Infrared

How was this done? Trial and error, mostly! I bought an infrared filter (cutoff 760 nanometers if you have to know) and plowed ahead. Some background: the big SLR camera makers like Nikon and Canon deliberately filtered most infrared light from ever hitting the sensor. I can’t blame them for wanting to improve their capture of the visible spectrum. We have two options. First, for a fee the camera can be modified to let infrared light through, but that turns the camera permanently into an infrared-only camera. Since I didn’t have any extra money to do this, or an extra camera to sacrifice, I went for an unmodified option.

Shooting infrared with an unmodified digital SLR required long exposures, in my case from half a minute to three or four minutes. I needed a sturdy tripod! You can see the length of the exposures in the movement of the clouds, for instance, and in the fact that I chose cacti, juniper and the more rigid plants as subjects. A little breeze will mean a blur.