One of the problems with writing a title to a blog entry or an article like the above one is that people are going to expect something intelligent or well thought out or maybe even well written as a result of a possible complexity from reading the title.
Well shit… that’s just not right. You’re at my blog so while complexities may be in high demand, logic probably isn’t.
But I’m gonna do my best (even though I’m tired) to explain a bit about this entry. It doesn’t serve much more than to show you a few infrared photos I took the other day.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-PhotoSensitive-01.jpg[/img]
You see, I was bored. I was bored and I was waiting for a search to dig up some solid results on why I keep running into some dynamic field problems with [url=http://www.bowie.com.au]Bowie’s new site[/url] I’ve recently put online. I felt like I needed a walk.
Plus, I needed to take the trash out. That’s probably the initiating reason, mind you. I need to take the trash out. It was smelling up a storm.
So I took the trash out and as I entered the little room that stored the garbage, I saw a whole bunch of spiderwebs with some evil looking spiders (not many cute looking spiders, if you ask me) with some foliage in the background. So I decided upon something: why not bring out the camera and take some shots in infrared of the spiders and the spiderwebs and the foliage and whatnot.
Gigi — the neighbours’ cat — seemed willing to accompany me to the bit outside of our block of apartments so at least I had some company and an assistant. I did change lenses a few times and I got a few meows every now and then. I’m not entirely sure what those meow’s meant, but I’m sure it was something nice.
Or food related. “Feed me” is food related. It could’ve been “I’m cute”. Cats are like that. They always want you to confirm what you and they already know: that they’re attractive and sweet and you couldn’t live without them.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-PhotoSensitive-03.jpg[/img]
Shooting in infrared is usually an exercise in patience and timing, especially when you can’t see through the filter. You see, an R72 infrared filter is so dense that you can only see through it if there’s a lot — and I mean a lot — of bright light behind it. The usual way you shoot with it is to compose your image first, mount the filter on, and then take the shot.
However, the camera I use — the Nikon D70 — can see through the filter enough for a focus lock. Sure, it has an IR pass filter like pretty much every other digital camera on the market which stops it from receiving a true infrared image, but what it does have to allow me to shoot with will work as an IR image.
As such, the lens I was shooting heavily on was a Nikon 55mm Micro, the old macro lens Nikon had in probably the 60’s and 70’s, before the 60mm came along and replaced it. It’s heavy, sturdy, well-built, and manual. No light metering or digital aperture control. Manual work that requires a thought process (and is made a lot easier with the use of an LCD screen).
Macro photography is, too, about patience. More than likely, it’ll come down to you moving in and out, back and forth, to get the right focus for your subject matter as it sways in and out of your focal plane.
So shooting on an entirely manual lens with a filter that you can’t see through requires double the amount of patience.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-PhotoSensitive-02.jpg[/img]
[i]I must’ve shot that image 6 or 7 times as the little plant-ball-thingy was blown by the wind in and out of my focal plane…[/i]
And then the dog came in… and Gigi ran for her life.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-PhotoSensitive-04.jpg[/img]
Up until that point, Gigi had been calm and quiet, chilling on the thrown about leaves and bits of bark that make up the front of our block of apartments. She was relaxing while me — her neighbourly neighbour — did whatever it was I was doing.
And then the little fox terries or whatever it was came. His name was Chester. And his owner thought that he was smarter than the cat.
I love dogs. I love cats. But Chester wasn’t smart… he was cute and yappy, but smart I doubt. And Gigi ran up the fence and into a tree. It took a while to get her down.
[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/02-PhotoSensitive-05.jpg[/img]
I imagine she’s back to her normal whining self by now. I swear, the cat talks so much and doesn’t let you get a word in, she could be Jewish. It really wouldn’t surprise me. I may have met the first [i]real[/i] Jewish cat.