Can't Photograph Heat, Either

So I was saying the other day that you can't photograph wind...you can't photograph heat, either, I guess. Temperature is one of those things which, when photographed, can only be deduced from clues.

I've lived in this area (Southeastern Wisconsin) twice, from age seven to 18 and since 2000 till now, and I believe Thursday was the hottest I've ever felt here. It was 103°F (~40°C), a record for the day and the third-highest temperature ever recorded in the area. I know a lot of my fellow Midwesterners are experiencing the same. The RAV4's ambient outdoor temperature readout registered 108° in the parking lot at the shopping mall on Friday, when I went to the Apple Store, and "it felt hotter than that" (as they say) on the tarmac of the parking lot, in the sun. The heat made me feel a little dizzy, or faint. The thermometer on the side of the house (in the shade, of course) read 105°.

Remember that scene in the movie Jaws where Richard Dreyfus's character* says "You're going to need a bigger boat"? Well, I think we're going to need a bigger air conditioner.

I once tried to photograph heat, on a hot day two years ago. I found a large, completely empty parking lot with one small tree in the middle of it. The tree had just enough shade to cover the car, so I parked the car in it and photographed it from a hundred paces. I'm not sure the picture really says "heat," though—at least, you don't feel it viscerally.

Ever seen a picture of "heat" yourself?

We're experiencing a moderate drought, too. I had a really nice, long conversation with the AT&T tech on the phone two days ago. He was in India, and said the temperature there was 108°F and that they were awaiting the beginning of the monsoon. (I had quite a lot of computer problems awaiting me when I got home, for completely mysterious reasons—Ctein's take was that "the technical explanation for the problems you were having is that your system felt neglected and so got sulky and threw a temper tantrum." Maybe he's right; my computer is completely unused to being turned off. Now I'm off to try to reinstall the Airport, which could be simple and quick or....)

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Dave Stewart: "Just for balance: partly because of the weather in your part of the world, the U.K. is experiencing fairly miserable weather, with floods in many areas. Up here in the Highlands of Scotland, we have several months of cool Northerly winds. According to the forecasters this morning, it's all related to a large high pressure area that's stuck over Greenland, and its interaction with the Atlantic jet stream. They said a hurricane would clear it, and make things 'more normal.' You'll be glad to hear there's no sign of any hurricanes!

"Photographing rain hasn't been difficult for us lately...."

Featured Comment by JBerardi: "Very different context, but the 'picture of heat' that immediately came to my mind is 'Dance of the Flaming Coke' by W. Eugene Smith. For those who don't know it by name (which included me a minute ago), a quick Google search reveals a large and apparently non-IP-violating version of it here."

Mike replies: Good choice. Nice page of Smiths, too.

*Featured Comment by Martha Benedict: "A digression: It was Roy Scheider's character who said 'We're going to need a bigger boat.' It matters in the movie because his character was the least confident in what they were trying to do and the one the audience was meant to identify with. We were seeing through his eyes, primarily. The line is pivotal. It's the first time any of the three hunters sees the shark. I think this is why it has lately become a line people use to express their feelings about other things, essentially that they are not equal to their chosen task."

Featured Comment by Scott L.: "I hope it cools off there very soon. If not, come visit San Francisco. It's been in the 60s here but it's supposed to get up into the 70s starting today—pretty warm for us. And you can photograph fog. Photos that show heat shimmer do look like heat to me."

Featured Comment by Melvin Sokolsky: "I have photographed heat on motion picture film. Heat that radiates off surfaces can be seen with long lenses. My 600mm does the trick handily. You can actually create the phenomenon with the power supply that runs the old carbon arc lights. You place the power supply out of frame under the long lens and by moving it fore and aft to the sweet spot that shows the heat waves shimmering and distorting the clarity of the scene. Works best on motion picture film. It will also work on a still. Shoot many exposures so that you can choose the shimmer that pleases your taste. I would upload an example save I haven't shot heat wave in about ten years. I would have to go back to storage to find an example."

