Pawtuxet Village in Infrared

The Village

Infrared photography can make a place time-travel! The historic Pawtuxet Village is about two miles from our house and some consider it a travel secret. It straddles two cities, Warwick and Cranston, and the Pawtuxet River which runs into the Pawtuxet Cove. The cove has a marina and is surrounded by very nice houses.

The name Pawtuxet comes from the native American Sononoce Pawtuxet tribe that occupied the area, and in the Narragansett language it means “little falls.” How fitting, as you will see.

Yesterday, I had an appointment at a barbershop in Pawtuxet and went a little early. Sunny days are ideal for infrared photography, so I took my infrared camera with me. Looking from the two sides of the bridge, you can see either the river approaching the cove, running over some rocks, and forming mini waterfalls. Or, you can look into the calm cove with a slew of boats moored. I have other photographs of the Village too from previous visits.

In the first photograph above taken from the Warwick side, you see the center of the village with cars parked on either side of the bridge. The second photograph shows the building next to the bridge where my barbershop was located. This is on the Cranston side of the bridge. The wide view images give you an idea about the cove, the marina, and the houses around it.

The Photographs

The following images are from the other side of the bridge showing the river and the mini cascades it creates as the water rolls over the rock on the river bed. The strong sunlight and the shimmer it created allowed me to frame almost abstract images composed of rocks and rushing water. (Click on the thumbnails to see them larger.)

Infrared Capture

The infrared capture typically renders the foliage as white or close to white and the blue sky very dark, almost black. Every frame has color, but they are always false colors. With some techniques, the blue sky can be rendered close to a natural sky color but the foliage turns yellow to red depending on how the images are processed.

In this series, I chose to render them in black-and-white to increase their abstract character. The rocks in the river bed and the mini waterfalls running over them created interesting patterns. Quite a few were captured looking almost straight down into the water yet show many interesting patterns.

PS I had a beard trim, nothing at the top as you know! And for those not familiar with the name, Pawtuxet is pronounced as puh-TUX-et keeping the initial “puh” very short.