TITLE: Roof of the World; Karakoram and Kunlun Mountains in infrared.

These images are from a collection I took with various infrared converted cameras from the flight-deck of an airliner, on flights from the Middle East to China. The images cover parts of the Karakoram and Kunlun mountain ranges, both caused by tectonic plate movements. The Karakoram range covers the borders of Pakistan, India and China, with four of the most closely located peaks over 8000m (featured in one of my images). The Kunlun Mountain range is more than 2000km long, and forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, running through Central China.

I started using infrared for aerial photography about 7 years ago, after reading an account of reconnaissance photography in WWII; infrared was often used to penetrate haze for clearer images. As haze has been a perennial problem for me in high-altitude aerial photography, I decided to get a camera I already owned converted to infrared. I am now on my third IR camera, a Sony Nex 5N bought already converted at 665nm.

I shoot at two different wavelengths, 665nm and 830nm (using an 830nm filter). Six of these images were taken at 830nm, the other two at 665nm. 830nm gives monochrome images straight from the camera. It also gives great contrast, with dark skies and bright clouds. Processing has been done in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. The 665nm images were converted to mono using Topaz B+W Effects.

AUTHOR: Jon Bowles (United Kingdom)

I started photography while growing up in Africa, using a variety of 35mm film cameras, and had some work published in a BBC book (Okavango, Jewel of the Kalahari). After moving to the UK, photography took a back seat to writing for a few years, until I bought my first dSLR. As soon as I picked up a camera up again, I wondered why I had ever stopped! Initially I used an Olympus E510, then changed to a Pentax K5, which has the advantage of a huge amount of excellent legacy lenses available. Nowadays I am shooting mainly with Sony cameras; an A7rii, an A7s and an infra-red converted Sony Nex 5N; my initial interest in IR came about from reading accounts of IR being used for reconnaissance photography during World War II. The ability of infrared to penetrate haze had obvious implications for my own aerial photography, and I was very keen to try it out. It has proved to be an excellent medium for aerial photography, both in color and in mono.

My work has been used in advertising, in addition to being published in magazines, text books, and in several newspapers including the Daily Mail, Mail Online, Metro, and many other newspapers world-wide.

My main fields of photography are aerial photography, landscapes, architecture, infra-red photography and a bit of street photography.