Wicked Cool Infrared

 When foggy mornings arrive, I run out with my Infrared camera and a couple of different lens filters to capture some fun colors.

Morning fog can be dreary, but Infrared Chrome adds a new dimension to the scene. It picks up anything with chlorophyll and makes it a gorgeous hue of reds. Dead trees and bark show up as black and anything to do with sky-water, shows up in a blue hue.

I was in the valley fog of the Kickapoo River. Fog is more common here along the river most mornings.

The sun was just beginning to break through the fog in this shot of a pine stand.

I like to use Infrared in challenging situations. The 665nm filter is a light spectrum that we cannot see either. It is really best used in full blazing sunlight. But I enjoy trying to push the limits with seeing what light does to it during a sunrise. The same principle works here. Foliage is highlighted.

The photo below was taken at sunrise when the sun first touched this bush

Below is another shot with the 665nm on a foggy morning. The filter sees through the haze a bit better than a regular camera. I was intrigued by the spider web on the neighbor's rye grass. [This went along with my study of grasses!]

In bright sunlight, the 665nm really performs!

This is a tree in my 'back' yard in full sunlight on a very hot and humid day.
Technically I should have edited the clouds into a white color, however the humidity picked up the blue hue.

With the spectrum filters, one has to edit the photos to get this effect. The IRChrome and the pure 850nm black and white filter barely need any touching up. 

This is how that same tree looked 'in camera'.

To get wild colors with other hues, one has to do a Channel Swap of colors. Depending on the programs used that can vary the results.

This next simple swap was done with a different editing program that obviously reads the camera colors differently. 

This program picked up the clouds with a slightly less blue hue. I could easily turn the leaves into a cotton candy pink. But I was also pleased with this.

It just depends on which one pleases your inner artist more as to which one you keep and which one you toss out.

Last? Two sunrises in different light spectrums.

Normal....

IR Chrome:

The History of IR Chrome and the use of IR Photography in WWII~~~~~~

Excerpt from Kolari Vision:

When WWII began, militaries deployed the use of infrared aerial photography as they did in WWI. The unique ability of IR to differentiate false greenery used for camouflage from real, live foliage (known as the “Wood Effect”) was a powerful asset, and many used it in hopes of gaining every advantage possible on the battlefield. However, a new paint that could mimic the Wood Effect was developed to render this photographic method useless.

A new tactic needed to be born to get back the upper hand. Kodak and the US Military worked together to create a false color infrared film — Aerochrome III Infrared 1443. With this new color IR film, the chlorophyll in plants would photograph as hot pink instead of a snowy white, making camouflage detection possible again without the Wood Effect paint getting in the way.

Weekend recap

Early morning hunt for eatable's in the forest with Olive.

Olive took a shot of me takin a shot
of the twisted trees...

Olive. Just as nutty as me!

Sunday morning's fog and morning walk...

Infrared IRChrome shot.
IR picks up more light and works

well on foggy scenes. IRChrome sees green

as red.

Cherry blossoms in the fog

Dandy-lions...

Multiflora Rose

Virginia Pinks

Wild Strawberries

Pheasantback mushrooms starting... I wasn't the only one interested in them!

It was warm and humid Sunday with occasional showers but I got a lot of gardening done. I hauled buckets of dirt from the old manure pile to patch up holes in the yard. I cleaned the gardens around the house and added dirt from that old manure pile to enrich the soil.

I dumped the old dirt out of my 3 containers I have for geraniums and refreshed them with new dirt. 

The mules all walked up for a grooming and I had an assembly line going. Each one walked up to me, got curried and then I tapped them on the rear end to move them along for the next in line. 

Last but not least. The first hummingbird showed up as well as the first Oriole. 

Tweet Tweet....

Social Butterfly!

 Somehow this week, I became a Social Butterfly.

A few weeks ago, an old acquaintance of mine texted and asked if we could meet for supper in Mid March. She was one of my 4H students from years ago. I think we met when she moved into the area and I rode my horse past her house.

I stopped to say hello and she went nutso over my horse. She joined 4H and I worked with her in the Horseless Horse Program. We worked with my grade gelding as my mare was still pretty green. She was in High School and a great student. She went on to place in the upper 10 slots at State for Horseless Horse walk trot. A lot of other folks helped us do fancy things like doing the mane and tail and they provided her with a show saddle.

We've remained friends through the years. Now her older daughter is in her first year of college, the youngest will be 15 soon. They live near Racine so we don't get to see each other a lot.

We met for supper in Spring Green as that was about half way for the both of us. She was doing a travelling set up for the company she works for and ended up in Baraboo, WI. 

We spent a couple of hours at Culvers getting caught up on each others' lives. It was great to have just myself and her at the table without her kids or hubby interrupting. 

There we are. Not a great shot of us but who cares? We did the math and ... geeze, we've been friends for over 30 years! Yikes!

Hint. I'm not the blonde one. I'm the one in the old sweatshirt and baseball cap.

I drove home in the dark. Hmmm. Now a year ago, I wouldn't have done that at all. BUT!
I could see! I could see even with normal headlights. Things were clear as a bell unless someone with those new fancy LED headlights had their brights on and didn't dim them. I had no visual problems.

Wow. I was so happy and stunned at the same time. I turned up the volume on my Pandora Station and enjoyed the drive. This will be another positive I can report to my eye doctor next week when I see him.

Tuesday evening I did CrossFit, Wednesday I hiked at KVR in the morning and went out to meet my pal in the evening. This morning, I was at another great CrossFit workout and got my errands done before the rains started.

Friday my ex neighbor Teri is going to pick me up and we are going to dinner together! 

Whew!

Charlie leading the way
on Wintergreen Trail
[photo taken in IRChrome]

Ice Falls melting on
Wintergreen Trail
[IRChrome]

March may be kind of mucky, snowy, rainy, and icky. But this week I'm enjoying it. 

Taking a Breath

 After a really really Grumpy Week [I was the Grump], I decided to take off and go hiking at my favorite place. The Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

I looked at the weather and decided to get a hike in at the Reserve because today [Friday] would not be a good day. We are having a snow and ice storm -- the roads are ice under the snow so it looks like a good day to cancel my eye doc appointment and reschedule.

I wanted to find the little ice cave again. I knew other ice flows would be more impressive, but I wanted to explore the bluff bottoms next to the river. The river is down and the ground below the bluffs are frozen so it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

I took my Infrared Camera. For those who don't understand what infrared does, it sees the light in different wavelengths depending on the filter used on the camera. It's complicated but the results are pretty fascinating.

Chlorophyll reflects light and so things that still are green and living show up in different colors. The light spectrum may be how other creatures can see the world.

Little iced pond not in IR.

Same pond with IRChrome filter which produces reddish foliage.

The bluffs, seen in IRChrome:

The red shows mosses and grasses against the rocks and dead plant matter.

This filter does show a red tint for foliage and blue for water and sky. The sun was shining brightly on the left of the shot below and so it basically blew out the whites.

In an odd shot I risked shooting towards the light and got another different look. Before special processing some of these photos look absolutely abysmal.

I swapped over to the 665nm filter and found one decent shot I could live with.

An 'unprocessed' shot using the 665nm filter:

Processed:

The trees above, straight out of camera 

and processed

And at last, after two hours of wandering and looking at rocks, moss, skies, and the river, I ended up at the little ice cave. It isn't the best or biggest one, just a personal favorite of mine.

A 'selfie' with my tiny pocket camera on a wrap around tripod.

By the time I got back to where I'd parked, I felt refreshed and calm. I was back in my happy place and it seems that I got rid of Ms. Grumpy.

Insomnia, Fog, & Fun

First there was the fun. While driving back from town after CrossFit I took a county road that had been closed for almost 5 years while FEMA told our township that they would only pay for them to put the little bridge back to the way it was. Um. Yeah, the bridge that failed in the 2016 flash flooding that didn't make the news.

See the structure in the middle? Twisted and torn with the road washed out on each side. This was not the historic flood of 2018 which traveled down a different watershed path.

Annnnnywaaaaay. The Road was now open after 5 years of being closed. I thought I'd enjoy a drive up from the valley to the ridge.

The bridge was rebuilt without the support structure in the middle of the stream. Eventually all of the little bridges over Black Bottom should be done this way as all 4 of them have structural damage. But our township is poor and they just patch things up for now.

As I drove Up from the valley, I recalled why I didn't take this road up. The road is very nice, very curvy and very pretty. But the left turn at the top of the ridge is a blind ... very blind turn. 

I did stop and park to take these shots back down the road as they reminded me of that famous highway in Door County that everyone wants to travel to and take photos of.

Which begs the question. Why do so many people want to take the same shots of the same scenery? Why not find something new?

Since I almost never ever take a road shot, I thought this turned out pretty cool. Not Door County, just a back road in the steep hills of our county.

I woke up to Dense Fog the next morning. Fog so bad you cannot see the pasture in front of the house. There was a Dense Fog Warning on my phone/weather app.

Imagine my delight to wake up to a near white out and know that I did not have to travel to work 30 miles away this time in it.

I considered driving up the river road to explore but decided that since I could not see the 'Ru, it probably wasn't a good idea. So Charlie and I decided to take a walk.

I put the IRChrome filter on the modified camera. 

The intent was to get some coolo fog IR shots and some spider web photos.

So I put the macro lens on the other camera and explored.

There is something unique and wonderful about seeing those gossamer threads that insects create. I try each year to also 'shoot' my neighbor's oat field when it is wet with dew. I have to get up there with that zoom lens and see how creative I can get.

So.

Now it was time for bed. I'd worked out at CF, mowed yard, hacked and wacked weeds, and it was time for rest.

