The delicate appearance of my model’s skin here is exacly the sort of thing I was looking for when I decided to start shooting infrared.

Is too much sugar killing us?

“Agh!  You cleaned the sink!”

This is not a terribly surprising exclamation in our home.  Just the day before I accused Nicole of getting the sink wet, if you can imagine such a thing!  Whatever was she thinking?

I’d spotted a couple hairs that had arranged themselves in a pattern that caught my eye, and I wanted to make a photograph….

Fortunately, my good wife is amazingly tolerant of my eccentricities and remained calm, as she always does.  She is accustomed to me making photographs from all manner of things, including this ice cream bowl that had been set in the sink to soak before washing.

Ice cream bowl with spoon

This will probably become a portfolio photograph when I’ve taken it through print-adjust-repeat process.

Well, I did go back to that tree yesterday, but I’m not satisfied with the results yet.  I’ll go again tomorrow morning to catch some different light and try slightly different composition.

In the meantime, a goofy IR self-portrait.

Informal self portrait

One of the things I am really enjoying about IR photography is the way that it separates the tonal values of tree trunks and foliage, revealing the form of the trunks and branches.

Dark branches against light foliage makes for dramatic compositions

Here’s another good example.  It would be very hard to separate the trunks and foliage this way with conventional colour photography.

Wide tree with bench

This is actually a crop from a different composition.  I’ll definitely return soon to shoot this from a bit farther away in order to eliminate the distracting background.

As I have been expecting, sadly, this past few weeks, there was no D3X announcement from Nikon today.  Instead they announced the D90, a rather nice upgrade to the aging D80 and including a feature not previously seen in a DSLR … high quality video capture!  Announced just a day after Canon announced it’s new 50D, it continues a real winning streak for Nikon this year.

So Nikon currently has Canon trumped in several market segments, but the high resolution king continues to be Canon.  Nikon now has a 12MP entrant in three different market segments, but at the top end, this is decidedly outdated.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my D3 for many reasons, but I really want to cature more detail, and Nikon’s first 12 MP body, the D2X, was announce four years ago.

Now Nikon has made some very smart, very aggressive moves in the past year.  So what is holding them back from striking at the head of Canon’s lineup?  We may never know, but a few possibilities occur to me:

• There is strong evidence that the fabled D3X (or whatever it will be called) will incorporate the 24 MP sensor announced by Sony early this year, or a variant of it.  Nikon has used Sony built sensors before, but this time Sony is expected to release a body incorporating the same chip.  Has Nikon agreed to wait until they are ready?
• Chip fabrication is sometimes a bit of a black art.  Is Sony having difficulty getting acceptable yields from their new chip, or encountering some other manufacturing difficulty?
• Today’s D90 announcement was a following day trump of Canon’s 50D announcement.  Is Nikon waiting for a chance to take the wind from Canon’s sails again with a high MP announcement?

Maybe it is none of the above, but for sure if Nikon wants to maintain its momentum, it better announce it soon.

A couple false colour IR images of Nicole sketching in the park yesterday:

Nicole sketching in the park

IR image of Nicole sketching in the park

I spent much of the day yesterday at the museum of civilization.  Whenever I go I am struck by the beauty of the building itself, inside and out.

I had my D300-IR camera with me, which is usual these days.  I’m taking it with me most everywhere, shooting many different subjects to get a feel for what it will do.  Then back at home there is endless playing with post-processing for the same reason.

I didn’t expect to be very interested in the false-colour approach that many people use, but sometimes I like the effect.  Here’s an example from the museum.

IR photograph of the Museum of Civilization

IR photograph of derelict bus

This time with some different processing