On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
I think Bill outdid himself with some of these photos! The second set makes me want to be there. Right this minute. ~WaterGirl
?BillinGlendaleCA
Franklin Canyon is in the Hollywood Hills between the San Fernando Valley and the West Side of Los Angeles. There are two reservoirs in the canyon, the upper one that’s picture here and is parkland and the lower one that is still an active reservoir and is not open to the public. The reservoir in upper Franklin Canyon was built in 1914 as part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct project that brought water from the Owens Valley down to Los Angeles (we stole it fair and square).
The lake and the land around it was saved from developers in the early 70’s and is now a wonderful park. When you look at these photos and have a sense that you’ve seen this area before, you probably have. It’s been featured in countless motion picture and TV productions. It’s probably best known as the fishing hole from the opening credits of “The Andy Griffith Show”.
I headed off to Franklin Canyon to shoot some IR since we had nice cloud covers. Rather than just presenting the IR photos, I’ve decided to show the IR/Visual pairs. I won’t get too deep in the weeds presently on how I process IR shots, but I shoot two photos to start out, one with the IR modified camera and one with my regular camera. Via the magic of Photoshop, I combine these two photos to create my IR photo. I do this to retain some of the visual color that would be otherwise lost with just processing an IR photo.
IR Shot of Upper Franklin Canyon reservoir from the dam.
IR shot of Upper Franklin Canyon reservoir looking to the northwest.
View from the dam, close to water’s edge, looking north.
IR shot from the east side of Upper Franklin Canyon reservoir, the tam is at the left.
JPL
The skies are amazing. BTW That’s a long way from North Carolina to go fishing. hmmm
rikyrah
Gorgeous ?? as always ?
waynel140
Thanks for the pictures, the info on how they were made, and the earworm. I’ll be whistling that theme song all day.
Palindrome
I love how the clouds just jump out in the IR photos. Thanks so much!
Emma from FL
You are a genius. These are breathtaking.
eclare
zhena gogolia
Beautiful. Become a patron on Patreon!
arrieve
Your IR photos are always so magical. Thanks for the morning lift.
oldster
on the whole, this makes me glad that I can see in the visible color range.
The IR shots are very cool, but I think I would miss something if my vision were restricted to that range.
(Though maybe if I belonged to a species that is equipped with natural IR vision, I would see wondrous complexities in what looks to me rather flat and unvariegated. I’ll have to ask a bee.)
stinger
They make me want to whistle!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: But closer to the studio.
@rikyrah: Thanks.
@waynel140:
My work here is done!
@Palindrome: Yup, IR works best at midday on a partly cloudy day.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Emma from FL: Thanks.
@eclare: When I saw the weather, I know I had to head over there.
@zhena gogolia: Thanks. As you know my patrons saw these and a few more last month. Thank you so much for your support.
@arrieve: Glad you like them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@oldster: Keep in mind these IR shots have the visible color added back into them. IR shots straight from the camera look very red.
@stinger: Maybe take up fishing as well?
J R in WV
Nice work, as always. Good to see the true colors beside the IR/plus color prints.
Interesting technique.
way2blue
Geologist here. And the IR shot of “Upper Franklin Canyon reservoir looking to the northwest’ does something very interesting to the rocks in the foreground. At least I think they’re rocks, not some sort of striped humpbacked creature….
BigJimSlade
(Whistling the theme from the Andy Griffith Show)… hmm, what would that sound like if the show was in infrared? What changes to the sound would be appropriate?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: It was a bit of an evolution as far as settling on this technique, I was really unhappy with the results of just processing the IR, then I started adding a color layer in Photoshop…then I thought, why not just shoot the scene twice.
@way2blue: In the immediate foreground, I think those are the flowery parts of reeds.
@BigJimSlade: Maybe more like winter with the white trees.