Weeping Willow – Washington Square Park

April 9th, 2005

Shaking in the wind this tree looks like it’s made of cotton.
Many new digital cameras have a built in filter to block infrared light. Seems that the new CCDs/CMOS sensors are super-sensitive to IR. Without a filter there to block the unnecessary IR your color pictures look strung out (sort of like those ones your parents keep in the closet from the 70s – your dad’s got a mustache and your mom’s wearing a bandana around her head – no one needs that). You can tell how sensitive your camera is to IR by pointing a TV remote control at the lens and pressing some buttons – you should see light emitting from the tip of the remote on the viewing screen of your camera. Because of this IR blocking filter you’re forced to use especially long shutter speeds to legitimately capture an IR image. This can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing depending on what you’re looking for. I was trying to make a picture of a guy standing under that bus stop, but he couldn’t sit still for the 13 seconds it took to make this picture so you have to suffer with a picture of this bus and tree. 😉