Possible AMBROTOS KANATA Shooting Location

Found this place today, Fort Simpson Northwest Territories. I think it might be a good place to shoot, tell the story of the region and its Inuit culture. It is accessible by road, paved highway. Much of NWT and Yukon have limited access via roads.

Fort Simpson, NWT

Video: Lundbreck Falls, 11x14 inch Clear Glass Ambrotype

Tree Patterns, 14x14 inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Elk Island National Park, Canada, September 2024

Gerry Collodion, Hypo, Vinegar Developer

OId Wood Frames?

I really like the look of old wood frames. I like them even better than the modern new, beautiful moulds. Using old wood to make frames also fits into the Ambrotypes 1851 vintage!! Thinking of making up my own frames in a similar style, using my new carpentry tools. We shall see how it goes; I think it's a possibility.

Shipping Boxes?

I am thinking about making shipping boxes for the framed Ambrotypes. If I am going to exhibit the work nationally, the glass needs to be protected! I think its a good plan, counting my chickens before they hatch here, but you gotta plan ahead! Plus it is fun to think this way!!!

YouTube Video: How to build a shipping box

Honey Seems the Way to Go!

I am thinking honey might be the way to go with the whole keeping my plates wet longer thing. Vegetable Glycerin works well but is more expensive than honey. I can buy 5kg (pail) of honey locally for $45 CAD. I will dilute the honey with water, not sure how much just yet, but 5kg should last a long time. Plus the honey thing goes along with my buying my wet plate chemicals form the grocery store theme, white vinegar, sugar, distilled water etc.

Note* The plan being to coat the plates with a mix of honey and water after fixing and a short water bath. I can then transport the Ambrotypes to a place where they can be thoroughly washed. You have to go from wet to dry with Ambrotypes, if you dry and rewet the collodion emulsion is likely to come off. In olden times, photogs used honey to keep the plates wet. I am following their well-trodden path!

Video: Elk Island 14x14 Tree Patterns

 Tree Patterns, 14x14 inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Elk Island National Park, Canada, September 2024

Gerry Collodion, Hypo, Vinegar Developer

Video: Double Falls, Lundbreck, Alberta, 2024

 

Video: 14x14 Inch Plate of the Plant

 Plant, 14x14 inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Edmonton Canada, September 2024

Centre Street Bridge Calgary

 This is the bridge I scootered to and made Ambrotypes from all day on Saturday.

Wikipedia: Centre Bridge Calgary

Baby Oil?

I am looking for a better way to keep the Ambrotypes plates wet during transfer times to washing.

I currently use a system of cement making trays stacked and loaded with plates, each tray has about 1 1/2 inches of water in it.  I can carry the trays in the darkroom trailer Fanny or on the deck of the flatbed BEAST truck. The system works quite well, thou there is splash and some water leaks out. The down side is the water sloshing about sometimes damages the sensitive collodion emulsion. This last trip I lost one plate that way.

My wet plate books recommend coating the Ambros with a 50/50 mix of water and glycerin. I tried that for the first time yesterday and it worked fine. It might become my preferred method to transport wet plates. The problem is the cost, 1000 ml of vegetable glycerin costs about $25 CAD.

Can I devise a cheaper alternative? I did that with many other chemicals in the process.

I was looking online last night for something that might work. I came up with mineral oil (baby oil). A 590 ml bottle of “Equate Baby Oil” from Walmart costs $6.20 CAD. That means it is about 1/2 the cost of vegetable glycerin. I will buy a bottle and test it next shoot. If this works, baby oil will become my “keep the plate wet till washing” method. If not I might have to go with the more expensive glycerin.

Cement trays loaded with plates.

Scooter Boy!!

 

Drying Plates in the Sun

Some of the plates did not dry overnight inside the trailer. I placed them in the sun with a slight wind for about 30 minutes, which did the drying job nicely.

The Calgary Darkroom Trailer Setup

Videos: Scooter Day in Calgary

 

My Wetplate Process in Calgary this Weekend!

Part of email on the wet plate process in Calgary.

“On Saturday I spent a 12-hour day making Ambrotypes in downtown Calgary on a bridge near Chinatown.

The process is called wet plate collodion. You have about a 10–15-minute window to make the glass plate (with a photographic emulsion on it), make a picture onto the glass and then develop it before everything dries up and you lose the image.

