ultraviolet steel (waterfront park)

waikiki ultraviolet

A handful of ultraviolet photos from Hawaii. These were taken using a B+W 403 filter, which lets a bit of infrared through along with the ultraviolet, and the camera & lens are better at handling infrared. So you often end up with a mix of both sides just beyond the visible spectrum. Infrared shows up as red, and ultraviolet shows up as shades of blue and, well, violet. As you can see, most materials are good at reflecting one or the other, but not both.

ultraviolet, lincoln city

willamette, ultraviolet, june '09

pearl district, ultraviolet

willamette, ultraviolet

A little explanation is in order for these photos. These are your basic photos of the sun reflecting off the Willamette River. Except that they were taken using a B+W 403 ultraviolet filter, so that we're mostly capturing ultraviolet wavelengths plus a little infrared presumably mixed in. To take them, I stood on the Steel Bridge facing the sun, and pointed the camera down at the light glinting off the river (which was near-blindingly bright in visible light), and then I had just enough light to get a few non-blurry photos.



I've stared at them long enough now that I no longer have any idea whether they're kind of cool or completely lame. If you think they suck, well, sorry. You won't get those couple seconds of your life back, but at least you didn't pay anything to see the photos. So there's that, at least.

Laurelhurst Park photos

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If you live in Portland, Laurelhurst Park should require no introduction. Or at least I hope so, since I don't plan on doing one, and I don't have anything in particular to say about the place anyway. What I do have are a few photos that aren't quite like the usual ones you see of the place. A few in infrared, others ultraviolet, and a few natural-light abstract shots tossed in, plus some ducks and geese just to round things out. So enjoy.

If you do want more info about the place, try either of the links in the first sentence of this post. That should be enough to get started.