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Craig Houghton April 24th, 2008
I am only a couple of rolls into this film thing, but I am loving my minty new minolta.
All taken with Fuji Reala 100.
Click image for larger pic
Click image for larger pic
Click image for larger pic
Click image for larger pic
Thanks for looking!
Craig Houghton September 7th, 2007
I’ve been meaning to post about this, but I’ve been ill. I find the nearly visible endlessly fascinating, so I’m sure I’ll return to this topic soon.
Near-infrared light is just beyond visible red light. With wavelengths of 780nm and up, it’s a spectrum we’re just not built to see. Well, there is a bit of an overlap, but the visible light around us overpowers the narrow band we can see without technological assistance. Near-infrared is the channel-changing bright light your remote control shines at your tv box. Take a look. If you can’t see the light when button-mashing (and, you shouldn’t be able to), look at it through your digital camera viewfinder. Note that this isn’t heat-based thermal vision and it isn’t infrared boosting night-vision, but it’s very cool.
See the links below for more on this, but the short story is that most digital cameras have a filter to block infrared light. They’re not out to spoil your fun — it helps to improve your pictures. However, it’s often a weak filter that still lets through some infrared light. However, whatever filter is there still acts like a pair of infrared-blocking sun-glasses, so you’ll have to use a looong manual shutter speed or set your camera to nightshot.
Learn more:
Infrared goggles ($10)- milk that narrow band of near-infrared that we can actually see (yes. they work.)
same idea with less talk, more pictures
use old film/exposed negatives to make an IR filter - that works, but the $30 dollar filter I bought for my digital camera 
remove the internal IR filter to increase sensitivity - most digital cameras (and probably webcams too) will do just fine with their internal filter intact, so I wouldn’t reach for that screwdriver yet
As for me, I’m very happy with my purchase of an Opteka 58mm 720nm Infrared Filter
(all photos here taken with my sony dsc-h1 and opteka ir filter
the photos often look best when tweaked to grayscale. before adjusting, you can get some funky colors
chlorophyll, like in these normally dark leaves, shows up as a strong white in near-infrared
it’s hard to read this photo, but the tree in the center here is a purple plum. the leaves are very, very dark, but they’re white when using a near-infrared filter. the sky also turns dark unless it’s overcast. barely visible clouds and rainbows are easier to see as well.
in near-infrared, a clear sky can be dark like this without after-tweaking
infrared in grayscale (at top) versus visible light in grayscale (below)
the dark plum looks almost like a negative, but it’s not. here’s the visible (bottom) full color along with what an actual negative would look like (at top) just as a reminder. notice that it’s quite different from the infrared atop the first pair.
Also, I really do recommend the $10 goggles (cost a bit more with mail-order parts). When the light is strong (noon till 3 or so on a bright day), it’s a world of pink and white leaves, dark networks of branches, and black skies. We only see a narrow band, but I know it’s the real thing as the plum tree turns a white I could never get with normally-visible light interfering.
Craig Houghton July 22nd, 2007
Over at the Cheshire Town Post I uploaded some photos of flowers and bees and such from the Riverbound Farm bird sanctuary in Cheshire.
Click for Full-Size
Click for Full-Size
Click for Full-Size
Here’s one from home that didn’t fit in that post.
Photos by Craig Houghton.
Craig Houghton June 11th, 2007
Water em’. They’re thirsty!
Craig Houghton February 20th, 2007
Here’s Berberis thunbergii before the last of the berries fall off and spring begins. There’s one growing in my front yard. It’s considered an invasive exotic species. I have no idea how the berries manage to stay attached all winter, but they take quite a bit of wear before they lose their shine, dry up, darken, and fall.
8×24 acrylic
detail
-Craig
Craig Houghton February 14th, 2007
Last night I watched the Carlos Huante Gnomon Creature Sketching and Design Video. He demonstrated a drawing technique that included colored pencil, marker paper, and rubbing alcohol. Once he had the basic forms down with some selective detail and value, he splashed alcohol on a cotton square and rubbed out the work. He then lifted out the lights with an electric eraser and reapplied the darks. From there he used the mid-tone to help him carve out a creature. I tried out essentially the same technique, but I did make use of a white colored pencil as neeeded.
I apologize for the marker tree there. This started out on my scrap page of marker paper — I didn’t expect to go anywhere with it, but the technique felt comfortable enough to keep me going. I didn’t expect the colored pencil to be so forgiving (in terms of getting things initially hammered out), but when you wash out the light lines using the alcohol, it cleans it right up.
-Craig
Craig Houghton February 7th, 2007
I started a new toned fabriano sketchbook today. Here’s an edge of the woods sketch from during lunch today.
Thanks for looking
Craig Houghton is a self-taught artist available for fine-art commissions and illustration work. Contact via email using leversandpulleys at yahoo.com.
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