I am learning to make frames mostly to save money, though I also think it will be fun. If I get good at it I will make huge diptych and triptych frames for the 24x24 inch Ambrotype works.
It is fun to think what style the frames will eventually have!
Set up and rode the scooter for the first time today. It is powerful and fun to ride! I drove it on grass, over gravel and on pavement, no issues. Sorta an all-terrain scooter vehicle!
I need to be careful thou, it could hurt me if driven improperly.
It could be a very valuable tool for the wet plate project. Allowing old me to make ambrotypes in locations that were impossible before.
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| ZSnake Electric Scooter |
Picked up a $4.50 CAD wood frame at Goodwill for the plant 11x14 Ambrotype. A nice bonus is that I can now use the original 2mm picture frame glass to make a new fragile Ambrotype on!!
Some more plant plates, shot 2 weeks ago. For the long term AMBROTOS KANATA Ambrotype project. 11x14 and 14x14 clear glass Ambrotypes.
Looking to get a mitre saw for cutting my ambrotype frames with. My head is spinning with all the new and used options. It is all rather confusing.
Might get this better-quality Dewalt option. $479 CAD. More than I wanted to pay but dad always told me to pay a bit more for better quality.
Hope I use this tool enough to warrant the cost. If I can make my own exhibition frames, then it is worth it. I am not much of a carpenter, am hoping a better tool will help me a bit.
Note* I would be making frames up to 35x35 inches, with 11x14, 14x14 and 24x24 inch frames being most common. Possibly dozens of frames.
I did not get enough sleep before going out (bad Thai dream wile me up) tonight but we got it done.
Spent the day at Elk Island's beaver pond. When I first started wet plate I spent a day with the car and tent doing 4x5 Ambrotypes. Today I had the darkroom trailer, the 1 ton Beast and was doing 14x14 inch Ambrotyoes much more confidently. How times have changed!
Bought another 12 smaller size cement mixing trays. I also adapted these trays with cork inserts (4) to create more separate between trays. This allows me to transport wet plates in water after Ambrotyoe shoots.
As I have improved my wet plate skills, I have been making more plates and larger plates. I was running out of trays early in the day. Now I have over 20 trays, that should be e ight for any 11x14 inch, 14x14 inch shooting day.
Note* I used six of these new trays during the most recent Elk Island shoot.
My trailer darkroom continues to improve. Better lighting, better blockage of windows, better storage, better sink, better battery power, better silver nitrate systems, better filtering stand. Better, better, better!!!
11x14 and 14x14 inch Ambrotyope plates now seem easy to do. The process has become faster with better results. Experience and standardization has made my wet plate life better!
I need to developed the same proficiency in 16x20 and later 24x24 glass!!!
Petrochemical Plant, 11x14 Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Edmonton, Alberta, September, 2024
Picked up a scratched frame for $3.50 CAD tonight, from Goodwill. My first framed 8x10 inch Ambrotyoe below.
Note* Picked up some stain tonight. Will try to cut down some of my existing frames to fit the work this week.
Am planning a shoot of the Calgary skyline from a local bridge location. The idea being that I can park the darkroom trailer 1/2 a kilometer (up a long hill away) and still use it for the wet plate shoot. I will make the plates SCOOTER down to the camera position, make the exposures, SCOOTER up to the darkroom and develop the plates.
Plan on doing that for 3 hours plus. The scooter should help me do things I cannot do and help my 60-year-old body deal with some of the physical aspects, of making plates far from the darkroom trailer. That is assuming I do not do a header into a light post at 40-60 kph!! Probably wear a helmet of some kind.
I know nothing about making frames but am going to learn and give it a go. Bought some older wooden frames ($25 CAD) today off Facebook Marketplace and got an old miter hand saw (for cutting angles, $20 CAD) at a thrift store during the recent trip. I want to try to make frames for my 11x14 and 14x14 inch ambrotypes. Will need to cut down these Marketplace frames and rebuild them to the proper sizes, plus stain or paint them etc.
It should be a fun thing to do. Then I will have work ready to hang for exhibition, assuming I ever get the AMBROTOS KANATA ambrotypes exhibited!
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One good things about having every bit of photographic gear ever made. Is that when you need something you have it already! It might be is hud away or covered in dust but you have the tool.
I bought this Majestic Tripod a dozen plus years back but never used it. Is it might now work with the 11x14 inch, 16x20 inch and 24x24 inch Chamonix Cameras. If the tripod and head are strong enough, I might have a better tool to use in high winds. The centre of gravity is lower and the tripod legs wider and closer to the ground.
Note* I also have a second set of short legs for the tripod.
Thinking of getting a electric scooter. Maybe this model. it has the features I need. Powerful, seat, folds, leg stand, key, light, good breaks, good name.
I might try using it for the first time if I do the Calgary bridge Ambrotype shoot. The idea would be to park the darkroom trailer a bit away then scoot back and forth to the camera position on the scooter. It would make the impossible shoot possible and would also save wear and tear on 60-year-old me!
