South Coast Botanical Garden in IR

 Here are a few photos I developed from my trip to this garden on January 22nd. I exposed three rolls of JCH 400, using my infrared filter, and this time, I was more generous with exposure, not like last time at the UCR garden where I was so careless and I foolishly underexposed by several stops. I wrote about it a week or two ago.

This time, I went because we had clouds, and I wanted drama in the skies. Thankfully it didn't rain, not like today (Monday, January 25th), when we had intermittent showers and where I even saw a flash of lightning at the Hidden Valley Nature Center, which I visited quickly (in a flash myself). On that Friday, with that film, I exposed at f8, as I recall, with 1/30th shutter speed. That was two stops more than I gave my rolls at UCR a few weeks ago, and it made the difference! The negatives were beautiful. Plus, I gave them more time in fix, four and a half minutes as per Sergio's suggestion, to try to get rid of the spots that are actually silver grains. They were cleaner! I must remember, from now on, at least four minutes fix.

Also, I know that many of the images are not winners. I know that I have to choose my subjects and compositions more carefully. I need a structure or patterns of interest, not a mass of trees or undifferentiated shrubs. I can see the problem with a few of these images. It helps to have a structure or branch that gives the composition definition and contrast, so it doesn't all represent of mass of white spots. And, some trees do not reflect IR, especially the ones that don't have fresh leaves, so that is why they say winter is not necessarily the best time for infrared photography. I will remember, although I do have some shots here that please me immensely. Hopefully I can return to another beautiful location, the Huntington Library, and try some shots there as well. 

In reality, now I am very interested in obtaining a digital mirrorless camera that has been converted for IR. Right now, I am spending about $11 for a roll of JCH. In the not-so-long run, a dedicated digital IR camera will help save me money.

Now, to bed. I have to report to the chain gang tomorrow morning. It is called Zoom.