Three Trees & Bird on the Wire (Infrared), Stratford 2024

I frequently travel between my home in Armidale and Sydney via two magnificent country roads called Thunderbolt’s Way and The Bucketts Way. Thunderbolt’s Way has a 140 km stretch between two townships, Walcha and Glouchester, with absolutely no other town or village in between. In typical Australian style, Thunderbolt’s Way was named after a criminal, Captain Thunderbolt, a notorious bushranger who was eventually shot by police at Kennedy in 1870. Even the site where the local police constable shot Thunderbolt, and he subsequently died, is a State heritage-listed paddock in the Kennedy district; why, I don’t know. The trip to Sydney usually takes 6.5 to 7 hours, and for a significant portion of the two roads I mentioned, some 335 km on just two roadways. As with all photographers who shoot landscapes, travelling on beautiful country roads also becomes an exercise in location scouting. I have spied these three trees, in all seasons, clumped together with fence lines leading up to the subject, for several years and finally had the time and right conditions to stop and take some photographs.

The day was mostly cloudy, with patches of blue sky and the sun popping in and out of the clouds. Another image shown below was photographed on the same day; however, one wouldn’t think so when comparing the two images. The photograph was taken on a Canon 6D MkII converted to infrared with a 720nm long pass filter or infrared transmission filter (see article on digital infrared photography). The tonal qualities of the image are typical of reflected infrared photography. The grass in direct sunlight is light in tone, and the foliage in the sunlit trees is the same because they reflect a lot of infrared light. Conversely, the blue sky has a dark tone due to its lack of reflected infrared light. The foliage in the distance hill is also dark because the trees are shaded from direct sunlight due to the cloud cover. This shows the reflected infrared difference between foliage that is directly lit by the sun and subjects that are not. The three tree subjects do not demonstrate a mostly light tone because they are deciduous trees, and this was shot in July (winter in the southern hemisphere), meaning the foliage was primarily dead and falling off the trees.

I particularly like the horizontal sections within this composition. Six horizontal divisions run across the frame, and the subject crosses four of those sections vertically. The six horizontal sections include: i) the foreground grass, ii) the grassy knoll (hill) behind the subject, iii) the dark hills behind that, which seem to mimic the shape of the cloud, iv) the sky below the cloud, v) the cloud and vi) the sky above the cloud. The unusual cloud formation adds to this horizontal notion and adds to the overall image design.

The image below shows how cloudy the day was and has an entirely different mood. The scene and subject matter are to the left of the road shown in this image, and you can just make out the three trees at the left edge of the frame. Fortunately, I got a sky that adds so much to the composition. Luck seems to happen often when you are out and about shooting. The trick is to get out there and see what happens on the day. By the way, can you see the ‘bird on the wire’? I think the crow adds another interesting layer to the photograph. It is a crow sitting on the fence wire just under and to the left of the trees. Reflected infrared photography offers exciting opportunities for landscape photographers who enjoy working in monochrome. However, there are certainly some differences in how you consider the tonal values from various subject matter and whether they are lit directly by sunlight or not. I might continue to shoot this location and particularly when the trees are completely bare with leaves… let’s see if I can improve on this image.

Written by Glenn Porter - 22 July 2024

All images and text are copyrighted to Glenn Porter, all rights reserved.