Infrared Photo Fun!

Here I am trying to play photographer. I wish I was a better photographer, I suck, but I have fun with it anyway. =)

What follows are TWO photos taken with an old digital camera of mine.  I have an infrared filter for it and used this opportunity to pull off some fun comparisons. The first two images are from the first photo I took, the last three images are from the second photo which was taken with the IR filter.



This is the reference photograph, taken with no tweaking.




Here is the reference photograph converted to a black and white image. Half dome nearly vanished into the sky on this one. Fair contrast in the pine tree's. Nice, but not great.




Here is the same scene taken with the IR filter on my camera. This photo hasn't been manipulated in any way, this is exactly what the camera gave me with the IR filter on. Interesting colors.

You'll notice the photo is a little blurry, ultimately caused by the long exposure time necessary with the IR filter. First I had to physically push the button which probably wiggled the camera even though it was mounted on a tripod. I should have used the remote on my camera.  Second, it was windy so the trees were not stationary and the camera may have been slightly jostled by the wind too.

You might also notice a few pixels of dark noise, star-like things in the sky (then again, you may not, these images are scaled down). There's not much I can do about the dark noise other than digitally edit it out of the photo.

The next two images are just digital trickery with the previous image.

This is the IR photo with a little editing. I think this is a really fun photo.  All I did here was swap the red & blue channels (perhaps I made the trees a little more white and less green, I'm not sure, it was 5 years ago).

This resulted in some very interesting colors. I would like to play more with this. Maybe adjust the white point and tone down the blue a little.



Ah, and finally the black and white fun. This is the IR photo turned black and white. Makes for a MUCH more interesting B&W than the reference photo did.

I like that you can see half dome so clearly in the background. It faded into the sky in the B&W reference photo.

Poor definition in the trees, although the peaks contrast well with the sky here.

The photo looks much like it would if I had used a simple red filter (darker sky, etc). I would really love to play with this and get a little better exposure in the trees... Maybe next time I'm in Yosemite.

Anyway, that's some IR fun!

Jed's handsome mug.

As promised elsewhere here is the slideshow!

The Finished (?) Product

A work in progress no more.

So, here it is, the nursery, a work in progress...  (that's my sister-in-law helping with the painting)

And now the finished product!

It sickens me how cute we made this.  Almost makes me want to puke, but I guess that's a good thing. =)

Please allow me to introduce myself...

Where to begin?  Perhaps with my earliest memory.  Let me apologize in advance, this will be a 'stream of consciousness' and likely rather long.  This is more for me than for you, but please, feel free to read and comment.

It was my second birthday, my mother made a panda bear cake.  The cake was amazing, it was not one of those lame 2D cakes that everyone gets, this thing was full 3D.  I should find a picture of it and scan it in.

I also remember riding in the pickup truck to get my birthday gift, a big pile of sand for a sandbox.  When the sand was shoveled out onto the driveway I started playing on it.  Apparently I couldn't wait for it to be moved into the actual sandbox.  The first thing I did with the sand pile was turn it into a ski resort by placing lift poles (sticks) in it.

Later, when I was approximately 2 1/2 I started snow skiing.  At first I would ski between the legs of family members, when I learned how to stop and turn I was "on my own," and "the mountain was mine."  I would hit some of the most difficult runs on the mountain with my family.

My favorite lift was Little Cloud lift at Snowbird.  I enjoyed watching my brothers jump off of "the wave" and do backflips -- again something that should be scanned & posted.  The most memorable ski-run was probably my father's favorite, Election, or possibly Chips Run.  They were both excellent cruisers.  On good cruizin' days we would race the Tram from the top of Hidden Peak, down Chips Run to the Plaza.  Often we were able to catch the exact same Tram Car (be it blue or red) that dropped us off at the top.

My family was really into amateur ski racing.  We would frequent the Coca-Cola Cup, and the Family Equitable Ski Challenge.  We would do rather well, we have heaps of medals and a good number of trophies (which were given out at the finals).  In fact we won a few ski trips to participate in the national finals, one was in Boise Idaho, I imagine the race was held at Sun Valley, the other was in Vail, Colorado.  My brothers had their picture in at least one Skiing magazine, I had my photo in two, ;) Ski & Skiing.

Well, that's enough for now.  Perhaps next I'll talk about my occupation, pet peeves, first girlfriend, my family, or some other mundane thing.  For now, Anvil needs to go to bed.

Hello World!

Hello World!