Six Shooter Peak, Utah (Infrared). This is actually only one of the two Six Shooter peaks outside the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. We paid it a visit on the way home from our Colorado trek this fall (2021), and it was pleased to pose for us above this patch of very gnarly cottonwoods alongside Lavender Creek.

And… we have a blessed event to observe here! I got a third camera converted for infrared a while back, and this is its first image to be posted. It’s a different kind of conversion this time: full spectrum, meaning that the camera is able to record all visible light plus the parts of the invisible (to humans) infrared and ultraviolet bands that the sensor can capture (cameras normally include a filter that blocks those invisible wavelengths, which would otherwise distort the camera’s colors). This allows me to use specialized filters on the lens to control what wavelengths the camera will see; in this case, I used a 720nm infrared filter, which blocks almost all visible and uv light but passes infrared. My resident artistic digital elves also pitched in to help emulate the look of Kodak’s long discontinued Aerochrome color infrared film.

Tech info: Nikon D800E camera (modified for full spectrum) with Nikon 28-300mm lens at 90mm and with 720nm infrared filter on lens, 1/250 sec. at f/11, ISO 250.

Image ©2021 James D. Peterson