Freddy and Fanny Back to Life!

Getting the motor home FANNY ready for the AMBROTTPE making season. Working on the darkroom trailer FREDDY this week as well!

Tarps off, batteries in!!!!

 

Link: 2 AMBROTYPES of the Plant Rejected

The 2 Ambrotypes I wrote of early were rejected by the Strathcona Art People. I was told that because I did not live in the region I did not qualify. Never mind that I worked over 30 years in the region and the facility was an integral part of the community. 

Nothing says art and the search for art like RULES RULES RULES. These people need to bend a few RULES to have a collection of art that really matters. As the Thais say "Up to Them!!"

This is the second rejection for this work. I guess it is not as strong as I feel. At least in the eyes of the art folk making the buying decisions.

 Link To Ambros offered for sale

2 Ambrotype Works Offered for Sale

Applied for this sale of work awhile back. Should know by May if they will buy anything .

Two works submitted. Any sale money earned would be used to buy Silver Nitrate for the AMBROTOS KANATA project. Here’s hoping the work is bought for the Strathcona Public Collection.

Petrochemical Plant 14x14 inch Ambrotype, $1000 CAD

Petrochemical Plant Boiler Stack 11x14 inch Ambrotype, $800 CAD

Making of Ambrotype imagery

From the Strathcona Curator of Public Art

——————

Dear Gerry,

Thank you for submitting your work to the 2026 Art Acquisition Program. We sincerely appreciate the time, care, and generosity involved in sharing your artwork with us. The quality and diversity of submissions make this year’s program especially engaging to review.

Artists selected for acquisition will be notified in May 2026, with final purchases subject to Strathcona County Council approval in June 2026.

We are grateful for your interest in the program and for contributing to the richness of contemporary artistic practice in our community. Whether or not your work is selected this year, we encourage you to continue applying to future opportunities with Strathcona County.

Thank you again for your submission and for sharing your work with us.

Warm regards,

K…. ……
Curator, Public Art
Strathcona County

Vinegar Buy

 

Wetplate trailer opening soon! Got my supply of diluted Glacial Acetic Acid (White Vinegar) Will use it to make developer!! $3.59 CAD (50 cents off a bottle)!!

Developer Formula

1000 ml Vinegar

20 ml Bio Ethanol

30 gr Iron

40 gr Sugar

New Card

 

Got my new photo cards. They look good. 250 for $50+ CAD. Might order more from this company. Photo is of Khun Nit, THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY. Am glad I have some nice cards for the talks.

 

Like the QR code on the back. It makes everything easier. Takes you directly to the website.

 

Picked Up a Safety Vest

Picked up a Safety vest for $5 at a thrift store sale (closing out). I will wear it when making Ambrotypes and near any roadway or other dangers.  It is heavy duty, well made.

Safety First!!!

My $5 safety vest

New Photo Card

Ordered a new photo card today. Got 250 cards for $41 CAD, plus shipping and tax. Probably do not need 250 cards but 100 cost 33, so for $8 more I thought it was worth it. I can hand these things out in mass bushels! 5 to a customer!

I will have them for the two coming photography talks and can also hand them out when using the trailer when making Ambrotypes. The 2 blogs, the website and an email address are all on the card. 

Note* Khun Nit, the old man who has passed away in the slum, from THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY is the pic.

Note** There is also a QR code on the back, which is a first. The code leads to my main web page. 

 

Video: My Lovely 14x14 Inch Chamonix Camera

The Importance of John Thomson in Asia

John Thomson was such a strong and important photographer in Asia at this time, 1866. I have never seen this work before, from a wet plate collodion negative. Shooting wet plate in that heat must have been extremely difficult.

A wonderful book, picked up for $10 CAD 

Nice Trays

Picked up some mini bus pan trays that will work well with the 11x14 plates. 3 for $4.50 each from Goodwill. Thrifts shops provide most of my working tools in the trailer. Gotta love that, cheap and well made.

Honey Works Well

I did further tests using honey on 11x14 Ambrotypes. Mixed a 2 part honey to 1 part water solution. Let the first plate sit for 1 day before washing, the second sit around 1 week. No issues with either plate post 2 hour wash.

I think I got something good here! This should revolutionize my remote shooting in the trailer. Now I can depart a location much sooner and wash the plates at my leisure when I have time and a good supply of water.

