7 Days of IR: 850nm (1/7)

Now that all of my infrared filters for the Kolari Pocket camera have arrived, I'm starting a new project! Over the next few weeks, I'll be going out on photo walks on my day off with my little full-spectrum converted camera. Each time, I'll be bringing along one and only one infrared filter. This will give me the chance to not only explore Bangkok in a new way, but also to experiment with the different wavelenths of infrared light that my camera can capture.

Infrared photography is a super cool and sort of tricky medium. It can be hard to capture exactly the sort of scene that you're looking for, as it's much more about light than  it is about color.

In fact, the first filter that I'm testing out, the 850nm infrared filter, doesn't let in any light from the color wavelength spectrum at all. These pictures may look like I've desaturated them, but with this IR filter, the images are black and white directly out of the camera without any sort of post-processing. 850 creates a moody and somewhat classic atmosphere.

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For this photo walk, I explored the area around Central Plaza Lat Prao and the Centara Grand Hotel near Chatuchak Park in Bangkok.

Photos taken on Kolari Pocket with 850nm filter.

a typical street scene on a sunny afternoon - notice how the IR lens turns all the plants a dazzling white

a motorbike zooms past

a quiet side street near St. John's Church

the entrance to a local metro station

a spirit house

a castle at a nearby abandoned amusement park

A listener to my podcast recommended me to check out the photographs of Sir Simon Marsden who shot black and white infrared photographs of castles. This is my tribute to him, the only castle that I could find in Bangkok!

a hotel's spirit house surrounded by lush gardens

the plants contrast sharply with the glittering spirit house and dark sky

a man lights incense and prays at the spirit house

infrared photography turns the sky a moody dark grey; this type of photography looks best in harsh light

unlike other types of photography, you don't need to avoid the harsh midday sunlight with infrared

a typical Bangkok scene of parking garage, spirit house, and garden

walking along a leafy street

the towering Centara Grand Latprao Hotel (home to a very excellent afternoon tea)

a spiraled ramp to an overpass walkway

Bangkok is home to tons of interesting architectural features

Look at my sunglasses! You can see right through them. Isn't that weird? Sunglasses are designed to block UV light, and infrared light passes right through. These glasses are DARK, but they look like transparent glass when photographed at the infrared spectrum. You can also see through the opaque lens filter to the camera's sensor.

a Rolls Royce - not necessarily the best subject for infrared photography, but I can never pass up the chance to photograph a Rolls!

one of my favorite photos from my walk - a spirit house in a beautiful tropical garden

I have to be honest, I started this "7 Days of IR" project with my 850 filter because it was the one that I was the least excited about. I got into infrared photography because of the weird and otherworldly tone shifts that the color filters pick up, and didn't think that an 850 filter would do much other than shoot a basic black and white image. I was totally wrong! The way that this filter turns greens into bright white and shifts the sky to a dark black is fascinating, and it really makes things like the spirit house pop. I am actually really amazed by these photos, even if I'm not so good at IR yet, and now I totally get why IR photographers seem to favor black and white filters.

A listener to my podcast suggested that black and white IR photography looks best on ancient subjects like the ruins found in the old capitals of Ayutthaya or Sukhothai, and how a bit of graininess would help emphasize the vestiges of the past. I'd like to take him up on that recommendation and make a trip to Ayutthaya some time in the next few weeks if the COVID restrictions are lifted. Coincidentally, my buddy Greg (who hooked me up with my new bike), also sent me a route map of a great bike ride from Bangkok to Ayutthaya this week. I think a biking + IR photography adventure may be in the works in the not-too-distant future...