Descanso in IR

As described before, I visited Descanso Gardens on Monday, Sept. 21st. I also took some sheets of Rollei Infrared 4x5 film with me, and I shot four exposures. (I also have a roll of 120 IR film taken with JCH Streetpan film.) I am getting a feel for the Rollei film.

There is a massive fire in the Angeles Crest mountains. This fire at times looked like something out of Mordor, with an angry Sauron look to it in the fiery red interior. It looks terrible. I am noticing that the foreground is very out of focus. I think I will try shooting at f22 in the future and focusing more closely, not at infinity, when using this film.

Another view of the area around the mountains. The trees all look skeletal, i.e., washed in infrared light. I love how dramatically the mountains are highlighted.

This is a big structure that is located near the entranceway. These had beautiful flowers, and I knew I had to try an infrared photo. Maybe I should have chosen a different composition.

This photo just didn't turn out, it was very blurry. I didn't focus correctly, I think that the trick with infrared, if I recall from my experience in the 90s with Kodak HIE, is that you have to focus closer than the subjects are located. I also chopped off the top, I think I did not replace the dark slide all the way, so it was lost. It might have been a great composition. I will try it again in the future.

That was it. I still have my roll of JCH Streetpan shot as infrared that I have to get developed. Then, I need to definitely buy more infrared film. Today (or was it yesterday?) is the first day of autumn. The sunlight will not be with us forever, it will wane, so this is infrared season. I have one unopened box left (25 exposures), and I want to visit more areas, plus return to the garden at Claremont. I would also love to try infrared photos at my campus, if the detectives will leave me alone (to refer to the Elvis Costello song I referenced in a prior entry).

These past two days have been very troubling. My 7 year old niece has been having panic attacks, and she has been complaining about not being able to breathe. Yesterday night she actually three herself on the floor and pounded it with her hand, screaming that she didn't want to die. I was afraid her lungs might have filled up and that she might have Covid. They had to take her to the hospital, with my sister crying (but trying to control herself). They conducted the tests, and she was negative. They x-rayed her lungs, and they are fine. They had to interview her as well, and they said that my niece is having panic attacks, and that she should go in for observation to another hospital. They said she might not be in a tranquil environment at home, that is, that we might be making her anxious. My niece said she gets nervous because she hears us talking about the virus and she thinks she will die. I am so sorry she heard us talking about what is happening in the world right now. She has the same anxiety that we all have in my family, although she has nothing to distract her from it. She can't play with her cousins or other children, she has no activity, etc. At least I have photography.