Today’s Post by Joe Farace
There are many gods … gods of beauty and magic, gods of the garden, gods in our own backyards, but we go off to foreign countries to find new ones, we reach to the stars to find new ones— Rudolfo Anaya
Garden of the Gods is a public park (admittance is free) that’s located in Colorado Springs, Colorado and was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971. I recently visited the park with my friend Mark Toal and we shot many of the images, including the below photograph in digital Infrared.
The red rock formations in The Garden of the Gods were created millions of years ago during a geological upheaval along a natural fault line. Archaeological evidence shows that prehistoric people visited this location about 1330 BC. At about 250 BC, Native American people, including Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Lakota, Pawnee, Shoshone, and Ute, camped in what would become the park. They are believed to have been attracted to the many kinds of wildlife and plant life found in the area and used the overhangs created by some of the rocks for shelter.
How I Made this Photo: This infrared image was made close to noon MDT—theoretically prime infrared shooting time—but storm clouds were right around the corner and finally got us wet! The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix G6 that was converted to infrared capture by Life Pixel using their Enhanced IR (665 nm) filter. Lens was the Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm. Exposure was 1/640 sec at f/11 and ISO 400. The RAW file was processed in Silver Efex and give a Platinum tone using PhotoKit2.
The area was originally called Red Rock Corral. In August 1859 one of the surveyors, Rufus Cable, that were exploring the site was awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, “Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.”
I’ve found that Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they’ve done most of the conversions for some of my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.
My book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography is available from Amazon with new copies available for $7.62 and used copies selling for around four bucks as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon new for $11.46 with used copies starting around four bucks.