Because a converted infrared camera can see light that the human eye cannot see, the photographer is surprised by many of the photographs.  I think viewers are also.

The hard thing to grasp is that the camera is seeing real light on a different spectrum than the human being can see, so things that seem ordinary to us are not ordinary when captured in this way.

This country lane, on a route called 313 is one I’ve photographed a dozen times and I’ve never bothered to post one of the pictures because they seemed so ordinary to me. There was nothing special about them. In IR, there is.

But really, this is difficult and challenging photography, every photograph is a completely different experience, requiring different thought, preparation and settings.

Yesterday, Maria drove me along 313 near dusk, the late afternoon sun was directly on this path with its always open gate, this country lane leading off into the woods.

The camera made the scene look as radiant as nature really is, but that we, with our limited eyesight can only rarely see. I call this “Holy Light” or “Glory Of God” light because is captures the radiance of the universe.

To me, these are spiritual photographs, they touch me in a way few photographs do. I was reading the Kabbalah last night, before sleep, and I came across this passage on God describing creative withdrawal.

“Wisdom is the end of what you can ponder in thoughts, the greatest wisdom fills more than the mind can conceive. It contracts the essence of of its presence into a handbreadth, and darkness appeared over everything, for the absence of light is darkness. Then, from the source of all, it emanated the bright light of Wisdom in thirty-two paths, each path penetrating the darkness. With them the engraver engraved the darkness.”

The passage goes on to say that before the creation of the world, the holy spirit withdrew itself into its essence, “from itself to itself within itself.” It left an empty space, in which it could emanate and create.

This passage is especially relevant, because it shows that absence of light is darkness. From there, comes an engraving, the bright light of wisdom. That is how some of these pictures shine for me.

So this new photography, like all photography, is helping me see the world anew, a country lane I have passed 1,000 times without look becomes something else. The radiance and beauty of life, which we so often fail to see with our weak eyes and small imaginations.

And then, because I am shooting with the sun behind me, I see that the camera does pick up color, in this case the later afternoon light of the sun. Very cool.