Iowa City Area Photos and a Compact Adventure Camera Kit

Jul 17, 2022

I recently spent some time in the Iowa City area and also in NE Iowa, and I was able to photograph a few sunrises and a sunset. I also brought along camera that was modified to photograph infrared light (IR) instead of visible light. Infrared cameras are great during the middle of the day when typical visible light landscape shots don't work.

I'll share a few IR photos and visible light photos from Iowa, and then for the photo geeks, I'll talk about the gear I'm using for human-powered adventure travel this year.

One of my favorite views in Iowa. The house looks like an old Sears kit house.

I spent a few days in Iowa City this last week. I week to college there, and I've often thought the town would be a good one to host one of my photography workshops or a photography class or seminar. I used to offer a seminar in Des Moines and enjoyed the location and Iowa.

In July in Iowa, the midday sunlight is too harsh for good landscape shots, but I found myself with lots of time to explore. I enjoy IR photography and brought a Enhanced Color IR camera, which if you're in the IR know is the equivalent to 665nm Filter. I've had multiple IR cameras, and if I was going to get another, I'd probably get a 590nm conversion again. But the 665nm is fun. If you want to learn more about my processing, I wrote about Infrared processing in the past.

On this trip, I wanted to challenge myself to shoot black & white IR. Here's my most successful image from the trip.

I haven't had a chance to process it with my normal workflow, yet. Here are a few more b&w IR shots.

I spent a lot of time in this building when I was in college.

I also enjoy false color infrared. Here are a few example images.

This is an old elm tree on campus. The university treats it to help it stay alive.

With false color, you can change the look of the image to many different colors. Sometimes I like the pinkish look and sometimes I like the white-ish yellow look. Because our eyes can't see IR, there's really no right answer. The camera and processing converts the light into something that we can see.

I think it's a great way to see the world and a way to supplement your landscape photos with midday shots. You can try infrared with a filter instead of converting a camera. The downside is that you end up with longer exposures and have to work from a tripod instead of handholding. Singh-Ray's I-Ray™ 690 Infrared Filter is a good option if you want to try it. Save 10% with the code thathansel.

I didn't only shoot infrared. I also shot normal color at sunrise and sunset. Here are a few shots. I think Iowa is so pretty in July. It has amazing scenery as good as any farm scenes anywhere in the world.

Compact Adventure Camera Kit

For human-powered adventure travel, here's what I've been carrying. This kit has been working great this year for me. I've been using this on canoe and kayak and bike trips.

Z 7ii with 24-120 f4. DX crop mode when I want something closer to 200mm.
And one of these: 14-24 f/2.8, 14-30 f/4 or a 20 f/1.8.
Z 7 as a spare body or a Ricoh GRIII.

A 14-30 f/4 if I know I'll be shooting waterfalls. 20 f/1.8 if I know I'll be shooting night skies, although the 14-24 f/2.8 isn't that much bigger and doesn't weigh much more and gives more flexibility for night sky. So, sometimes that goes instead of the 20. It's nice that the 20 & 24-120 use the same filter size. With the 14-30, I bring 82mm filters and a 77-82 step up.

I carry it all in one of Watershed's camera duffels: the Ocoee if I'm bringing the GRIII, and the Chattanooga if I'm bringing two Z bodies. For biking, I carry it in a Evoc Capture 7L and a Roadrunner Bag Large Point 'N' Shooter.

This has been a great adventure kit.

Until next time

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you have any interest in infrared photography, drop me an email. I may run a IR class in 2024 if there's enough interest.

I'll leave you with a final photo from Iowa.

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