Wet Plate, Before And After

You can see the progression of some of the images here, from a plate needing fixing, to the plate in a water bath, to the finished look, with the reverse sheen of the glass and the collodion covered by asphaltum.

Note* The still digi images, never do justice to the true memorizing beauty of a see through, clear class ambrotype!

Note** The originals have a less reddish tone to them more a black/brown look.

Before fixing in Hypo (Sodium Thiosulfate

Wet, wet plate ambrotypes1

Finished works, full and detail versions.

Video: New Sound System For Darkroom TrailerPB10-CD Bosch Power Work Radio

Picked up a sound system for the darkroom trailer today. It is an old unit from about 2004, a BOSCH PB10-CD Power Work Radio. These things were created for construction workers and work, so heavy duty. My idea is to just place this on the floor of the trailer with 2 power sources, full electric and the inverter off the battery. I can play radio and CDs where ever I am in Canada with great sound. The newer units are blue tooth, I am more of a CD guy, have hundreds to play on the trips and travels. Music is something that will make the 14 hour wet plate days go that much better!! Cost $100 CAD, unit in near new condition.

I always love to dance in my darkrooms, maybe I can dance while making wet plates!

"Ain't Photography Grand!!"

Note** Also making some other upgrades to the trailer. New red LED lights, covered the troublesome vent light up, added a new on/off button for the pump and shortened one of the water washing pump tubes (it was too big and cumbersome). Little by little we are rounding the trailer into a good solid working environment and DANCE HALL!.

PB10-CD Bosch Power Work Radio

Naming System For The AMBROTOS KANATA Project?

I am thinking now of my storage and naming systems for the AMBROTOS  KANATA project. If things work out right, the 10- 15 year plus project could eventually create over 1000 plates. I need some efficient naming and storage system to deal with that volume of work.

Naming might go something like this.

Tree Detail, Banff National Park, 53-35' 51 N/112-20'11 W, Alberta, Canada, May 2022

Note* This section of the name, 53-35' 51 N/112-20'11 W, is the photography locations longitude and latitude in Canada. I take a reading each time I stop to photograph. I should have a pretty exact location where every ambrotype was made in Canada. I think that location info will be a nice addition if the work is later collected and exhibited nationally.

Note** I might some kind of abbreviation number-letter system as well. Something I can stick to the back of the plate and onto the naming storage envelope. That way after hundreds of plates are made, there will no confusion about where the plate came from, or when it was made. Maybe an excel sheet of some kind as well, listing each plate of the project in a simple understandable form.

The National Gallery in Ottawa will need this information later when they collect the work......I WISH! :)

3 Finished Clear Glass Ambros

Brought the 3 recent 8x10 clear glass plates to work today. Will think them over and dream of new images. I will try to make some 12x20 panoramic's in the mountain parks next week, a 6 night trip. It should be both fun and challenging, have 4 locations picked out already.

“Ain't Photography Grand!!”

Note* I am thinking these ambrotypes will be the first in the project, I will date, name and store properly. AMBROTOS KANATA has truly begun!!!

8x10 clear glass ambrotypes made with G Collodion and blackened with Asphaltum

Big Tire Electric Bike And Trailer

I am thinking of getting a big tire electric bike and trailer for the AMBROTOS KANATA project. Often I will need to transport the large heavy plate holder and glass plate from long distances. If I had an electric bike, that journey would be so much easier. When your doing wet plate often you need to try multiple times to get it right, that journey there and back on an electric bicycle-trailer would be so much easier.

As a second type use, I could also transfer a mobile, minnie wet plate darkroom to difficult, far off locations, places I cannot get the RV and trailer.

A third use for the bike alone would be for personal travel. Often when your traveling with 45 feet of motorhome and trailer you need to park very far away from the action. As I get older having a bike to go shopping, or visit the sights will be important.

The bike would need to be powerful, the trailer foldable so I can carry it in the darkroom trailer.

Upgrades To The Darkroom Trailer

  Planned upgrades to darkroom trailer.

