One of my overriding goals and principles for Wednesdays in Marblehead has been to capture aspects of the town in such a way as to shed new light on them.  When I showed the mockup of my book to Bette Hunt, she gave me the nicest compliment by having just that reaction – seeing this town of hers in a new light (and I even stumped her on one image location).

Five years later, I found that there were certain spots that escaped my ability to capture them properly.  During the Winter as I worked on the book and was forced to review all of my work over these past few years, I found myself in search of a way to capture those areas and ones that I had already photographed in a new way.

Infrared photography has been around since the days of film but, as with all other things, it became much easier to accomplish with the advent of the digital SLR.  I sent my ‘old’ camera (which was responsible for nearly all of the images on this site from 2009-2012) to be modified so that it captured the infrared spectrum.  The result (when converted to black and white) is that blues shift to black and foliage shifts to white.  This change in the spectrum captured by the camera opens up a world of possibilities in the Spring and Summer with brilliant white glow from trees and grass.

The camera arrived in my hands in April and I spent the past two months learning how to see and compose images in a new light.  I had a number of failed images but just enough promising ones that I kept going.

On Father’s Day, I decided to head out for a bike ride as clouds began approaching town and adding interest to the deep blue sky.  I headed along the rail trail and found myself at Redd’s Pond shortly thereafter.  I started shooting around the length of the pond and was floored by the images I was seeing on the camera’s LCD screen.  I felt that I was truly seeing Marblehead in a new light – especially at a spot that I have visited so many times before.

This was one of my immediate favorites from the day’s journey.  The sky and water have been pushed to deep black by the infrared camera and the foliage carries that brilliant white glow.  With pollen on the water and the reflection captured at this shallow angle, the image seems to play tricks on the eye.

Hope you enjoy this first of many images of Marblehead in a new light.