Reaching Tree
Some of these pictures are among the first infrared photographs I made that really worked. I'd had the modified camera for the best part of a year. One leafy picture from the Vermont woods worked for me, although it has since fallen into the second rank in my mind. And, around the turn of the year, I'd done a couple of panoramas in Ubud, Bali, that I'm still very pleased with. But, most of what I'd done was no more than quiet novelty. An article in a British photo magazine got my attention and the coin finally dropped about the necessity of resetting the white balance in the camera. And, coincidentally, the following week on my way to work I literally walked into a perfect combination of scenery and sunlight. All I needed to add was a little bit of compositon...
Reaching Tree
Dancing Trees
Chinese Banyan
These three pictures were taken on my daily walk to work through the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Garden. This is where I learned that (for the right subject) one can goose the limited contrast of infrared by working with extreme backlighting.
Black Mountain, Vermont This picture follows the three above by a couple of months, but is simular enough in style that I consider it part of a set. North America instead of Asia, pine trees instead of flame trees and banyans...
Lodhi Gardens, Delhi A city park in Delhi, built around a series of 15th century tombs and mosques. This is a two frame vertical panorama to compensate for the lack of a wide lens that day.
Rice Field, Ubud, Bali This is one of the pictures from Bali (pre-dating my Hong Kong Zoo epiphany) I'm still very pleased with. My printer, Danny Chau, sharpened it considerably, and then softened it a bit at my request. It's in the character of infrared to be sharply contrasty, even if it doesn't come out of the camera that way. This was my first lesson on that! It's a six frame horizontal panorama.
Felton Redwoods From a walk with dear friend from California Days, Marina. Of course one takes walks in the woods in California, given that one can walk among many of the tallest and oldest trees in the world. These are in the Santa Cruz Mountains where I passed my well-spent youth, but Julee and I also walked among the trees further in Sonoma County with another dear friend from another part of our lives. This is a three frame vertical panorama.