UNCONVERT6D

 If there is one aspect I love about infrared above all else, it's the power to transform. Shooting in infrared is a technique, it in itself will not create a magical image. But the way it can change a scene, enhance it. The way it can bring out some items, while hiding others, makes it such a useful tool in the toolbox. I found this little scene at the beautiful Greenhaugh Gardens near Palmerston North. As winter has now turned to spring and the gardens are beginning to wake from their winter slumber, I like how the greens are beginning to change. This is where this infrared capture on my unconverted Canon 6d has come to shine. The longer shutter speed (10 minutes in this case as the clouds were quite heavy with the odd shower passing through) and the way the infrared capture has highlighted the lilypad's while darkening the water, has transformed this image in a way that 'normal' light didn't. I look forward to many more visits to this beautiful gardens and enjoyi...

 Just a quick post today. After yesterdays success, I decided to head back down to the domain this afternoon for my lunch break. The conditions were even better today with less wind and more warmth. By going a different way I found this nice composition. I like how the trees are changing each day at the moment. 720nm Infrared filter, Exposure 180 seconds, F16 ISO, 100 Channel swapped in Photoshop

 When people first use a camera, they are full of hope. They expect to see the images they capture look exactly like they did when they pressed the button. This expectation is so powerful, that to most it's not till they look closer they see the difference. This can lead to frustration, and for some a learning curve that allows them to master the skill. With time and experience we learn to use that difference to our advantage. We learn to use the flaws and short comings to see the world in a more creative way. To see things our eyes cannot see unaided. Longer exposure times allow us to see the passage of time. Faster lenses allow us to separate the subject from the surroundings and see the wonders of the night sky. Through the use of filters we can see wavelengths of light far outside the normally visible range.   This is the power of photography, as Marcel Proust put it "not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.". To see the world as it is, not the world we glan...

 Virginia Lake in Autumn is a beautiful place to spend a few hours. Warm sunshine on your back, autumn colours adorning the trees. To top it all off, Les had found time in his weekend to join me for the afternoon walk. But as we began our walk, the clouds filled in, and that beautiful sunshine became a more fleeting prospect. That wasn't part of the plan! The weather forecast had promised broken cloud.    With the unconverted 6D, the lower light levels made live view focusing a lot more challenging. So the change of light would mean a change in approach. Actually it was an idea I had been considering anyway so in some ways I suppose it was a great time to test it. What was the new approach? Remove the filter from the lens, explore, compose, focus (using the infrared mark), then reattach the filter and photograph. This approach will take more time, but on the other side it is like taking your camera off a tripod to compose the next shot, it allows you to be more intentiona...