Dad’s last trip to the lake.

Drove up to the mountains to0day with the family in town to spread my pop’s ashes out in one of his favorite fishing spots. Shot on vintage 2001 Sony DSC-F707 camera in “nightshot mode” (hot glass out of line), at near-infrared – Still using just a deep red filter to block light below about 500 nm, and a variable ND filter at about ND8 to cut the light back enough that the exposure of the hyper-sensitive sensor won’t over-expose in the camera’s “nightshot” mode during the day. The deep red filter is 52mm, stepped down from 58mm, thus the vignetting about the edges and the occasional hot spots in the corners.

Dad in the driver's seat one last time.

Dad in the driver’s seat one last time.

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Updated: January 1, 2014 — 9:50 pm

9 Comments

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  1. That looks like a fine spot for remembrance of your father, and so much more appropriate than the gloomy alternatives our culture demands of us. And those are quite fascinating images. I like the smooth gradation in tones. Robert has me thinking of buying lumber to build shelves to display typewriters, and now you have me itching for an 89B filter to hook up to my “old” Fuji S2 and give this infrared thing a go.

  2. Very touching how well the pictures complement the occasion.

  3. Very beautiful spot.
    I love the way the IR makes everything look white and snow covered. The trees are especially beautiful.

    1. What I love about near-IR is the way is just makes color *meaningless*, yet is not actually a negative or B&W rendition of the scene. Instead it records an image where “life” is the white and “death” is the black, and almost invariably, “sky” is the only true color you can get. Clothing, regardless of actual color in the visible spectrum, always shows as white or grey (my bro-in-laws’ puffy ski jacket is actually jet black, but shows pure white in IR), plants and people are practically glowing white, while the frozen lake is mostly dark (even though in the visible spectrum, it’s white ice, 4 to 6 inches thick. In the last pic it just looks like a wind-rippled lake.)

      It seemed appropriate to try to reach for an “Elves in the magical forest” vibe for the occasion, and I’m glad to have that option in my palette of tools. (:

  4. These are amazing, luminous pictures of what must have been a moving moment.

  5. That’s a creative way to use “nightshots;” your images look wonderfully surreal. A beautiful way to capture this meaningful event, many thanks for sharing.

    1. Oops. I meant, a beautiful way to capture a meaningful event.

  6. The pines almost look like cherries in full blossom. And the treatment makes the shots more human, somehow. Well done, Ted.

  7. Very moving photo essay. I love infrared. I have an exposed roll I need to develop.

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