The morning sky was gray this morning, the sun beginning to poke through the clouds. The infrared camera sees the rain in the clouds and turns them dark, it brightens the white clouds. The camera sees what I cannot see, and captures the drama and emotion of nature.
When I took this photo, I didn’t realize Maria was in it, she stood with her eyes closed reflecting for a moment on the beauty of the morning. I was actually look towards the sun, hanging in the sky to the right. I didn’t know she had her eyes closed, but it gave the photograph a soft and meditative feel, a Glory Of God photo. Curious, I’ve taken this photo from the vantage point a million times, but this picture makes me feel as if I had not ever seen it before. Seeing the world anew, the unseen world.
Traces of light, sparks of a kind. Says the Kabbalah: “You should aim to raise these sparks hidden throughout the world, elevating them to holiness by the power of the soul.”
As most of you know, Dan Llewellyn of Maxmax.com sent me a Canon 60D camera that he converted to infrared (IR) photography. I’ve had the camera for two days and took my first photos yesterday, on the eve of a nasty storm. This camera has left me transfixed, it offers me the miraculous opportunity to explore a new world, the world of the unseen.
To me, a holy world, filled with holy light. The photographs seem to say “hush,” they make us pause and see the true light of the world, the colors and feeling our eyes are not powerful enough to see. Human eyes cannot see infrared light, as it lies just beyond what we call the “visible” spectrum, the light and color that humans can detect.
With new and infrared photography, ordinary photographers like me – of varying abilities and moderate budgets – can see the world anew. I am just beginning to experiment with this new kind of photography, you can read more about it on Dan Llewellyn’s website, he is a genius, and a generous and far-sighted one.
Privately, I used to call these photos “Glory Of God” photos, the ones that capture light in a certain way. Now I have a camera that sees what I cannot see, and sees the light that is true and real, that exists in all living matter and things, far beyond Photoshop. This is the true light of the world, spiritual light, it is not added or altered.
I have a lot to learn, I am just beginning to explore this camera, I took it to sleep with me last night (it didn’t really work out, I kept rolling over onto it.)
