likes Nice Things? I had someone tell me today that Gemstones are neat but it wasn't really "their thing" and it got me thinking... Do some people not like nice things? Do some people not like a well-illuminated home? When I hear "Gemstones aren't for me," what I really hear is that I didn't describe them well enough. That's why I invite people to my home to see the Gemstones because you do have to see them to believe us sometimes. When I first got them my wife was unsure about them, but them she had her first girls night and she turned them pink and purple, and she really fell in love with them. When we moved into our new home it was only a few weeks until she was asking when we would get them installed again! That same thing happens to so many of our clients. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2624

How much does Gemstone Lighting cost? It's the biggest question we get asked when it comes to Gemstones. Gemstone Lighting Price  Captain Matt here and today we're going to go over that. So I wanted to come up with averages because I know it's important for people to budget, and sometimes it's a little nerve wracking to call a company and ask. You don't want to waste their time and you don't want to waste your time if it's out of your budget, so you end up not calling. I don't remember what the averages are off the top of my head but you'll see them on our website barefootlighting.com and you can see all the packages we offer. I wanted to do this so people could see if Gemstones are attainable for their next home improvement project.   https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2621

Running tests and getting scared every time it goes off. Working on Some New Stuff! Captain Matt here, we are working with a new client and we are messing around wit some fun stuff, doing lots of tests. We're looking forward to figuring this out and showing you guys what it's going to be! https://barefootlighting.com/working-on-some-new-stuff/

Who's ready to have their life changed? It's Spring!! Let's Goooo!! Captain Matt here, its officially spring!!WE've got some great weather in the forecast and hopefully no more snow, but who knows it's upstate NY. But, it's springtime so let's do some cool stuff this year. You're going to be outside enjoying your space, so why not get some lights and control when you can use your space. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2613

Has lighting changed your mood? More Cabin Fever Talk. Who Can Relate? Captain Matt here, I wanted to talk a little bit about cabin fever again. This has been the first full winter where I've had my full potential landscape lighting installed at my house as well as Gemstones. The winter really drives me nuts and I always get in such a bad mood about it, but this year I've been in a way better mood because when I look outside there's light. Having light outside has expanded the space in my house, and I can see nature outside and it really changed everything for me. https://barefootlighting.com/more-cabin-fever-talk-who-can-relate/

Will you be my first underwater lighting project in NY? Have a Dock? Want Underwater Lighting? Captain Matt here, do you have a dock? Do you want some underwater lighting? I've never done it here in New York and I want to. So if you have a dock and you're interested in doing some dock lighting and some underwater lighting, let me know I really want to do it and I'll give you a great deal for my first one in this area. We don't know exactly what will happen because our docks come out in the winter time. So I would love to do it with the understanding that we don't know what will happen when the dock comes out. Let me know! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2607

Let's continue to light up the Capital Region and beyond! Voted Best in Outdoor Lighting in Albany! Captain Matt here, just got the mail and I'd thought I'd share. We got the award for Best in Outdoor Lighting in Albany! I thought it was cool, thanks guys for the votes. In 2023 we're going to light up the Capital Region and beyond! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2604

How to Cope With Cabin Fever. Captain Matt here! I know it's chilly outside now and we're all looking forward to that nice spring weather. One way I love to fight winter depression is getting landscape lighting outside. It helps my mood so much because when I look out the window I can see that space even though its dark for 16 hours a day. If you haven't gotten landscape lighting from me yet it's not too late. We can get most of the lighting done without burying wires, when the snow melts and the ground thaws we'll come back and bury those wires. You can enjoy your landscape lighting now, so let's talk! https://barefootlighting.com/how-to-cope-with-cabin-fever/

Learn something everywhere you go. Learn something from everyone you meet. My California Trip. I put together this video of my trip to California. I had a great time riding UTVs, exploring Slab City, and learning more about landscape lighting from my mentor Nate. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2597

Or just circus performers? Is Slab City Real Life? Captain Matt here in East Jesus. I'm at this junkyard art museum thing? You can touch everything because it's all garbage, and people live back over here. It's probably the most insane thing I've ever seen in my life. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2594

Slab City at Salvation Mountain  Captain Matt here in Slab City, East Jesus on Salvation Mountain. This town is made up of a bunch of wanderers and whatnot, they made a community and it's super cool. All the rock is painted with these awesome murals, even the ground and the caves. This place is surreal. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2591

Desert, UTVs, and the Blue Angels Flying. Captain Matt here in the desert, we're riding UTVs and Blue Angels are flying overhead. There's a bunch of lighting guys here on this plateau, we're looking at the shadows in the dirt because it's the only way you can tell how big a jump is going to be. The Blue Angels fly over here all the time, I guess it's like their training ground or something. Anyways, I hope you guys are having a great day! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=2588