Ultraviolet and Infrared - A Photo Blog

The past few days I've been posting about vision - human, animal and insect. I've speculated about aliens and what they might see if they came to our planet, and showed photos of how different species see things. I've talked about ultraviolet and I've mentioned infrared. I thought it might be fun to take a look at some photos from those wavelengths that humans can't perceive to wrap up the week.

Wavelengths and our ability to see them are what makes the
color in our landscape. That very short group in the lower
center is visible light for humans. But the wavelengths
themselves stretch from Radio Waves on the left to Gamma Rays
on the right. It's their frequency that allows our ability to see color. 

First a quick run-through on light. Light is waves in a spectrum of waves that our world experience daily. Think of water waves and how much they can vary - small wavelets lapping the shoreline of lakes and ponds, larger waves facing swimmers at ocean beaches, crashing waves following earthquakes that cause tsunamis of great destruction and loss of life and property. Waves along the electromagnetic spectrum can also vary. Look at the distance between the waves on the left and those on the right. Microwaves are on the left, X-rays are on the right. Now, let's look at some photos.

The top is how we usually see this flower, the bottom
is the same flower in ultraviolet. 

I just love these small flowers in ultraviolet. Look at that
interior ring around the center. That brilliant lilac around the
saffron. Stunning! 

Mock orange blossoms in the ultraviolet are stunning. So pretty! 

Now let's switch to the infrared for a few photos to top off our weekend.

Infrared filters allow for infrared photography. The stripes of this
beauty really come out in this photo. 

Infrared can't be seen by the human eye, but photography can
capture it with use of a filter. I love this waterfall. 

Computer digital filters can make capturing the infrared a little
easier. These palm fronds are stunning in the infrared. 

So there you go, some alternative ways of looking at this world that we all love for the weekend. I'll be back on Monday, but first I need to get to the gym. So have a great weekend, don't overindulge too much, and I'll be posting again on Monday.