Miranda and Partner

With the warmer weather in May comes the beginning of the photo workshop season and the resumption of my regular visits to Halifax. I was lucky on this visit, in that Miranda's work schedule permitted us some time to work together on the day I'd arrived (we'd planned to work later in the weekend too, but scheduling issues conspired against us). The day was too cool to permit working outdoors but fortunately one of the upstairs rooms was available to work in (the same room where I'd worked with Gilda, Ingrid and Miranda on New Year's Day).

Digital infrared original

As I move closer to converting the Nikon D70 permanently to infra-red, I decided to do a test with an infrared opaque filter - the results were quite pleasing - this image of Miranda was made by soft diffused light - I pushed the ISO up, and used a fast f/1.4 lens, but the results were more than acceptable. If this is an indication of what I will get with the converted camera, I am very much looking forward to using it.

Digital original

With my previous DSLR, the Canon 10D, infrared photography wasn't practical; the camera was both very insensitive to infrared light and many of the images had a huge hot-spot in the centre of the image, making the results basically useless. The Nikon, on the other hand, worked quite well - the camera was quite insensitive to infrared light, but the results were quite lovely with no hot-spot to be seen. I made a number of images of Miranda standing against an open door, drawn to the small white door handle - the only real problem being getting accurate focus.Infrared light focuses behind visible light and requires adjustments to focus for larger apertures.

The rest of the session was spent working with Miranda on the bed, lit by the window behind it. The experiments with the infrared filter at the start of the session had been focused on standing poses, so I thought working with sitting and reclining poses would add some variety. In the middle of the session, Miranda's partner leant his arms and torso to a number of images, adding a third layer of variety.

Digital original, 5 frame stitch

By the end of the afternoon, the light was fading, and I had to take my leave to set up for teaching. The experiment with the infrared filter had made me even more enthusiastic for the modification of the camera, and the variety of images, from working with the door, Miranda and her partner, and just reclining on the bed, made me feel like we'd made the most of the time we'd had.