Another expensive item but it should be loads of fun and very practical. Any reasonable tool that allows me to complete the AMBROTOS KANATA project, is money well spent.
Picked up 6 more Darcell RED and WHITE light headlamps. The red setting works great in the darkroom. The idea is to have backups, extra charged headlamps and to place some on the walls of the darkroom trailer.
I can finally see in the dark! Love it!!
Was thinking of something a bit unorthodox on the way home from work today. I am preparing to do my first Ambrotype portraits. To that end, I have new portrait lens I want to try, Schneider Xenar 300 and 360mm F4.5s (nice bokeh). I have a Honda generator to shoot remotely with my 4800w Speedotron flash and an extension for my camera bellows, allowing me to shoot closer.
The idea is to do 2 Ambrotype portraits seconds apart, then to use the portraits in a single work diptych image or as individual portraits.
With wet plate, the work is usually done very slowly, one image at a time, maybe 30 minutes apart. But if I had 2 silver baths, and 2 plate holders. I should be able to expose 2 images close together and I should be able to do the work before the plates dry out (wet plate gives you a 10-20 minute window to create, depending on humidity and temperature).
This system would allow at least 2 portraits to be recorded with non patient sitters, and would also allow for quick more spontaneous Ambrotypes with sitters that do not give you time to shoot. Lets say your photographing a famous person and that person only gives you 5 minutes. With this system, you could get off at least 2 relatively quick shots before they left.
More thought needed on this. Not sure how practical it would be. Of course there would be more cost to buy the extra silver tank and the extra holder.
Will think on it, and get some feedback from my Facebook wet plate friends.
For me it came down to simplification.
Wet plate is hard enough already without a additional 10 000 variables. Too many wet plate photographers create their own problems by jumping about like a drunken Jack Rabbit. Trying this, doing that, never satisfied, always unsure.
SIMPLIFICATION and STANDARDIZATION is the key. Make a plate you like, then stick to that, same everything after that. If you simplify and standardize, everything becomes easier.
Make plates, not tests!
Note* My friend Kurt M, helped me with this concept!
I bought the 2 Schneider Xenar lens, a 300mmand 360mm 4.5 for making portraits (f 4.5 bokeh). But all of day one at the plant I shot the 360mm and all of day 2 at the plant I shot the 300mm (f32). On Saturday I thought I would just shoot the 360mm for 1 plate, to test it, but never put it back in its storage bag.
Go figure! Who would have thought it!
I received the lens after extremely fast FedEx shipping from the States only on Friday. 1 day before the shoot. They came with beat up but usable Deardorff lens boards. It was a plug and play very lucky thing for me!!! If they work as well making portraits, these will be 2 of the most important lens for the project.
Love the lens already!
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| Schneider Xenar lens, a 300mmand 360mm f4.5 |
Used the Costco red headlights, for the first time, in the darkroom the last 2 days, I accidentally lost my normal darkroom safe lights during some trailer darkroom renovations. The headlamps were far superior. I can now see the development much better and the dark door side of the trailer where I load plates is much brighter!
I should have been using the headlamp years ago! Maybe faster and more efficient darkroom work (I can see in the dark), led to a higher output of good plates. Love this new tool.
Had another bit of luck yesterday, with this headlamp magic. A bit of fate happening here. After years of waiting and requesting to photograph the plant, all went right over the weekend.
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| Tired me on day two, on the plant shoot |
I was so tired after the 2 day plant shoot, that last night, I fell asleep in my reclining chair for 6 1/2 hours (130am to 8am). I was too tired to even get up to pee or to climb into bed. I held it, till I heard a fire truck outside at 8am. Then I went outside and put away some plates that were drying. Now in bed needing more sleep! I work security tonight.
Note * If I ever get access to photograph the plants in Fort MacMurray, I will need to pace myself. Maybe 3-4 weeks shooting (those plants are massive)! With a day or 2 of rest between each Ambrotype making day. It would be a major undertaking, probably the biggest and most difficult of the project.
I basically ran out of trays to store wet plates in on both the Saturday and Sunday shoots at the plant. I will need to buy 6-10 extra trays and set them up with the separation cork, aloiwing the trays to be stacked with wet Ambrotypes inside-
I am surprised how easily some of the plates are coming now. Over the 2 days at the plant they were coming out fast and easy with few mistakes. Things have come a long way since I bought the darkroom trailer 5 years or so ago and was making shitty 4x5 tintypes.
More mass produced plates require more trays! 24x24 inch and 35x35 inch Ambrotypes seem possible today.
Transporting the Ambrotype water trays home for washing, drying and varnishing.
After only about 6 hours sleep (washing plates from the previous day till 2330 hours), I was back at the plant for day 2 of Ambrotype making. I shot 11x14 plates all day using the new 300mm Schneider Xenar f4.5 Lens.
A good day, lots of plates made by 11am, then the heat set in, rising to 30C in the trailer.
I just made 2 gallery submissions to the main gallery at CASA in Lethbridge, Alberta. It is a nice facility with an CARFAC artist fee of $...
