Monday 14 July 2014

Simon Weir infrared images of Yellowstone Park

I've occasionally dipped into the infrared work of Simon Weir, who self-published a book of infrared landscapes a couple of years ago and takes fine infrared landscapes. Besides his own web site he is working extensively with Fuji X System cameras and has a blog devoted to that work. I mention this because he's taken an IR-modified Fuji X-E1 to Yellowstone National Park and achieved some stunning images.

Of course you can't think Yellowstone and photography without considering Ansel Adams. He wrote, in 'The Negative', that the haze penetration and bright foliage in an infrared image "does not necessarily achieve more than a superficially startling effect". He did take some infrared photographs, but I don't recall any of Yellowstone. Adams's comment on infrared photography may seem dismissive but he went on to "freely acknowledge that, in imaginative hands, infrared film can produce magnificent images." I think Simon's shots from Yellowstone fit that bill.