So of course I began thinking about the stars and the next new moon and the next full moon. So in my mind I began to plot how, when, where, I would try shooting it.

My mind would not SHUT up, so eventually I got dressed and hiked out to the ridge.

This is where I sometimes come for sunrises. I lit up the foreground with my cell phone as an experiment.

Nothing exciting here. Too much light and the moon would rise in a bit.

Could I try the classic self portrait of me staring up into the Milky Way with my headlamp? Um.

Imagine me sitting on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere just thinking and staring into the sky. The first few tries were epic fails. My light was not bright enough, too bright, or whatever. So I kept at it.

I looked like I was doing some sort of Pagan Ritual in one of the shots. I have to keep this in mind for Halloween.

Eventually I got something I could live with.

Did I get the light right? Did the increase in humidity help?

I don't know, but I loved it. [Yes...here I am trying the shot that so many others have created...the fun in it was figuring it out and the challenge will be to make it interesting and different than all the other photos like this.]

Then the orange/red partial moon started to rise and I wished for my zoom. Instead I just decided to be happy and listen to the coyotes and the night creatures while I shared my insomnia with them.

Infrared Photography a journey in colors and light

If you read any of my stuff, you will know that I have always loved Infrared Photography. Even before I tried to stand it at all. I started out just getting 720nm Filter and putting it on my Olympus E 420. The shots were frustrating and I generally had to take super long exposures with an outcome of RED bleh photos.

They may not be so bleh, but I had no understanding at all about what 'white' balance was or even a light spectrum. All I knew is that I could produce some other-worldly photos. These are the first tries.

The exposures were something along 30 seconds or more and the photos started out as Beet Red. If I used a Nikon camera, I couldn't even be sure of the focus as the filter was SO dark!

Still, I would keep trying. I'd put the filter away and do other things. Then try some more. I wasn't exactly happy with all of it, but I felt that I could learn.

I generally carried the 720nm filter with me anyway. The shot below is a full 2 minute exposure. 

It would take me another 2 years to decide to purchase a Full Spectrum Point and Shoot Infrared camera.

There are companies that will take a normal camera and take out the filter that blocks Infrared light.

I decided to try one. A Canon ELPH 180 with 3 IR filters. I then decided to try to understand things called False Color and Channel Swapping. Most of the programs I had didn't do well with it. Below is one of my first attempts at making something with the tiny camera.

I really didn't know much of what I was doing, but I was still fascinated with the oddity of the photos.

The adventures I took were fun and many of the photos became black and white edits because the colors were just too strange for my tastes.

Then I took my old Olympus camera that had some issues and sent it in to have a full spectrum conversion. What does that even mean? It means that a filter added to the front of the lens can see in different light spectrums. I chose a 550nm, a 665nm, a 720nm, and an 850nm. I find the 850nm fun but it is strictly only to shoot in black and white.

From what I understand we only see a small spectrum of light. Bugs, may see slightly different than us and perhaps some animals do too.

The chart above shows our visible 'light'. Really, I am not one to explain it at all.
However I know that the 550nm filter gives me a very strange photo to start with.

The colors are odd and strange right out of the camera. I see most people edit this with a red foliage in a channel swap. I got something much different in my edit. I can't explain it. That sickly yellow became a blue with the Green Hue after a Channel Swap.

Confused yet? Don't be. I went even further just to make tiny adjustments to the colors that were available to me. Green produced blue skies.
Yellow added more oddness to the blue sky. Orange pushed to the max produced a purplish color.
And so forth. 

Nothing made common sense but the more I experimented, the more fun I had.
But the result was quite interesting:

Maybe it isn't your thing, but I found it fascinating.
Being able to use a light spectrum to see the world as my child self had once seen it was the absolute bomb! 
The sky did not have to be one color. Leaves could be purple, green, and pink. Infrared has made my inner child happy.

Below is a straight out of the camera shot with a 665nm Filter.

Below:
I liked the orangish colored sky. Was is fantasy or Apocalyptic?

And then the Channel Swap that is proper with this filter next:
Pretty enough and odd enough, but I liked the above version much better.

I am glad I sent in the Olympus OMD EM5. Now the poor thing's LCD screen turns green and sometimes I can't get it to properly expose shots.
I can use program mode and sometimes manual mode. But the camera has a bit of its own mind lately. That has made some of this year's photography a bit more interesting.

The last filter I will talk about is the IRChrome filter. Exactly how it works? I have no idea except that it allows me a huge leeway with colors.

Last thoughts. 
Winter is coming and that means less light reflection because the trees will have lost their leaves. 
However, I wonder what I can do with winter?

I didn't have much luck last year, however I am willing to approach it again this year.

I am always going to be learning and experimenting. 
Oh and I will have to replace the Oly EM5. After all, it is 8 yrs old and has been beaten relentlessly by me carrying it around since day one in all sorts of weather.

Tsk..tsk. In December I'll probably send in its replacement to be converted to full spectrum. 

I love light and colors in a different spectrum!