Comments

[Marc Rochkind]

That was Roy Scheider's character, Martin Brody.

[Patrick Perez]

I escaped living in Southern CA and can assure you, 105 (fahrenheit) is nowhere near the hottest I've been subjected to.

As to photographing heat, the first thing that popped to my mind was the cover of Frans Lanting's book Life: A Journey Through Time. Cover here: http://www.lanting.com/images/books-posters-etc/lanting_life_book.jpg

Patrick

[Jeff Glass]

Very timely comment for me, Mike. I'm in the middle of a long-term project on exactly "photographing heat." I live in Texas, so I know what it looks like and feels like. But you're absolutely right, it's very difficult to get it in an image, short of the old dry bones in the desert thing. Needs a rattlesnake too.

I'm experimenting right now with some things that might bring the physicality of heat to the film, but it could be a while before I know if there's any success.

Meanwhile, I thought your photo on the ferry captured some wind pretty well!

[Ed]

Here in Britain we are having the polar opposite summer, very heavy rain and rather cool for the time of year. I live in Scotland and have often remarked "I like Summer, it's my favourite day of the year", so far in 2012 that is almost literally true (about 4 weeks ago as I remember).

How about photographing fog or mist? My vista of Edinburgh looks like someone has Photoshopped out the far distance but it makes for a pointless image unless side by side with the normal view.

[Matt Alofa]

102 in DC last Friday.
http://1pt4.com/blog/08540025/

[odaiwai]

I've worked in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and about the hottest I've experienced is 50+C (122F) in Saudi (Al-Khobar in August) and about 46+C (114F) in Pakistan (Lahore in June), but Pakistan was worse because you couldn't count on having enough power to run the aircon for more than an hour at a time.

[John Krumm]

You can photograph rain, which is what I see outside right now, our usual in Southeast AK. My wife and I lived eight years in Minnesota, and it took me around 6 years to really get used to the hot, humid summers. We had an off-brand air conditioner at an off-brand hardware store, the kind Consumer Reports doesn't test, and the only one we could find in the middle of a nasty heat wave. We lived in one bedroom for much of that first conditioned summer, grateful for the cool air. Just crank up the t.v. to overcome the rattle and buzz...

[Dave Kee]

You young folks better get used to the heat. It's your future.

[Matt O'Brien]

I was in Athens, Greece last week...12 hour wait for a plane connection....searing heat.

Took a bus to the coast. Found a bar with an umbrella .

The title of the attached image should read. "In Athens...In The Shade.... with a Cool Breeze and ...a Cool Beer.

http://mattobrien.zenfolio.com/p366439965/h95a5891#h95a5891

[Speed]

The hot weather standby for TV news is footage of one or more bank time/temp signs. Simple, quick and reliable if boring and predictable.

Occasionally kids running through sprinklers or playing in fountains. A little more work but reusable. The Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millenium Park shows up regularly.

[Jeff]

I couldn't find a free stock photo, but I do recall seeing pics of heat shimmering off hot asphalt, creating blurs of people and objects, that evoke some feeling of intense summer heat...with a bit of imagination involved.

Or one could simply photograph Lebron and his teammates to see how it looks in Miami.

[KeithB]

If the car has been sitting, take the ambient air readings with a grain of salt. I believe the sensor is under the hood and can be affected by the engine heat. I usually wait after I drive a few minutes before I trust the temperature.

[David L.]

Mike, here is one photo I've seen that induces me to feel the desert's furnace like heat. I need a drink of ice water just looking at it.

Not mine, but belongs to another photographer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/austingranger/7145640689/

[John Arlington]

Back in the 60s, I saw a photograph taken by the great Life Magazine photographer Ralph Morse, that illustrated both "heat" and "cold" in the same image: the picture is of a warm nude sitting on a block of ice, photographed in a darkened room using infrared. I haven't seen the photograph since, and apparently Google can't find it either, but it has stuck in my mind all these years as a wonderful example of Morse's innovative approach to getting "the picture."

