Musings of an image maker

Now that the trees and plants have developed green foliage in the Spring, we have the opportunity of doing some great infrared photography again. Green foliage radiates lots of infrared wavelengths. Of course, this is not visible to the human eye, but can be recorded by camera. These images were made during two days this week.

Aspen In Infra Red

So what color is infrared? We cannot see the color. I prefer to convert to a black and white monochrome image. Objects that radiate lots of infrared (leaves and clouds) render as light tones. The leaves of the aspen trees above and below show as white and light grays.

Aspen At Tuscany Plaza

Objects that don’t radiate infrared (blue skies and water) render as dark tones. The reflections from the blue sky show as dark gray, almost black in the image below.

Infra Red Window Reflections

Returning home on light rail, I made the following image from the parking garage. The clouds, blue sky and the setting sun creates really spectacular images when capture with infrared.

Approaching Clouds

At the end of the work week, I stopped by Tuscany Plaza to capture the trees with their fresh green leaves.  I excluded the sky above the background office block in this image.

Office Block And Trees

Earlier in the morning, I had eyed the bushes along the sidewalk and decided that an afternoon shot, with the possibility of clouds in the sky, would make a great image. These bushes have drab green leaves for much of the spring and summer. However, with infrared, they have a totally different appearance.

Bushes Along Sidewalk

During the walk back to the light rail station, I had been following some light clouds in the sky. When I reached the station plaza, I waited until the clouds reached an optimum position above the fountains to capture the following image.

Infra Red Fountain

I have made several images of these fountains over the last couple of years, but none have captured the reflections in this water like this one.

Tagged as: aspen, bushes, clouds, fountain, infrared, leaves, light, office, reflections, sidewalk, sky, spring, sunset, water

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