We are most comfortable viewing the world in familiar ways, so color photography traditionally tries to reassure us with a conventional palette and conservative compositions. But the visual spectrum of light is only one among many means of sensing the world.

For this photograph I chose infrared black and white film, sensitive only to the infrared portion of the spectrum. We don't see by infrared light, nor do we see everything in black and white, so the results are somewhat unpredicable.

I didn't expect that the film could "see through" the water lily leaves--check out the places where leaves overlap. I also love the graininess of this film--which is apparent even though I used a large format (4x5") camera to take this photograph.

Compare the look of this photo to that of my "Autumn Rain on Water Lilies"--taken on the same tiny pond.

Lee Rentz