A bright sunny day, harsh light… what is a landscape photographer to do?
Make infrared (IR) photos of course!
Warning… photo talk ahead!
These photos are made by placing a filter* on the camera that blocks all but the longest wavelengths of light from getting to the sensor. Straight out of the camera the photos have a deep red color and very low contrast. Processing the files on the computer gives the results you see here.
Green foliage is very reflective in the IR and so it appears bright white in these photos. Water, on the other hand, efficiently absorbs IR light and thus can appear very dark.
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* Specifically, I used an ‘R72’ filter which blocks all light below 720 nm (a deep red color). The filter looks black. If you hold it up to the sky, you can barely make out the disk of the sun.