infrared

by

Infrared photography

I began using an infrared camera to photograph landscapes. This is Balanced Rock in Arches National Park, Utah. I like the way the treatment lightens vegetation, sometimes giving an otherworldly look, which I find especially appropriate for cemeteries. I use a black and white conversion, for good contrast.

Then I began experimenting with animals, and liked what I got. This is a male mule deer in South Dakota. The grasses take on a delicate backdrop against which the animal stands out clearly.

This chipmunk, caught in mid-leap, again stands out against a pale and blurred background.

This next images was not intended to be in infrared. On that day, at Sheep Lake, in Rocky Mountain National Park, I saw a moose feeding, and needed my telephoto lens. The only camera I had with me at the time was the infrared converted OM Systems OM1, so I used it. Again, I liked what I got, the dark animal standing out against the light-coloured vegetation, and a tiny duck on the opposite edge of the frame.

I will experiment some more. I do love trees as well as animals, and using a lens baby with the infrared camera gave me this:

The tree is in Longmont, Colorado, and area that before European settlement would have been extensive prairie devoid of trees.

by

Cemeteries

I have discovered that I like the effect of using infrared to photograph in cemeteries. Somehow, the technique seems to suit the mood of these places. This image is from Naseby.

The light coloured path through the centre of the image seems an appropriate route to be taken by the resident ghosts. Misty conditions accentuated the ‘other worldly’ feel to this image. The trees are less substantial when their foliage is reproduced in lighter tones. Turning slightly to the left at the end of the path, the space between the trees indicates to me a route into the unknown.

by

Welcome to my New Place

2021. From 2018 my life changed inexorably. Death, reality check, adjustment, Covid, travel restrictions, breast cancer, more reality check, more adjustment.

This blog has languished for years as I reinvented myself. A work-in-progress. Isn’t life always that anyway? Now I am keen to return. My early posts are still here as a benchmark. They are boring. Too long winded. An attempt at completeness, perfection; now my aim is more a commentary on my perceptions of life. Changing through time. More frequent posts. One photo at a time. I thought to change the title. Nature is still my primary interest so I left it the way it is. You won’t see too many humans here so the title mostly serves.

I made this image in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens when I was feeling hemmed in by too many people on a Sunday afternoon. Not the time of day I’d choose to go. I was there with a friend and my infrared-converted Nikon D750. Looking up at the sky for a means of escape, these two trees asked me to express their relationship. I called it Canopy Dance.