- Black light from vent to prevent talking. Will use a Velcro removable plastic sheet.

- Add more red LED lights, testing a 12volt (plus into power supply) type from Amazon this week. If it works I will replace the 2 battery operated lights currently installed. I might keep the battery LED lights installed to use in a emergency loss of all power situation.

- Fix the sewage pipe connections from the sink to the sewage tank, not sure how just yet. For now I might have to use a pail on one tank and duct tape with RV style sewage pipe on the other. 

- Change out inflexible houses used on water agitation pump to a very flexible cloth hose system. I purchased various adapters and a hose and will work on that this week. The old hose system is effective bulky, takes up space and is difficult to work with. I also want to try to figure out a system that will allow me to start the water flowing without sucking on the hose. Getting mouthful's of  wash water cannot be good for your health, need to avoid that.

Note* The new man door light proof curtains I installed last week, and the door latch, worked wonderful. An extra step (opening and closing curtains) each time you leave and enter, but the darkroom is much more light proof now. It is reassuring to be in a more dark darkroom :)

AMBROTOS KANATA Trip, Day 3

 A very exhausting but rewarding day. I do not think I have ever been more tired in a single day than I was yesterday a the SPACA MOSKALYK UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. I woke up at 450am, was sleeping in my motorhome "Fanny" in Mundare Alberta. I ate breakfast then drove down the the church 12 km away, down a an old slow, bumpy gravel road. Arrived at the church around 530am. Set up the darkroom and camera and then made pictures until 530pm, followed by clean up and shower, left the church at 8pm, 14.5 hours after I arrived.

It was a day of adventure, first 2 good plates, then several hours of fog. I finally figured out my fog issue. As the sun rose and became more intense the light though my red colored roof vent also increased. So the vent was fine in the morning but midday it was too bright, creating fog. I could barely see it but my plate darkened as I developed it, as it was exposed to excessive red light from the vent. I have been having a problem with fog dating back to last year, I think I have this version of it licked. A second issue with fog relates to my holder, there seems to be light entering along the top and the right side. I taped down the holder, now that issue also seems resolved. After I fixed things, all the plates turned out fine. So it was a day of some good plate making as well as some important problem solving. 

I hope to have made some of my first plates at the church that can live on long term as part of the AMBROTOS KANATA project.

Note* This church and graveyard is popular with various photo club people I  know. It was nice to put a new wet plate spin on the place. It is no doubt the first time that ambrotypes have been made there, in the 98 years of the church's existence, kinda cool! Many places and people I will photograph as part of AMBROTOS KANATA will be first time being photographed on glass stuff!

Shortly after arrival at the chirch.

The church was put onto a new foundation, and renovated in 2016

Fixed Ambrotype Fogging Problem, FOR NOW!

I believe the fogging I have been experiencing the last 2 years, is a direct result of too much red light coming through my red painted roof vent. I also had fogging from the holder (now taped up). It was a confusing problem to fix, so multi faceted. The part that was very confusing to figure, was that the vent produced a nice and safe light to work in most days. So everything seemed fine, you could make great plates and then the light would get a bit brighter outside, and destroy everything inside, it was hard to notice why. 

I think I was also overthinking things. When you learn wet plate people are constantly warning you of the countless ways you can screw up, they say over and over again how difficult wet plate is. You start to panic when things go wrong because of all the things people have told you that can go wrong! When I started to have fogging problems, I was thinking in a thousand different directions. I was thinking it was a wet plate issue of some kind. In the end it was a basic traditional darkroom film issue, a darkroom that is not light tight fogs film! With these glass plates the fogging seemed to occur when I was developing the image, and when the developer was on the plate. 10 seconds, looking good, 18-20 seconds looks about right then at 25 seconds everything fogged. You could barely see it in the red light, but eventually I did. Will work on a permanent fix for the vent this week (last week I just taped  some black garbage bags under the vent).

I hope this problem is solved. Next week off when I go to the mountains to continue the project work, I hope to do me up some ULF panoramic' s for the first time, 12x20 inch ambrotype!!

