That’s not how you use an infrared filter, son…

So yesterday, I took some pictures up in the North Country – apparently my goal must be to capture the Saratoga, Corinth and Hudson Railway train as it travels through the Adirondacks. I wanted to try an infrared shot of the train, and thankfully I had a pack of Kodak HIE infrared B&W film in my Nikon F2S camera (“Nikon Athena”).

Got to the shooting spot, a little curved area of Spier Falls Road just off Route 9N. Luckily for me, parking wasn’t an issue – there’s a little parking area for anglers and fishermen near an available stream, so I parked my car there.

Okay. I’ve got about ten minutes before the train arrives, so let’s get set up.

That actually looks like it’ll work.

Now to attach the R72 infrared filter to the camera lens. See, the only way to really get a good image from infrared B&W film involves using a filter. At least an R25 red filter. But an R72 filter will give you fantastic depth of range.

So I took the lens cap off the camera, and screwed on the R72 filter. And just for the heck fo it, I took a selfie of Nikon Athena and me with my cell phone.

Okay, that’s kind of cool, me and my little pink Nikon …

Hey, wait a second. That R72 infrared filter almost acts like a mirror.

You know … What if I …

Oh, hell, why not? Let’s try it.

Here comes a car. He passes me. And as he’s driving away …

I caught this image.

Holy funhouse mirrors, Batman … this actually worked!

Oh man, I could have lots of fun with this. Let’s try again …

Okay, so I need to figure this out. The image was captured by my Google Pixel 6 Pro cell phone camera, but the image is contained in the 55mm f/1.2 lens of my Nikon F2S camera.

So it’s a photo of me looking forward while the cell phone’s shooting backward while the Nikon is shooting forward and the car is shooting away.

That’s like a billiards player laying a $100 bill on the table and challenging his opponent to hit the cue ball so that it bounces off eight rails and lands right on Ben Franklin’s forehead. Dang.

You know what?

I could have some serious fun with this. I’m going to keep this idea in my back pocket. Because you never know … seriously, YOU NEVER KNOW … when this could come in handy.

Of course, if anybody questions whether I created this naturally or if I used some sort of photo-editing software …

I gotcha covered. As I went for another photo excursion later in the day – off to Paper Mill Covered Bridge in Vermont, hoping to get some infrared shots of the bridge and the spillway …

Figured I’d demonstrate how this works.

Oh, and regarding the infrared train photo? And the photo of the spillway under the covered bridge?

Gotta wait a few days for those, blog readers. Developing day at McGreevy Pro Lab is on Wednesday; I receive the films on Thursday, then I need to scan in the negatives. So if I can squeeze off 13 more shots on this 36-shot roll … I might be able to show you the infrared results this weekend.

Is that okay?