I’m a retired firefighter and amateur photographer living on the Wirral Peninsula on Merseyside in the United Kingdom. I’ve only been interested in photography since 2004 and I got into infrared photography purely by accident like many others through my first camera, the Sony F717. Sony forums were full of advice about using the camera “Nightshot” mode and incorporating a ND filter and R72 filter to take decent infrared photographs and I was immediately hooked on the unseen world of infrared.
The limitations of shooting at 1/60 sec with the Sony F717 eventually led me to own my first converted camera. I had a Sony A200 converted to the 720nm wavelength and the majority of my infrared images have been taken with that camera.
For several years I’ve been pushing my own boundaries with infrared, trying out different lenses such as macro and a Samyang 8mm f3.5 fisheye lens and shooting architecture, interiors, people, flowers as well as landscape. Infrared photography is very much a post processing exercise in order to get the best out of the raw file and I use a range of filters from Topaz and Nik to enable me to get the results that I want. My aim is to try and add mood to infrared photographs as well as make a beauty image.
In September 2015 I switched to a Sony A6000 converted to the 590nm “Goldie” wavelength and I’m enjoying the new challenge of super colour infrared. I take a Sony A711 with me when I’m out shooting but the A6000 is invariably the first camera out of my bag.
