Optical and infrared photometry of the nearby Type Ia supernovae 1999ee, 2000bh, 2000ca, and 2001ba

We present near-infrared photometry of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 1999ee; also, optical and infrared photometry of the Type Ia SNe 2000bh, 2000ca, and 2001ba. For SNe 1999ee and 2000bh, we present the first-ever SN photometry at 1.035 mum (the Y band). We present K-corrections that transform the infrared photometry in the observer's frame to the supernova rest frame. Using our infrared K- corrections and stretch factors derived from optical photometry, we construct JHK templates that can be used to determine the apparent magnitudes at maximum if one has some data in the window -12 to +10 days with respect to T(B-max). Following up previous work on the uniformity of V minus IR loci of Type Ia supernovae of midrange decline rates, we present unreddened loci for slow decliners. We also discuss evidence for a continuous change of color at a given epoch as a function of decline rate.