Infrared photo, Warren Dunes State Park, MI, 2022
Infrared photography is one of my favorite artistic practices. I can’t go it all the time, or even often. Infrared photography, being of much lower-frequency light waves, takes time: longer exposures, careful attention to setup, and patience while the image is being made. The conditions and lighting have to be just right to be able to make IR photos, usually a day with bright sunlight and high-contrast shadows. I’ve done some nude IR photography with models, but I’d like to do more.
My birthday, always too close to Xmas, usually falls during either a severe cold snap or a January thaw. I want nothing more than to be sweating in the bright sun on a beach near water somewhere, like I could when I lived in California. Enough with these extreme cold winter birthdays! I’m more than ready for a tropical clime.
It’s been a winter of weeks of overcast and very few sunny days; my SAD has been affected, which combined with brain fog and stress, has led to one of the worst winter depressions I’ve felt in many years. The “holidays” sucked. Being on a beach, shirt open or off, camera in hand, making photos of people enjoying the day, would be a balm.
Thus, in my fantasy and memory, I will look through some of my infrared photos made on just such hot, bright days as I wish to relive today.