In Calgary, I had to park my darkroom trailer far away from my camera positions. So to get back and forth fast enough I tried a new idea for the first time. I bought and used an e-scooter! So all of Saturday I first worked in the darkroom and made the plate, then scootered down to my camera (my wife sat in a chair all day watching my expensive gear at three locations), took the photo, then scootered back up a big hill to the darkroom trailer and developed and fixed the Ambrotype before it dried out.

So, after a 12-hour day of doing that I was pretty much spent! 

All that night I had to wash and dry the 14 plates made that day in the hotel parking lot. I had to get up and change out the washing plates every two hours, change the water, then dry the plates and pack the plates. In Edmonton I still need to varnish the glass Ambrotype plates. This is an 1851-year process, so a ton of steps. I admire the old guys who did this, back in Queen Victoria times. They had no e-scooters to help them out!”

Video: Ambrotype Plates for Plant Management!

Will show these two Ambros to the managers and other workers at the plant.

Petrochemical Plant, 11x14 Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Canada 2024

Gerry Collodion and Vinegar Developer.

Petrochemical Plant Boilers

Petrochemical Plant Boilers, 11x14 inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Edmonton, Albera, 2024

Gerry Collodion, Vinegar Developer and Hypo.

I will change out the Ambrotypes black background to a deeper black. That will give the image a more contrasty feel. Currently there is only a slightly dull a black sheet of paper behind the Ambro.

Note* I added the black metal background images, much more contrast.

Glossy black metal background creates higher contrast.

Blackish  paper background creates soft tones.

3rd 8x10 inch Ambrotype Added to Alberta Collection!

This is the 4th work I have in The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection, the 3rd Ambrotype. Will use the $1000 CAD to buy Silver Nitrate.

Carpentry Boy!!

With the large AMBROTYPE plates to come on the AMBROTOS KANATA wet plate project. I will eventually need to framework for exhibitions (I hope!). Large 24x24 inch (possibly 35x35 inch) frames cost hundreds of dollars. I probably will also need even larger diptych and triptych frames, which could run into the thousands of dollars.

To help with those costs I have decided to learn some woodworking skills and will try to make my own frames. I want it to become part of the creative process. Both the image and the frame should become a beautiful, expressive, creative whole (I hope!). Another old man retirement thing.

To that I have begun buying some carpentry/woodworking tools and watching tons of how to YouTube vids.

So far, I have a new mitre saw, a new table sander, a new worktable and a new shop vacuum, along with clamps, glue, measuring tools. I will pick up a used, secondhand table saw this morning, for $100. A new table saw cost too much, so trying to save a bit there. Most everything was bought on sale. I hope this is an investment on later savings.

I know nothing about carpentry, but this should be fun, creative and challenging. As long as I do not chop off a couple of fingers, things should work out nicely!!

Note* Also watching lots of safety videos!

Dewalt 12-inch mitre saw

Table sander

Skil 10 inch secondhand table saw.

FREE Work Bench

Picked up a FREE work bench with the BEAST after my nightshift. I am not sure how I will use it. Maybe for making frames or cutting/washing glass.

Problem Solving AMBROTOS KANATA

 My long term Ambrotype project of Canada is often about problem solving. Next week I will travel to Calgary for two days, to photograph their city skyline (the downtown sky scrapers etc.)

Problem #1. How to shoot ultra large format Ambrotypes (11x14 inch and 14x14 inch) far from where my darkroom trailer will be parked. Shoot from a bridge etc.

Possible solution. Got me a e-scooter! I will zip back and forth between the trailer and camera in minutes.

Problem #2. How to transport the plate holders safely from darkroom to camera and back to darkroom again. I will need to have both hands on the scooter at all times to be safe.

Possible solution. A backpack? That seems cumbersome and a it might fall off mid drive. After much online searching, I found a hanging bag that should work. It might even be able to carry two holders. It will probably require a tie down strap.

Problem #3. The place I will park the truck and darkroom trailer in Calgary, has a 3 hour time limit. I have 4 or 5 possible setups to do. 3 hours is very little time in the wet plate world.

Possible solution. Do SPEED WET PLATE. Shoot two holders each trip! Have the developer, glass and silver prepared early, wash, dry and store the plates at the hotel parking lot later that night. Will SPEED WET PLATE work? It will be hard, very hard. We shall see!

Here is the wet plate carry bag on the e-scooter.