Please enjoy this collection of photographs from the infrared light spectrum, usually invisible to the human eye. Skies that appear blue to our eyes don't reflect infrared light and thus appear very dark or black. Foliage that appears green to our eyes reflects a lot of infrared light, and thus appears whitish as if the trees are covered with snow. Insects, well, you never quite know how their pigments and surfaces will or will not reflect infrared light; casings and body parts that are opaque to human eyes can be transparent in the infrared spectrum.
Most of the pictures here are in black and white because we can't accurately comprehend the color of infrared light; it is beyond human experience. What color there is in these photos exists for artistic effect or because my camera's sensor accidently recorded something beautiful.
I love infrared photography not only because of the dramatic nature of the photographs but also because it is a reminder to me that what we see with our human eyes is only one version of the world, one version of reality. Without these particular eyes, these particular accidents of evolution with the particular light spectrum sensitivity they offer (does anybody here remember Roy G. Biv?), the world would look very different. But more than that, it is a reminder that my opinions, my beliefs, and my conclusions are based on only the version of reality that I have experienced. I see only what I am able to see in the world, in other people, and in myself, and this is an unknown and perhaps troublingly small fraction of what reality contains. I should therefore be humble, always tentative in judging, and as open minded as I can be to the fact that my conclusions are always and necessarily based on incomplete information.