[marlof]

I tried to photograph the heat in Botswana once, and come to a similar solution as you with your car shot. Mine showed several elephants sharing the little shade a tree with brown/yellow leaves provided.
http://marlof.smugmug.com/Various/Favorites/PA172529/1224137680_uyGgS-XL-4.jpg . The photograph still makes me smile, but in itself still doesn't make you feel the bloodboiling heat of that day.

[Hernan Zenteno]

I work in a newspaper and we have to do this kind of photos time to time. We have to do photos of hot day in summer, cold days in winter, rain and winds when they are very strong. Several years ago I tried to do some photos of the blur that you can see over the pavement but this is very difficult to photography. I mean, you can capture the blur with a 600 or 500 lens but is very difficult to add some interest and the human element. About wind, first comes to my mind a photo made by Chris Johns of a Lion walking against wind. Here is a link
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/ngm/50-best/windy-lion-johns/
Not so good but I shot this some years ago
http://zenteno.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Recent-pics/G0000iTQlF2wjIoU/I0000HtigqnCFCZE
and this with rain
http://zenteno.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Cuba-2010/G00003IRMhDDUgBM/I00006M6bHSsxGfA

[Mart]

JMG has a nice piece on AC:

"It’s arguably high time that more people began acclimatizing themselves to a world in which they can’t simply turn on the air conditioning any time it gets hot and muggy."

Oh, and it's probably going to get hotter :-)

[Harry Lime]

The cinematography in 'High Noon' with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly screams heat. One of the few examples of photography I can think of that captures the feeling of a burning hot day,

[MJFerron]

Though 97 is the average summer high here in Austin 103 is quite common and like cold one seems to develop a tolerance for it. Was 110 late last week and yeah that's a bit much.

(I may eat crow and join the GW crowd if things don't cool down. 97 seems to be a cooler day the last two summers.)

[Josh Snyder]

Part of the annual Fasnacht celebration in Liestal is a lovely bit of madness called Chienbäse. It's a fire parade, but that sounds much duller than the reality of giant, blazing wrought iron carts barreling through the crowded streets of the town. The flames often reach several stories, taller than the buildings. Still, it felt much hotter in person than it looks, so maybe I didn't manage to capture "heat."

http://www.joshsnyderphoto.com/2012/07/heat.html

[David]

You can, kind of, show heat if you use a thermal imaging camera. It's not your traditional form of photography, but very useful for firefighting and night vision.

[J]

Try a visit to Death Valley or the Mojave and look for mirages in the shimmering air. They make neat panoramas. Including cacti in the photos helps the mood. And how about photos of the wildfires out here in the West? Talk about HOT!
How about cold too? I have some shots of the Arctic from a flight back to LA from Dubai that make me shiver!

[Peter Croft]

As soon as I saw this, my mind went back to an Australian movie called The Back of Beyond from 1954. I was 7 years old when I saw it and it scared the pants off me and seared images of heat-hazed Australian desert into me for life. It was about Aboriginal kids lost in the outback, finding their way home across the desert. I grew up fearing the outback isolation and heat. Yes, you can photograph heat.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Getting to this late.

Mike, I meant to remark that your image of "wind" is about as good as I've seen. Photographing wind, heat, cold, fumes, and other unseens is always an enjoyable (if sometimes corny) challenge that I also often pursue in various styles, such as this and this.

Thank goodness that the heat wave is breaking here in the upper Midwest (for Mike and me).

[Richard Newman]

Just a thought on thermal imaging cameras. They are not the same as having your digital camera's hot filter removed. A modified digital camera is sensitive in the approximate IR range of 700-1300nm - the near infrared. Thermal imaging cameras are usually designed to be sensitive to the far infrared - beyond 700nm. And for their purposes, resolution of 1-2megapixels is more than adequate. Not likely to create museum quality images-unless its a museum of fire fighting, forensics or some laboratory use.

[Zeeman]

I didn't realize that the upper Midwest can get so hot in summer. Here in supposedly-tropical Malaysia, we're at at about 80°F. Reading my Minnesotan friends' comments about the heat there now feels surreal.