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Beyond Real: Photography Of Gale Nobes

http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/Gale%20Nobes.mp3

Scroll below our story for a series of photographs.

By Brad Aspey

Infrared light cannot be seen by the naked eye. But, a special camera can reveal what's hidden in the infrared spectrum.

An exhibit in Ludington shows some of the eerie pictures taken by one of these special cameras.

"Beyond Real."
At first glance, photographer Gale Nobes' infrared landscapes look like normal, high-contrast black & white photographs. They are all about 18 by 24 inches, and they look a bit like the work of Ansel Adams.

But a better, closer look reveals a pretty weird world. It's hard to tell if it's day or night. Clumps of tall grass become so bright and white they appear ready to burst into flame. And clouds look sharp-enough-edged to draw blood.

One would almost assume Nobes spent days in a darkroom carefully manipulating each photograph.

Simple Process
"I'm almost embarrassed, a little bit, to say that the camera that allows me to do this is just a glorified point-and-shoot camera," Nobes says.

There's not much to be embarrassed about. Gale Nobes has been a serious hobbyist for more than 30 years, winning an award or two along the way.

Nobes used to use infrared film instead of digital cameras. He used his bathroom as a darkroom and developed the film in his bathtub. It was the only bathroom in the house. Nevertheless, he refrained from going digital until about 8 years ago.

Surprises
When he shot film he never knew what he had until he got back to the darkroom. But even with a digital camera he's occasionally surprised.

Once, he was strolling the Pere Marquette River, hoping to shoot the highlights on top of the waves. These shots usually reveal the rock formations below since water hardly reflects infrared at all. In one particular shot, the shape of the rocks nearly startled him when he opened it on his computer.

"So, I was shooting this highlight that was on the water, as it played over the rock. And when I got it back to the computer and downloaded it and opened it up in the software, this image of a person underwater, basically the shoulders and head of a man, were part of this image.

"Of course, you know, I didn't notice it all when I took the photograph," he says.

Infrared cameras were invented for use during World War II for night vision.

"Infrared light is just an invisible form of light that we can't see, but it's right next to the visible spectrum," explains Katy Wibby, who teaches science at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

A Closer Look
Terry Murphy combined the infrared photography of Gail Nobes with the photo realistic paintings of Adam Tetzlaff, for the exhibit "Beyond Real," now on display at her organization, the Ludington Center for the Arts.

Murphy's favorite photograph is called "Truthseeker." She says it generally gets the most visitor response.

"It really illustrates the infrared technique so well and it's such an unusual image," she says. "It is overlooking Lake Michigan and there's beautiful light coming from the clouds in the sky, and yet there's a tree on the side of one of the dunes that actually looks like it's bending towards the light in the sky."

Photographer Gail Nobes says he's found another benefit to infrared photography. He says it takes visitors a while to figure out how he did them.

"And they'll spend twice as long looking at one of the infrared images as they do a normal black-and-white image," he says. "Again, I'm happy because the process allows people to really look at my work."

"Beyond Real" is on view in the Ludington Center for the Arts through October 2nd.

Infrared cameras were developed so soldiers could see at night. But photographer Gale Nobes uses them to take surreal photographs. Nobes work is on display now at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts.