Minos Up Close 06-12-09

Yeay, my brother came over to stay for the weekend and of course a photo had to be made. My first session at home was with the modeling help of him but we all know how that turned out

So, second chances in life do happen and this sure was a great one; I love this plate! He has a beautiful face with even more beautiful eyes and was able to hold really still in this position which was a comfortable one.

Tech Specs:

Exposure Time: 25 seconds. 2 UV TL lights on the left of him. 2 pilot lights, one on each side of him. 1 UV TL light kept horizontally closely in front of him, a little higher than his head. Fixer: Sodium Thiosulfate 300gr to 1 liter of water.

Minos Up Close 06-12-09

World Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009

May 2, 2009 was the day that, and I believe for the very first time, the founder of Wet Plate named Frederick Scott Archer was being honored by people all over the world by making plates. All the plates (digitalized) were then collected by Quinn Jacobson who, with the help of others, put them together in a wonderful book of which today I received a copy. It looks fantastic!

The foreword has been written by Caron Gonthier. As an artist and historian she wrote an interesting few pages with some background about Frederick Scott Archer. She also connected economical aspects with the state of “art” at that time and therefor creating a better understanding of the time and place of occurring events. It’s one of the reasons I love art history so much and reminds me of me wanting to pick up that study again.

The rest of the book is full of images made by 51 different people from all over the world, 13 countries to be precise. It’s quite weird to realize all these people having been focusing on making plates that day and you can see the result. If you feel like buying the book, which will not only give you a fantastic book but also grant you eternal happiness and much much more , you can order it from:

Blurb

Here’s a preview from the cover:

World Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009 Book

I am looking forward to World Wet Plate Collodion Day 2010 already!

List of Chemicals Needed

I had a few people asking me what to order exactly and how much of it so I decided to make a list I could revert to and others as well. The list of chemicals I’m about to write down did cost me about € 430,- so your wallet has an idea of what to expect

Not included is the price of the distilled water of which you’ll need a lot. I think I have shot a total of around 20 plates, not all saved, and I still have plenty of chemicals left. Can’t really tell you how long my stash will last though. In the meanwhile I did buy an extra canister of Ethanol 5 Liter, more water as in 15 canisters of each 5 Liter and more fix, as with the hypo fixer you use up quite a bit.

The first part I mention I ordered from Antonides in the Netherlands:

*     Sodium Thiosulfate Pentahydrate, ch.z. (Fixer)

2,5 KG

I-A7.110.15D
*    Ethanol 96%, denatured with 5% methanol (Lots of purposes)

5 Liter

I-A5.201.51D
*    Diethylether, pract. (Collodion)

1 Liter

I-H5.102.16A
*    Cadmium Bromide Tetrahydrate (Salt for Collodion)

50 Gram

I-C3.367.18-50G
*    Ammonium Iodide Erg. B6 (Salt for Collodion)

100 Gram

I-YY.111.2A
*    Iron II Sulfate, dried, pract. (For Developer)

250 Gram

I-C5.103.79A
*    Glacial Acetic Acid 99-100%, ch.z.  (For Developer)

1 Liter

I-H8.100.78A
*    Calcium Carbonate, precipitated, light (Plate Cleaner)

1 KG

I-A7.201.46

I can’t get the list as I want it to be but so be it. If you have any questions feel free to ask them

The Silver Nitrate I bought of Ebay Germany. It saved me half the money compared to a shop in the Netherlands. I bought 200 grams at once for approx. €100,- You cannot buy this from the States if you’re from Europe as that chem is not allowed to be shipped overseas.

The plain USP Collodion I bought from Assink Chemie in the Netherlands. 1 Liter did cost me about € 100,-. When it arrived I immediately mixed it up with the liter of Ether to stabilize the latter. One bottle of a liter with the Ethanol-Ether mix I keep in the garage. The other liter I have stored in the fridge in my darkroom and added the salts to create the iodizer. That I can mix anytime I like with the plain Collodion and have a perfect immediate working solution at hand.

Distilled water you need to buy in massive large quantities as you will be using this A LOT. It’s being used to mix the chemicals, clean the beakers and stirring rods etc. I started out with 5 canisters each holding 5 liter and soon bought another 15 of them. I bought them at the Sligro where I paid around € 2,60 per canister. The empty canisters are handy to save the chemical waste and later on dump them on the chemical disposal site, all labeled of course.

In a nutshell I think this is about all you need apart from the beakers, storage bottles, stirring rods etc. you will need as well. I hope this list will be of great help to the ones just starting out. It seems a lot at first but when you get your head around it it’s not really a big deal anymore.

Photo Fair Houten 22-11-09

Today we went to Houten near Utrecht where the annual Photo Fair took place. Great opportunity to nose through heaps of analogue stuff which I greatly enjoyed when we went to the fair in Bièvres France last time. It was there where I bought my Wet Plate camera and this time I was looking for a new lens. More specific, I was looking for a Petzval lens covering 8×10 (I have one but it’s for approx. half plate) to make portraits with. The lens would have to have a length of approx. 16″ long which is long and its diameter needs to be pretty big as it want it to be fast. For taking portraits that is pretty vital.

The fair actually was pretty small and with relatively few interesting items. A lot of old crap and just a lot of stuff I wouldn’t use. Also, the prices were very firm. I found 2 lenses that met my criteria: One was a Hermagis, a big one but the glass looked very dirty and we weren’t able to open it up which could enable us to clean it from the inside. For € 500,- I found that to be too big a risk to take so kept on walking.

Then we met the second one…wow…beautiful Darlot in absolute MINT condition. My wallet started crying and not long after so did I; it was just too expensive: € 950,- the guy asked. If I would’ve had it I would have bought it, it was in such pristine condition! The glass was perfect, the focus knob went as smooth as something and the brass shone as it never did. Even if I would have started negotiating the guy never would’ve dropped it below € 700,-. Too bad, too bad, too bad. It was sooo pretty! But I had to leave it on the table.

I then started looking for a Hasselblad Accumatte screen as I still need to buy that for my Hassie. Didn’t find it. What I did find however where some other treats:

A Super-Duper-Mass-Production Developing Tank!!! Handy for when you come back from holidays with 20 or so films!

Yes, a Plate Rack!! I was still missing that!

Very special and an absolute Bargain; an iris for holding lenses

And of course..a book! Photography; The first 30 Years 1840-1870

Inside of the book; in the back mentioning of all the processes used to create the photos including date, size and person who made them

It was a very entertaining day, too bad for that lens; I would’ve loved him! But some nice goodies came my way again and we got dates for new fairs so I don’t have to wait for Bièvres per se.

It was nice to meet Eddie again, too bad Peter and his dad didn’t make it, also for Ben and many thanx to Alex for getting us in! I will go for a membership soon.

Part 2: Brainstorming v.s. Dreaming

In my head I’m working on some new ideas… I love photography, want to specialize in alternative processes as they are so interesting and extremely various. I want to share my knowledge and build a platform where people have the ability to experience, learn new things and experiment. These things are seldom possible in the convenience of your own house and my plan lies in the direction of building a place where this all will be possible.

My concept would contain (as far as it stands now) 2 large darkrooms: one for “normal” black & white printing up to being able to process 8×10″ negatives. And one for the alternative side of photography. Due to the different use of chemicals, raw mixing v.s. working in an as clean as possible environment, I’d like to separate the two. The darkrooms are meant to be used for rental purposes so that everyone has the possibilty to work in a fully equipped darkroom, besides my own work I’ll make there.

A fully equipped professional studio. With that I mean a large, preferably daylight studio with light rails on the ceiling, you name it. It’ll have to be a process of developing over time as it will be a huge investment though. This will also be used for workshop purposes as well as being rented. I realize there’s a shortage of working space where I live and this would provide many people with the means of doing “crazy” things which otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.

A room which can be used for teaching, practicing the theoretical side of a workshop, playing documentaries etc. This place can also be used for cutting, finishing, retouching, mounting and framing photos.

Preferably a small place to eat or drink something, make a hot cup of tea or coffee but not much would be needed to realize  that. Could even be situated in the teaching room.

And last but not least, a place to create exhibitions. For my own work but also for other people, to attract people and make them aware of the place and other things besides the overly digital world of photography.

But, unfortunately, all that is missing are the funds to finance this otherwise awesome plan. I’ll have to figure a way out to deal with that but it’s quite a big deal and obstacle. The investment is huge, not so much the equipment as analogue stuff is practically being dumped out on the streets but the housing of the project. Will I be renting / buying a warehouse on an industrial area which means I’ll have lots of (parking) space but it’s in a non-personal environment, no control, have to travel to go to work etc etc?

Or will I be working on buying a big enough a house to create this all at home so I can work from my house, which actually was my goal for the future anyway for example when having kids etc? This  means an expensive house, a big house, huge alterations etc. While not even knowing if all this will pay off in the end. That’s the risk of undertaking and I like that in a way but we’re talking big stuff here. I’d like to try it but it’ll have to be a funded enterprise and I am not too sure how to accomplish that. But if this is the path I must follow something will come my way I suppose! If anything, the idea alone is fun already

Maybe to big a dream for a little girl but without dreams nothing would ever change.

Part 1: The Way it Is

Over the years I have been working on setting up my own darkroom and studio. Currently I am very pleased with what I have. It took quite some time and effort but I have this magnificant place to work in. However, I wouldn’t be a human of this world if I wasn’t wishing for change into bigger and better But so far, I love it and best part: It’s at my house! I can work whenever I wish to do so. So photos:

Manfrotto Autopole system to keep the background system in check

The Background system with one roll of white and one black

A large mirror, good for many purposes

Handy softbox for my Metz 45 CL4, twice

Elinchrom D-Lite 4 setup

Dry working table with space to house my chemicals and other equip

Bin, light thight boxes for photos, canisters to store my chemical waste, photobag

Papers, trays, chemicals and stuff

My wet table

Durst enlargers

The studio part

More stuff

Overview darkroom part

Drying Cabinet for Films

Drying Cabinet for Films

A New Adventure….

I have ordered Rollei Lith developer because the examples I saw looked very promising. I have yet to start with it but the idea of going back to “standard” black & white negative printing, even though being done in a professional archival worthy manner, seems totally boring now that I’ve begun with Wet Plate.

Rollei Lith Developer

Lith printing seems like a relatively easy way to start doing another alternative way of processing and still being able to use my film footage of which I have a lot. A lot that needs to be printed too. I will post my newly acquired adventures when I do so here. I hope this blog will grow out to be a development of myself into the wonderful world of alternative photography. An interesting book that I use as a guide through the wide variety of processes is this one:

Christopher James – The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes

I hope I will get myself to start with this soon but I have a lot on my  mind lately, one of them is creating a new website. It’ll be in the style of Wet Plate qua design and a bit more fun and personalized. One of them is something else to which I’ll dedicate an entire new category as I hope it to grow in the (near) future.

Indra

Bart Up Close

So here it is, the photo of Bart and the best plate of that day:

Bart Up Close

Wet Plate Collodion Black Ambrotype 8×10″

For details on the photo see former post.

Wet Plate Collodion; My Process

For my new website which is in the making I would like to add photos of me executing the process. Today, as I had a session planned, Bart made some. It was a great session and one plate is a definite keeper. They are drying now so can’t scan them yet. I’ll put them in the following post. I’m very proud to notice the pouring goes much much better. The 1st and 2nd plate I did were pretty much flawless. Good to see that practice really works!

Blowing the final dust particles of the plate right before pouring

Pouring the plate

Pouring the plate

Flowing the Collodion

Rockin' the plate

Putting the plate in the Silver Nitrate bath

Stopping the plate with water after development

Fixing the plate

Fixer kicking in!

...and...Fixed!

The setup used to take the photos, a bit messy

The setup from the other side

The setup with only the UV lights on

Experiment 02-11-09

So, did not have the time to post this earlier but here we are again

I used 2 pilot lights of my softboxes on each side, 2 blacklight light bulbs of 38W, and 2 TL lights black light to lit my subjects.
25 seconds were the exposure times.
Brass 230mm f5.6
Fix: Sodium Thiosulfate 200gr to a liter

Bart

Bart 2

Imro

I am seeing stripes in my plates, really small ones, and I am wondering where they come from. It could be from flowing the plate…maybe there’s too little alcohol in the Collodion which keeps it from flowing smoothly..? I’ll get back on that.

Too late I noticed that I had a shortage of my silver bath. A small strip on the short side has not been sensitized. I do not yet have a spare bath so I went along with the shooting, trying to make sure the strip would end up being in a not too disturbing place.

My new chemicals have arrived; the Sodium Thiosulfate Pentahydrate, I hope the mixing will get somewhat more easy now. I also got in my PH strips and will work on my silver bath, probably tomorrow.

A colleague of mine studied to be a chemist and he had this dedicated chemical mixer working with magnets he offered me to have. I said yes and it sure makes mixing a lot easier. I don’t have to shake the bottles, I just have to watch them go. Really cool to watch! It looks like the photo I posted below but I’m too lazy to take one myself but you’ll get the idea:

Magnetic Stirrer

You put a magnet inside the bottle, place it on the small platform and turn it on. This makes the magnet swirl inside the bottle and voila, your chemicals are getting mixed!