Since I posted an infrared shot yesterday, I got to thinking about spring and shooting with my good friend Morrie. Each spring, we make a couple of day trips and weekend excursions to shoot some of the amazing cemetery statuary that exists in our region. The statuary is absolutely breath-taking in some of these cemeteries and many people find the images I shoot in infrared to be very moving for some reason.Spring is when the temperatures are most pleasant and the grass greens up to provide great effects in infrared. Todays image features a mausoleum ,with what appears to be a guardian angel on top. One can only imagine the cost of this statue, which has to be at least 8 feet high,by as much wide, much less the building, which is made of granite. Until just a few short years ago, I never knew such beauty even existed in cemeteries, but if you go to most major cities, you can find such places. In Victorian times, cemeteries were places to congregate for picnics and family activities, but today, many cemeteries are being lost to neglect. Benjamin franklin once said, ”show me your cemeteries,and I’ll tell you what kind of people you have”, and once again I think we need many more men like this in charge once again. One trip to a big city cemetery thats abandoned and you quickly realize how right he was.
Category Archives: Infrared
Dramatic Skies
My image today features intense cloud formations that were blowing through the area, and lasted just long enough to allow me to run and get my infrared camera/filter combination. I actually think the clouds were more intense when I first saw them, but I am quite happy with what I got here. The shot was done using my old Nikon D70, which was excellent for capturing infrared images when used in conjunction with a Hoya r72 infrared filter. The downside is the fact that you can barely see through the filter,so essentially you focus the shot on your tripod and then add the filter on the lens before shooting. Exposures usually run from 1 second to 8 seconds at f16 in most situations,and you must remove the filter every time you do a new image. As things soon turn greener, Infrared effects will get even better.
The Gathering Place
Winter weather can often include interesting skies and nice billowy clouds. This scene features a group of Amish buggies attending a sale at the farm. This shot was taken from the roof of my truck to give a little better perspective on the line of buggies. Sometimes I get strange looks when I have my tripod set up on my vehicle roof, but you would be amazed how much an extra six feet off the ground can help. . The only thing you must be aware of is not shifting your weight if you are using long exposures, but this was a fairly fast exposure, so that was not an issue. this was shot in infrared.
Classic Victorian
Just wanted to let anyone that might be following my blog to know that I do not just do light painting, so I felt I would share an image of what I consider to be a beautiful old Victorian home . It was shot with a Nikon camera that I had specifically modified to capture only the infrared spectrum. I used to use an expensive filter to do it, but that got to be a real nuisance because the filter was so dark, you had to remove it to focus on every new shot. The modified camera can almost be handheld,but I still insist on the tripod. I mention handheld because with the filter, you had daylight exposures in the 4 second range.



