THE locations are familiar – York city centre, Strensall Common and the Yorkshire Arboretum – but we think you'll agree there's a distinctly unearthly quality to the photographs on these pages today.
That's because you're literally seeing these scenes in a different light.
All the photos were taken by Peter Bayliss, president of the York Photographic Society, using a camera modified to capture infrared light – and an eye for the unusual and bizarre.
Normally cameras block out infrared light with a filter on the sensor, Peter says. "But a camera with the sensor removed will capture the full spectrum."
When images are captured the colours will be red. But the colour palette can then be "shifted" using special software.
By playing around with the images and swapping some of the colours it is possible to get some genuinely unearthly "false colour" effects.
Peter took a series of photos at Strensall Common, of which we reproduce two here. One shows clumps of grass beneath silver birch trees. Red and blue colours have been swapped, which leaves the grass looking almost blue-tinged.
COLOUR FIELD: Silver birch trees at Strensall Common with clumps of grass beneath. Photo: Peter Bayliss
In a second photo, taken with a filter which removed most of the red light, the grass and the leaves of trees are left looking deathly white, while the sky glimpsed between clouds is a striking dark blue.
Fade to grey: trees and grass at Strensall Common in an image taken with red light filtered out. Photo: Peter Bayliss
Two photos of the same tree at the Yorkshire Arboretum show the striking effect of using infrared. One was taken in infrared, and the leaves show up as an an icy blue. The other was taken in normal light, and the leaves are a deep autumnal orange.
The same tree in infrared (left) and normal light. Photos: Peter Bayliss
It is the photos of York that many readers may find most arresting, however. The Old White Swan in Goodramgate is as orange as Donald Trump's permatan – but the green foliage in the hanging baskets looks white.
The Old White Swan, Goodramgate. Photo: Peter Bayliss
In another photo, the East End of York Minster has been bleached to a bone white colour, while the leaves of trees and the clothing of passersby has become yellow.
York Minster. Photo: Peter Bayliss
A similarly colour-swapping effect, meanwhile, has turned the clothing of people sitting outside Crumbs cafeteria in College Street bright yellow. They almost look as if they've all been daubed with paint from the same tin.
Outside Crumbs, College Street. Photo: Peter Bayliss
There's an icy, wintry look about St Mary's Church in Coppergate thanks to the swapping of red and blue.
St Mary's, Coppergate. Photo: Peter Bayliss
But perhaps most unearthly of all is the view of The Ouse from Tower Gardens (top). The water is a burnt orange, the leaves of the trees overhanging the river a frosty white.
You almost imagine this might be how an alien with differently-structured eyes might see York...
Source: Seeing York in a whole new light...
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