Note * I am finding/making more and more storage trays, that I can use to place the honey covered plates in before they are washed. 

Things are looking good!

300mm versus 360mm Schneider Xenar Lens Camera Differences

Trying to figure out which Xenar lens will be better for my 11x14, 14x14 inch tight head ambrotype portraits. Should it be the 360mm or the 300mm?

I like the less bellows extension and the more distortion from the 300!! Leaning that way.

360mm bellows extension and head

300mm bellows extension and head

Practicing Headshots

  

Looking to start doing wet plate headshots this year. Will be making shallow focus tight heads onto 11x14 and 14x14 inch clear glass plates, ambrotypes. Experimenting today with my 360mm Schneider Xenar lens. Am using my thrift shop hair model head to focus on.

Note* I have a couple of heads planned for the spring. My friend Larry and my cousin Frankie (in cosplay makeup).

Acetone Test?

I added Walmart Acetone to my old Collodion to see if I could revitalize it a bit. Online they recommend 1 drop of Acetone to 100ml of old mixed collodion. I gave a 1000ml lab bottle of collodion around 15 small drops.

We shall see what happens? It is supposed to add a bit of speed and refresh the collodion.

Sunflower Ambrotype

 Did up an 11x14 inch Ambrotype for the first time in a long time tonight. Was using old collodion and a vinegar developer with sugar.

1000 ml White Vinegar

30 gr iron

40 ml bio ethanal (my version of alcohol)

40 gr white sugar

6+ minutes in the Silver Bath

I gave 7 hits with the Blackline flash at 2400 watts, one head. The lens was my Russian copy at f32

Diptych and Triptych Design

Was thinking of a possible design for my Ambros in dip and triptychs, using hinges. The idea is to able to mount 11x14 inch and 14x14 inches plates in 2s and 3s this way. I would hand-make the frames.

Possibles?!

Ideas for Framing Ambros for Exhibition

Been thinking on framing for the possible 2008-09 AMBROTOS KANATA exhibition. 

How to proceed? Diptych’s? Ambrotype sizes? Types of frames? How many?

Here is a 14x14 inch ambrotype in a hand made pine frame. The black substrate behind the clear glass ambro is only a test 11x14 inch metal plate.

I currently thinking of going with 11x14, 14x14, 20x24 and 24x24 ambrotypes in large hand made wooden frames.

This diptych frame looks pretty good.

Possible AMBROTOS KANATA Exhibition on Vancouver Island

 

The gallery is the "Comox Valley Art Gallery",  Courtenay, Vancouver Island BC, Canada. It is a smaller gallery but quite nice, a lovely space.

Courtenay BC

 

The exhibition IF it happens, will allow the following:   

- I will allow for the work to be exhibited, possibly for the first time.  Letting me tell a         important story about Canada in glass. 

- The exhibition will allow more trips to Vancouver Island to make more and more ambrotypes. 

-It will push me to work harder and harder on the project. If I have a space, I want to fill with   beautiful and powerful work. The exhibition IF it happens would not be until 2028 or 2029.

The gallery exterior

 

Interior gallery space

Population Canada

 

Sunning and Filtering Silver Nitrate

I am sunning and filtering my silver nitrate solutions. I have somewhere between 13 and 14 litres of the stuff. 

Picked up a second daylight light source a week back. Got it delivered to the house for $30 CAD(2nd hand). I like my first daylight source for this type of sunning. Hopefully the second light will work as well.

Sunning this way has benefits There is no need to filter while sunning for bugs, no need to worry about about the valuable  silver being outside. I can simply place the glass lab bottles next to the lights in one of my darkrooms (house-trailer) and forget about it. I usually sun for 3 or 4 days. The glass bottles let me see my silver clearly, allowing me to judge its quality. The 3-4 days of sunning  allows for clearing of excess alcohol without needing to transfer the silver to a wider mouth glass container. 

I changed my filtering material from cotton to coffee filters. And moved from 3 funnels to 2. The idea is to speed up my filtering. This is especially important when I am in the field and have time limits on how long I can stay at a location. 

Sunning the silver with my 2 (1 new) daylight light lamps

Filtering silver through to funnels with coffee filters

Top coffee filter and filtration. The black is the residue sunned out of the silver nitrate solution.