Infrared
Last month I attended a presentation by Silvana Della Camera on infrared photography hosted by the Duxbury Camera Club. I can’t say I had much interest going in. Infrared photography always seemed like a gimmick to me.
But I found the presentation interesting and compelling. So much so that I sent an old Nikon D800 in to LifePixel for conversion to Infrared. I chose the 590nm conversion.
When the camera came back I struggled to get anything useable out of it. Focus was a problem. I knew that normal autofocus wouldn’t work properly because infrared light strikes the sensor differently than visible light. I tried to focus manually using Live View but it was hard to see the image on that dim, old LCD. I missed focus most of the time. Also, some of my favorite lenses were showing hotspots, a common issue with infrared and some lenses.
As I was on the verge of giving up, I dug out some old lenses from the basement and tried them. And this time I tried something new: using autofocus while in Live View. Strangely it worked. When I thought about for half a second it made sense. No mirror.
Now, back in business, I downloaded some IR white balance profiles for Lightroom and took a YouTube crash-course on IR processing and channel swapping. I’m struggling to get anything as good as I’ve seen other photographers produce, but it’s a work-in-progress.
I”m still not convinced that IR photography isn’t a gimmick. But maybe that’s because I haven’t quite figured out how to apply it yet. So I’ll keep at it for a while to see if what happens.
Night Photography
Recently, I took advantage of an opportunity to participate in a Night Photography workshop conducted by Lisa Ryan and organized by the Duxbury Camera Club.
We met in Plymouth Center on a cool spring evening. Lisa led us to the top of Burial Hill where we set up. I usually shoot handheld but a tripod was required for this outing. I had to put my normal impatience aside and plan my shots. It was fun to try something new and I might have even learned a thing or two. Here are a few more photos that I took that night.
DCC 2023 Field Trips
Last spring I joined with fellow members of the Duxbury Camera Club for a field trip to New Bedford. Even after living my entire life in costal Massachusetts I had never visited the famous whaling town. It was a great opportunity to spend time with some of the folks from the club and explore this picturesque city.
The Whaling Museum was a high point of the excursion. The staff were helpful (and patient) with our roving band of camera-carrying club members — and I think everyone got some good shots too.
Speaking of DCC field trips, here are some shots from a fall excursion, this time to Weir River Farm in Hingham.
