I had the great opportunity to see my Ohio University Bobcats take on the 3rd best team in the country, Ohio State. Thanks to Dr. Richard Suk for getting me an all access press pass so I could photograph the band, the cheerleaders, the crowd, and, at one point, the clouds in the sky.

I’m not a huge football fan, but even I was enormously proud of my school. We held in there with the best of the best for the entire game. In fact, though the end score doesn’t show it, we were winning for more than half of the game.

This wonderful environment was the perfect opportunity to test out a new camera: a Phase One P45+ Infrared Modified Digital Back. This is a 39 megapixel digital camera designed specifically to capture infrared light. I’ve previously blogged about the basics of infrared photography when I captured Infrared Landscapes of Australia’s Northern Coast. Previously however, all of my infrared work had been done with a point and shoot digital camera when traveling, or infrared film when shooting locally. Using this camera brought my love of infrared photography to a whole new level.

Infrared photography relies on light outside the visible spectrum. Just as a red flower is red because it strongly reflects red light, an object is brighter (or darker) in infrared photography based on how much infrared light it reflects. Foliage containing chlorophyll, which strongly reflects infrared light, is bright, while open sky, which reflects blue light but very little infrared light, is very dark. This creates an interesting reversal of tones; instead of a light sky and dark foliage, the sky is very dark and foliage glows brightly. Photographers can take advantage of this tone reversal to create an eerie or ethereal feeling.