Last week I kicked off a new series on black bears in Minnesota, highlighting some images I captured while doing a photo workshop with my friends Bill Lea, Chris Norcott, and Steve Zigler.  Going into this workshop, one of the things I knew I wanted to accomplish was come away with a diverse set of images, including images in infrared and IR Chrome (more on that in a minute).  Now, perhaps that sounds obvious – of course you’d want diverse images – but what struck me was how much discipline it took to accomplish this.  Here’s what I mean: when you’re surrounded by bears doing all sorts of things, and you’ve got a nice zoom lens like the one I rented, there was a real temptation to zoom in and only shoot portraits (next week).  To get a diverse set of images, I had to remind myself to zoom out, and capture the bears within a scene.  Many of the pictures in this week’s post are around water, which was something I really wanted.  To get them, I had to abandon other things going on and just wait by the water to see what would happen.  Again, maybe this seems obvious, but in the heat of the moment it’s good to have a mental list of what you’re after, and what you’ve got already.

Now, on to the alternative light.  Those of you who have followed along with Picture of the Week for last couple of years will be familiar with the unusual look of infrared; whether it’s the white leaves in it’s black and white form, or the odd looking colors in its more natural state.  Well this week I’m introducing you to yet another type of image, which is shot using my new IR Chrome filter.  The IR Chrome filter is designed to mimic the look of the old Kodak Aerochrome film, which allowed through some portion of the infrared spectrum, and gave a false color look, whereby green leaves look orange.  The images that you see here that have a very fall look to them are shot with this filter.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

–Dan Thompson