When I looked back at my favorite photographs from last year I made two discoveries. First, all of my selected photographs were black and white. Second, most of them were made with my IR camera. For this retrospective, I’ve chosen 12 photographs that illustrate how IR photography reveals the world in a different light.
The photographic highlight of the year was a return trip to the Palouse region of eastern Washington and western Idaho. During my first visit to this area in 2019 I made some of my first successful IR photographs using an IR filter on an unmodified camera. This time I wanted to explore the region again, emphasizing IR photography. The majority of the following photographs were made during this trip.
1. Deception Pass
In April I participated in a workshop on long exposure IR photography that was held at Washington’s Deception Pass State Park. This log exposure (2.75 minutes) gives an ethereal feel to both the clouds and the water.
2. Rosario Head
This is another photograph from the long exposure IR workshop. Here a 4.5-minute exposure reveals a bright curve formed by repeated wave breaks that connects the foreground to the rocks in the center of the frame.
3. Weber Homestead
This house on a Palouse farm is the original 19th century homestead, now abandoned for many years in favor of a more modern and comfortable house across the road. We had the privilege of visiting with the Weber descendant who is the current owner and who gave us permission to photograph here.
4. Adrift on a Sea of Wheat
Another view of the Weber house, showing how these abandoned buildings on the Palouse become part of the agricultural landscape.
5. Abandoned
So many Palouse farms have historic abandoned houses and barns that have been left to the elements.
6. Out to Pasture
The abandoned stuff on Palouse farms also includes vehicles. I photographed this post-World War II Dodge on my 2019 visit and was happy to have the chance to see and photograph it again, this time in IR.
7. Ghost Forest
Someone, for some reason, planted four long rows of deciduous trees along the highway next to the usual fields of wheat and canola. It seemed like a perfect spot for some intentional camera movement impressionism in IR.
8. Symmetree
In 2019 I photographed this symmetrical pair of trees at a great distance, with a telephoto lens, from the top of Steptoe Butte (visible in the distance). This year the road up Steptoe Butte was closed for repairs, but I was able to make a quite different photograph of the same trees.
9. Tony’s Barn
An old barn on a back road in Idaho, a location that was reputedly first identified by a certain photographer named Tony. I was happy to be able to photograph it.
10. Repurposed
This fence is made entirely of recycled metal wheels.
11. Out of Service
This old grain elevator, sitting beside a major highway near Pullman WA, is definitely "out of service." We were dodging raindrops on this afternoon, and the clouds provided the opportunity to make this moody and ominous photograph.
12. Liberty Bell
We took the scenic route home from the Palouse, driving the North Cascades Highway over Washington Pass. This photograph of Liberty Bell and the Early Winters Spires is just part of the spectacular view from the Washington Pass overlook.