Lucky shot…

This was one of those cases where you get what you didn’t intend to get. My favorite form of meditation is to go down to the river (the Delaware River, that is), a few blocks from home, and capture sunsets. (You can see many of those in here). I live in New Jersey, across the river from New Castle, Delaware. New Castle has a civilian airport that is also used by the Delaware National Guard and in the evening there is always a heavy traffic of planes returning to the base. What you see in the picture is the tail of a military plane about to land at the base against the contrast of the sun behind it. I shot some 160 pictures that evening a couple of days ago and this is the only frame where this juxtaposition happened. Now, that airport is about 4 or 5 miles away in a straight line across the river from where I was standing and I was manual focusing my 500mm lens to the distant background of the trees. I guess I can still focus OK…

Sunset over the Delaware

Brandywine Park, De in Infrared, Canon 20D


Who said it can’t be done? Last Saturday I went to Brandywine Creek State Park to experiment a little with Infrared Photography (see my other three pictures starting here) Those three were taken using an old Nikon CoolPix 950 and Wratten filters (87C, to be precise). This photo here was, on the other hand, taken with a Canon 20D with a Sigma 15-30mm lens, which has a back end slot for gelatin filters, and I used a Kodak Wratten 89B filter. I understood you could not take IR pictures with a 20D but I guess all is in the patience you put in something to achieve what you want.

ISO: 400
F11
Exp: 6sec.

The original picture, as it came from the camera, is to your right (click on thumbnail). Picture was cropped, converted to Lab, discarded channels A and B and you are left with the Lightness Channel to work with. A Level and Curves adjustment did the rest.

Infrarred