In Infrared photography, the best subjects are skies, contrasted with clouds and water contrasted with trees limbs. Sunlight plays a role in infrared subjects as the angle of the sun relates with the time of day and the time of year. From my background in shooting Ektachrome infrared transparencies in 1972, I learned that there was another element that added infrared spectrum to a shot, which was due to how atmosphere was affected just after an electrical thunderstorm. This ‘light’ gave the most intense infrared colors to the infrared slides, and the strength of the infrared was not just due to the sun, because repeatedly, the air felt intensified after a storm, and the results were dramatic.

Infrared Emotions is a recent project of mine since 2010, when I did an Infrared Camera Conversion, replacing the sensor with an infrared sensor in a Nikon D100. In my current infrared photography, the image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared and the wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm.

These images that I made ‘in camera”, became opportunities for expressing emotional content as I related to the subject. They are more than photographs because they have been processed. Not only are our sensibilities challenged by seeing dark skies against white foliage, but in several of these “watery images”, softness is the predominate meaning.

In contrast, there are other emotions, as in “Violent Versailles 1789”, which has multiple contributing factors: the angle of shot, the fisheye lens, aimed directly at the setting sun, casting sun flares, alluding to the violence that took place during the French Revolution, with the large sky and dramatic clouds above the entrance, intensified by several filters that I created in Topaz Studio.

All photographs were enhanced with infrared and enhanced by my manipulations in Photoshop with Topaz Studio, creating a red drama.