AMBROTOS KANATA Trip, Day 2

Day 2s highlight was photographing at the Basilian Grotto in Mundare. Alberta, a Catholic shrine. For the first time I backed while turning the 45 foot motorhome/trailer combo into a side road next to the Grotto. I had to turn the trailer 90 degrees while backing in. It took me about 6 tries and 20 minutes of practice in a nearby parking lot to get it done. It did not help that I was turning from a semi busy highway. Was able to get the trailer/motorhome parked in place and then made the pics below, 3 set ups.

Depiction of Christ carrying the cross

Grotto building

AMBROTROS KANTA TRIP, Day 1

 The first day of the trip was a quick drive to Elk Island National Park, I arrived around 6am, then had a 9 hour nap!! Woke up and made some ambrotypes, and left the park at around 11pm. I drove to the town of Mundare Alberta to spend the night.

Highlights of my stay at Elk Island was seeing a deer walk in front of me as I tied my shoes at the motorhome door (less than 30 feet away), a truly beautiful animal. Later in the day I ran out to make a photo of the trees (below) when I looked to see a large mean looking Buffalo staring at me (probably 70 feet away), he stared at me for 10 seconds or so (having noticed me first) and then went back to eat. At the time I was staring at him I wonder where I would go if he charged me! Maybe I could have clocked him with "Eddy" my 8x10 Deardorff and tripod! :)

Some plates of nearby trees. Will try some ULF panoramic of same subject soon.

Buffalo eating outside my window

Eating a muffin with tea inside the comforts of 'Fanny" the motorhome

Carlton Watkin's Book, The Art Of Perception.

Part of learning wet plate is studying the great photogs who used the process in the past. To that end I picked up a Carlton Watkins book tonight. Should be a great read, and a great way to learn.

ADVERT from Amazon.

"Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916) is best remembered for his large-format photographs of the American West, especially those taken in Yosemite. This new volume, the latest in the popular In Focus series, is devoted to some of his smaller and unusually shaped works, including stereographs, albumen prints, and cabinet and boudoir cards--most of which have never before been published."

Help Online, GOT TO LOVE IT!!

Wet Plate is fun but oh so difficult!! Luckily I have online friends that help me get past my mistakes and ignorance. The latest question below:

Wet Plate Development Question: THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

Clear Glass Ambrotype, being made.

So last week when I was in Banff park I was photographing snow for first time. The scene is this: High mountains at altitude (Columbia Ice Fields) covered in snow, maybe 80-90% of the mountain. The shot is a vertical (8x10 and 16x20), in the foreground you have dirt and rocks leading up to the mountain.

I had fogging issues on the plate, especially the mountain areas. I have been advised by you kind folks that it was probably an overexposure problem related to excessive blue light on the snow (possibly as much as 4 stops over exposed). I still have the 16x20 plate, will try to post it later. My memory of that plate is that the foreground looked OK exposure wise but the mountains were a mess of fog and mush.

My question is this. If the mountains are badly over exposed and the foreground near properly exposed. HOW DO I HANDLE SUCH A SCENE WITH WET PLATE? I tried doing some dodging over the lens with a card (half assed!) while exposing but that did not work.

I was wondering about development. In Mark Os wet plate book he says this in the development section.

"...water should be gently poured upon the surface to remove the developer. Selected areas of the plate can be left to develop longer than others by avoiding those places when the first applying the wash water."

Is this the best way to proceed? Expose for the mountains, then develop (over develop) for the shadowed foreground rock areas in the composition?

I was also wondering if you develop the plate as normal after exposing for the mountains, then wash to stop development, then add a second developer to the rock, dirt foreground areas. Is this possible? Or is adding more developer going to create a big mess on the plate. Developer application and amount being so finicky for the process.

Better to extend developer in the foreground underexposed areas? Add a second developer? Possible? How would you proceed making the photo?

I will probably try both ways, but need your expert advice people, thank you for any help. Hoping to have a better idea how to handle this when I return in June (probably less snow then).

In the color photo you can see the ground and the mountain I was shooting to the right of the image, around the trailer.

