IR close to work

Camera Club duties have, again, taken their toll when it comes to my own photography since Christmas.  That's life, unfortunately.  I did have the chance to wander around with my new IR camera one lunchtime last week, however, and these are the results.

My office is just around the corner from Cambridge Airport, hence the picture above.

The "greasy spoon" caravan is just outside the Airport perimeter fence, and directly opposite a large Mercedes dealership.  Usually this means that there is no shortage of takers for its wares.  Because of the red filter in the IR camera, the "NO ENTRY" sign has been rendered almost invisible.  The second picture is a local "tyre, brake and exhaust" outfit, and the chap shown was simply basking in the early February sun.

The final four pictures are of the Mercedes dealership, which has just had a shiny new aluminium cladding fitted - presumably as this will make people spend even more on their outrageously expensive cars.  Interestingly, the flags in the last shot genuinely were blue; but then so was the sky.  That's one of the things I love about IR photography, as it's not always possible to predict the outcome.

Barrington in the Sun

For the first time since my 20D was converted to Infra Red, the sun shone last Saturday afternoon.  Despite it being bitterly cold, Phil and I ventured to Barrington to see what was happening.  The thatched cottages around the Village Green looked extremely attractive in IR.

There was also a football match going on, and although IR isn't the obvious medium for sports photography, I thought I'd give it a go.  I particularly like "The Booking", possibly resulting from the fact that the language was as blue as the photographs, courtesy of most of the players...

The final picture is of Phil, who looked particularly fetching in his new blue and beige livery!

New Year Walk

One of my favourite haunts for walking Amber: Button End, between Harston and Haslingfield.  Still getting to grips with the IR camera, as I'm finding the metering a bit hit and miss.  Just like the old days with Kodak HIE film, in fact...

Not sure about pure mono or false-colour IR either.  Need to keep experimenting!

A trip to Wells

In an attempt to burn off some of the Christmas calories, we went to Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coast a couple of days ago.  It was dull, grey and gloomy, and the rain set in during the afternoon.  Nevertheless we had a great time on the beach, throwing a frisbee for the dog and photographing the beach huts.

I've never tried photographing the beach huts with a fisheye lens before, but the results are rather interesting.  Of course, there's always the possibility of a stray dog and frisbee finding their way into the shot, but that's just an occupational hazard...

I also took my newly converted IR camera with me, and rather liked the false colour images produced simply by correcting the white balance.  Something akin to a cross between split toning and hand colouring...

The final shot shows my daughter, Frances, taking a picture of something interesting on the beach - a cockle shell, by the look of it.  Perhaps she'll post it on her blog at some point?

A New Toy

It's been a long time since I last posted, and this reflects an almost total lack of photography since October. Too many other things to do, unfortunately, but a few days off work have enabled me to do a bit of catching up.

Santa was very generous this year, and allowed me to have my original 20D converted for Infra Red at Advanced Camera Services. Despite the weather (and me being late sending the body off for conversion) the good people at ACS worked liked troopers to get everything completed in time for Christmas. Superb service, and a very friendly and helpful bunch of people. Boxing Day was my first opportunity to take the camera out, and these are the results from that inaugural trip...

We went for a walk along the edge of the quarry between Barrington and Harlton. The day was rather dull and cold, but there was clearly still a fair amount of IR light around. Frances had borrowed a couple of item from my camera bag, and was busy trying them out during the afternoon.

A couple of details from the walk...

... and three views of the quarry and its environs.

P.S. I love my new toy (although I'm yet to be convinced by Blogger's new auto-layout editing system - so much for WYSIWYG!).