Sunlit Infrared

A silhouette of a goat. The tree looks bright in the infrared spectrum.
Through previous projects, I started to like infrared photography. It gives a different image of plants. Note this is not a heat camera like a FLIR. It picks up light that is so deeply red, mammals can't see it. Plants happen to refect this color a lot. They appear bright. A clear sky remains dark even on a sunny day. This gives strange image.
I had removed the IR blocking filter from my dad's old little Canon pocket camera. I wanted to improve it, but then I broke it. Shortly after I was given a bag full of old camera's, that had a similar camera. This one survived the removal of that filter. Adding a filter that blocks visible light, makes it a IR-only camera. Great fun!
Upgrading the GF2 camera to IR, while slightly ruining it.
I decided I needed a better IR camera. After thinking about it for a long time, I decided to move my digital colour work up to a Sony A7, and sacrifice the GF2 for IR.
I bought that camera in 2011 and a decade later I took it to bits, down to the last screw. That's how deep these filters are embedded in the camera. On the sensor is a color correcting green piece of glass that blocks IR. This is essential for good RGB colors. There is also a transparent looking "hot mirror" that block more IR and UV. I removed them both.

A huge Worcester Railroad bridge dwarfs the Miss Worcester Diner. Massachusetts, 2022.
I chose IR for this image to highlight the vegitation growing on that bridge. For the composition, I waited for a black car to darken that corner of the frame.
Through Aliexpress, I orderd a bit of black glass that blocks visible light but not IR, of the correct size and shape as the green looking filter. The I put the camera back together.
Two things have been broken in the process: there is no contact with the lens anymore, so no autofocus, no manual focus by wire. And the flash always fires, even if it is closed. This drains the battery faster, but the battery still lasts me the whole day.
In IR, people look a bit weird
I put the filter inside of the camera for two reasons: It keeps the sensor straight and any lens that is mounted is a IR lens, so no need to buy a dozen filters with different diameters. This photo of the moon and a crow was shot with a 400mm lens on 2x tele-convertor. Hence the fuzzy image and the big moon.

That crow really was a bonus. It completes the image. It was a supermoon that day, but the size in the image is due to the focal length used.