Best Camera

By now it is little  more than a tired cliché, but, as the saying goes, 'the best camera is the one you have with you'. The best camera I had with me on this particular day a couple of years ago was an IR converted Canon 5D that I picked up for about $200. One of my pandemic experiments. The only lens I owned for it was a Lensbaby of some sort. So, when I came across this old church, I pulled over and made some photographs with the best camera and lens combo in my possession. They are actually reasonable shots I suppose, but if I'm honest, I've soured some on the blurred out look. And through the process, I learned something else about myself: I ain't in love IR photography either. So, not too long after this shot was made, I sold the camera on. The church was torn down, too, and townhomes erected in its place. So it goes...

It is raining heavily at the moment, buthHere's too good light this weekend, fellow traveler.
 

Monstrous light

When we moved into our house, one of the first upgrades we made was to install uplights on several of the trees in our yard. You see, there is nothing worse than looking out the window at night and seeing... well, nothing. Much more pleasant to look out and see your trees.

Frankenstein lighting is not particularly flattering for human subjects, but I think that trees take on a new beauty when lit like this at night. The first image was shot on an old IR converted Canon 5D camera (the first model) using an even older apochromatically corrected 180 mm Leica lens. This lens is so well corrected that it has the same focal length for visible as well as near IR wavelengths, meaning it is easy to accurately focus the old 5D even at wide apertures close up.

I've heard that the Leica R 180 mm was designed to work best at longer working distances, near infinity in fact, but it seemed to perform admirably here as well.  While I'm very fond of this image, frankly, I'm still trying to make up my mind about IR photography in general.