I was driving back from Dixon, Il on I88 Friday. The temp had finally squeeked back up to about 2 degrees F outside, one of those bright sunny super clear winter days where the visibility seems endless. The visibility was good enough that off in the distance about 12 miles north I could see the condensation coming from the Byron Nuclear plant cooling towers. It was pretty amazing looking due to the low temps.
It was too far away to get a good shot with the lens I had on my camera so I just chalked it up to a photographic opportunity lost.
As I continued driving I did have the good fortune to stumble upon another cool looking condensation trail in a local farming area.
A few clouds started rolling in, but it was still really bright outside. A regular camera wouldn't have produced anything interesting (at least in my hands) but the combination of a little cloud cover and the IR radiation from the condensation plumes made for a pretty cool looking scene with the IR modified camera.
This isn't a great picture from a composition, or technical standpoint. I used a 200mm lens but would have liked to have more. The combination of standing on the shoulder of an interstate highway with semis blowing past ant 70+ and the cold air made me hurry the shot much more than I should have. So it's not a great shot but I think it's a pretty cool combination of physics and photography.
I guess the moral of this overly wordy story is, I need to embrace those sub-zero days and keep my IR camera in my truck just in case.
It was too far away to get a good shot with the lens I had on my camera so I just chalked it up to a photographic opportunity lost.
As I continued driving I did have the good fortune to stumble upon another cool looking condensation trail in a local farming area.
A few clouds started rolling in, but it was still really bright outside. A regular camera wouldn't have produced anything interesting (at least in my hands) but the combination of a little cloud cover and the IR radiation from the condensation plumes made for a pretty cool looking scene with the IR modified camera.
This isn't a great picture from a composition, or technical standpoint. I used a 200mm lens but would have liked to have more. The combination of standing on the shoulder of an interstate highway with semis blowing past ant 70+ and the cold air made me hurry the shot much more than I should have. So it's not a great shot but I think it's a pretty cool combination of physics and photography.
I guess the moral of this overly wordy story is, I need to embrace those sub-zero days and keep my IR camera in my truck just in case.
