While most of us visiting a zoo are content with the usual snaps the beautiful animals, Mathieu Stern had something else in mind: to fulfill his dream of photographing a white tiger with an infrared camera. Sounds like an interesting project, don’t you think? Let’s see how it all turned out for him!
In the video above, Stern mentioned taking inspiration from the work of Richard Mosse, who famously documented war-torn regions (like the Democratic Republic of Congo) using Kodak Aerochrome infrared film. For his own infrared project, however, the Paris-based weird lens enthusiast and experimental photographer had to use a digital camera especially modified for the purpose of shooting infrared photos. To transform his Sony digital camera into a full spectrum camera, he used different filters by Kolari Vision.
As for the lenses, he took two different lenses: a vintage Canon FD 200mm for close-ups, and a 14mm cine lens from 7Artisans (B&H | Amazon) for wide shots. For the location, he went to ZooParc de Beauval, dubbed as the fourth most beautiful zoo in the world. He couldn’t have picked a more perfect location for the infrared project as it was full of picturesque greenery alongside the majestic animals.
But what about what about his ultimate goal of photographing a white tiger? He saved the best for last and made it his last stop — which was a good decision since there weren’t a lot of visitors anymore and the animals were more relaxed. The result is definitely magical.
So, what do you think? Did Mathieu Stern inspire you to take up infrared photography as well? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
