I know very little about Booneville Channel in Corvallis. It’s a waterway that links with the Willamette river along the western edge of Kiger Island and the water never seems to be moving unless there’s been a huge amount of rain. In fact, near the end of the summer the water surface is perfectly still. At this time it can become so covered with algae and other plant matter that areas of it look almost like a dirt road or carpet. I’ve seen and photographed osprey hunting here. There seem to be enough fish in Booneville Channel to keep the raptors pretty busy. I think it would be fun to borrow someone’s small boat and explore the area, maybe with a camera and long lens, maybe just for kicks.
The northern edge of the channel parallels a decent dog walking path in south Corvallis. One of the things I like about this part of the path is that the elevated position reminds me of the Dordogne region in France. If you’ve seen the old Drew Barrymore movie Ever After you know the area, lots of scenic tree-lined slow-moving waterways. I made this image using a 720nm infrared filter with a camera that has a small amount of infrared sensitivity. It is not a dedicated infrared camera so exposure times can be long and high ISOs are required. I think this image was 1/60 and F/2 at ISO 8000 in full sunlight.
I’ve shot infrared film in the past, but only as a novelty. So, infrared photography is pretty new to me. It’s interesting. I want to work with it in the future. The otherworldly allure of the infrared look will likely diminish pretty quickly. I think that’s ok. Hopefully I’ll figure out how to use that look as just another compositional element and not rely on it too heavily.