Columbia Icefields, Banff National Park, Canada

Who Was He, Japanese Ambrotype

Who was he? Ambrotype from Japan, 1870-90s. Picked it up last week for $25 CAD. Placed it in the motorhome as a source of project inspiration.

Who was he?

The Beauty Of Clear Glass Ambrotypes

What I love about clear glass ambrotypes is that when you coat the collodion side (after 2 varnishes) is that you then can look THROUGH the 3 or 4mm glass to see the image on the other side. The subject seems ALIVE inside the glass. You get a feeling of 3 dimensionality, a very detailed, warmtone reality that I find very beautiful. The glossiness/sheen front of glass also creates a different feel than tintypes and black glass, things seem more pristine. All subjective of course, to each there own.

Going out next week to make some 8x10 ambros, hope to give that 3D feel with some landscapes of lakes in the Edmonton area.

G Collodion (no extra ether added), 3 mm glass.

Doll from the Mae Sot garbage dump, 8x10 clear glass ambrotype, 2022

Doll from the Mae Sot garbage dump, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype

5 Bottles Of Varnish For The Coming Ambrotypes

I should probably not be buying this varnish now, I have many bills to pay. Still I am short of varnish and will need more for in the coming months. Picked up 4-32 ounce bottles for $192 CAD ($36.09 CAD per bottle), with free shipping to my front door.

The varnish I ordered. Before I used the high gloss, now going to just the gloss version.

Motorhome Talk On Facebook

 The motor home FANNY and the trailer FREDDY (named after the creator of wet plate and his wife who sacrificed so much), have preformed well so far.

The motor home being a 2000 model does require a Mr. Fix It attitude. I have learned how to fix many things using YouTube. Also learning how things like the plumbing work. Resealing the roof, adding a black water vent. I need to replace the inverter as well as I had an issue when I put the batteries back this year. Now have all new batteries which worked great the first trip.

The trailer has been near flawless. I had leaks from the sink, pump which now seemed solved. I need to replace the on off switch for the water pump which is malfunctioning, and light proof the door which gave me major problems last trip.

Anyway overall I am very happy with both units so far. Hoping to get 10 plus years out both

CJ

This isn't exactly roughing it.

The drama will come when you stub a toe.

• GY

• No not roughing it but the eventual plan is to spend up to 4 months traveling the length and breath of Canada. Without a motorhome it would not be practical to do so, especially as I get closer to 70. The motorhome will be essential both from a comfort of living level (can watch movies, eat good food, super comfy bed) and living for free in remote locals thing. You pay more for the diesel but many nights I can live for free with no hotel costs. The motorhome will also allow me to stay in places, especially in the North of Canada where there are no hotels. I can spend a week living in nature with the big camera set up (in its own tent?) making photos. It should be a glorious experience. The RV shower this last trip was also essential. After spending 12-14 hours in the darkroom trailer swimming in chemicals, you require a nice hot shower before bed time. It is a luxury but also a necessity. Nice to wash yourself before bed, it sets you up for the next day of travel or photo making! Right now as I type this I have silver nitrate stains on my hands, tip of my nose, right eyebrow and the second toe of my left foot! Got to have my shower, to clean up on a daily basis. The unit allows about 6 hot showers on a tank of water.

Next Weeks AMBROTOS KANATA Plans

Thinking of taking the trailer/motor home out alone to make wet plate images, next week off. I need to overcome my errors and improve at the process. The only way I know of doing that, is working my ass off. That technique has worked in past photo learning experiences. I just keep my nose to the grindstone, till things turn for the better.

Thinking lakes not too far from Edmonton (to save on diesel), with free overnight stays at highway rest areas for 4-5 nights or so. Should be fun. Looking for things to photograph on the project within 100 miles of Edmonton. Going to concentrate on doing complete 8x10 clear glass ambrotypes in the field. Want to come home with some completely finished plates!

Anyone know of some local Edmonton lake areas that might work for the ambrotypes?

Wabamum Lake Shoot?