All winners to me.

such good photographs.

n/t

Thanks, Mz Pip!

My vote and soon to be winner....."Old Ireland". Black and White photos, such expression. Love them.

Neshonic was another great one, too.

Last edited Mon Nov 19, 2012, 11:10 AM - Edit history (1)

But is that cheating? Infra red is not really B&W.

In fact, perhaps less so. B&W digital cameras do exist, but I doubt one was used to take any of these pictures. I suspect every one of these images started out in color and were converted to B&W. My IR camera is only sensitive to red, orange, and to a much lesser extent, yellow by virtue of the filter that's used inside the camera (590nm cutoff). A normal digital camera would be sensitive to the full color spectrum and would reject most IR light. So an IR camera (especially a true IR camera which mine is not) would at least be closer to monochromatic than a regular digital camera because much less of the visible light spectrum is being used. The picture in question was converted to B&W the same as all the others were, which is to say the individual color channels were desaturated to some shade of grey in order to produce a monochromatic image.

Back in the film days, the vast majority of IR photographic images were monochromatic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography#Black-and-white_infrared_film

However, the expense involved in converting a good digital SLR to IR precludes many from obtaining such a stunning image. Maybe it's just sour grapes on my part as I can't afford such a great system right now. I love your work to the point that it was a no brainer for me to recognize it.

However, this is not the only way to do it and many people are producing stunning IR images with much less of an investment. You can buy in-camera IR filters and convert many types of cameras yourself. There's a lot of people out there who are buying cheap older digital cameras on the used market and converting them at home. You can also install a screw-on 720nm filter (the plastic ones are quite cheap) and convert any camera to IR (although this method has it's own disadvantages just like any other). You can also still get IR film for film cameras. For no more than I've been using my IR camera, I would have been money ahead buying IR film for my old FM2.

You are correct in that the route I went is out of the reach of many photographers. I bought a refurbished Nikon D5000 for about $400 and had it converted to IR which cost me another $300. This doesn't even cover the cost of a lens, although I already had many lenses I can use on this camera. However, it wouldn't surprise me at all if many of these other pictures were taken with camera and lens combinations which cost north of 2 or 3 thousand. So it's not as if the price of entry into some of these other images isn't high as well.

I'm not in this to win, and actually I hope I don't. There's lots of other great images here that I think are better than mine. I didn't even vote for my own.

what I thought exemplified the most artistic framing and photographic acumen. In this particular case, it was your entry. And you are correct, there are many wonderful entries this month. DU is lucky to have such an active and talented forum for photography and photographers.

I know I did!

or more?

I am finding myself completely taken with "Swamp" and would love to display it framed in my home....

You will find the photographer info there.