I promised this in my first post, so time to follow up.
Out of all the waterfalls on the Waterfall Route, I only took photos in other spectra at Alexandra Falls. Despite the clear skies, storms rolled in by the time I reached Louise Falls
Part of the Northwest Territories’ Twin Falls Territorial Park, Alexandra Falls is on the Hay River. A short hike leads downriver to the second falls, Louise Falls(and the third waterfall at the park, Escarpment Creek Falls is past Loise Falls roughly to the north, near the highway). The trail between Alexandra Falls and Louise Falls is along the top of the cliff to the left:
I’d recommend the hike not only for the views, but also the interpretive signs describing the life and culture of the Dene first nation before European contact.
At Alexandra Falls, you can either walk along the banks right to the lip of the waterfall, or view it from a viewing platform near the parking lot.From the viewpoint, the waterfall looks like this in visible light.
As I’ve mentioned previously, my usual reference for the white balance is a regular piece of white paper. It’s something I can find anywhere, can photograph quickly, and won’t worry about losing. All the colours below are based off that piece of paper. As usual, I used my modified Canon Rebel T3i camera.
With my 680 nanometre infrared filter, the water and sky look much darker, while the vegetation lightens considerably. The camera still picks up enough light from the sky to minimize motion blur, and some colour variance is picked up by the camera sensors.
Deeper into the Infrared, with my 950 nm filter, all the colour is gone. The camera sensor recognizes all light as ‘red’ at this level, so there is no hints of other colours once I set the white balance. More light is blocked by the filter, and some motion blur from the falling water is noticeable.
With the UG11 filter, Infrared and Ultraviolet light is available to the camera, and the colour returns to the photo. This filter blocks all visible light and a large percentage of infrared light, and allows a large amount of ultraviolet light through. However, as my camera is not very sensitive to ultraviolet light, I usually need a very long exposure. in this case, it was 1/15 of a second. All the water in this picture shows a significant motion blur, and the wind across the river gives the trees some blurring as well.
After I took these photos, the weather changed quickly. With most weather ranging from overcast to heavy rain, the other waterfalls on the Waterfall Route weren’t worth photographing outside the visible spectra. The only other waterfall I saw in sunlight was Sambaa Deh Falls, and of course I had left my full spectrum camera in the car- when I returned for it, the clouds returned as well.