Video: Tree Trunk version 2, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype

Tree Trunk version 2, 8x10 Clear  Glass Ambrotype, Elk Island Park, Alberta, June 2023

Spreading The Word!

 Am trying to educate folks about wet plate on a Canada Arts Facebook page.

SPS Top contributor

Wow, that technology goes back into the mid to late 1800! Must be fun to make those pictures talk!

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• GY Author

  SPS yes it was invented in 1851 by an Englishman named Frederic Scott Archer, he never patented it, sort of gave it to the world. Basically, Ambrotypes are a Victorian age polaroid. You need to process the image on site, within about 10-20 minutes while the emulsion is still wet (wet plate) or you lose the image forever. That is the reason you need to travel with a darkroom. If you go to eBay and type in ambrotype, you will see a ton of old portraits. Wet plate collodion (the process) is done on glass (Ambrotypes) or metal (Tintypes). Many photog/artists around the world have started up the process over the last 30 years or so. It is complicated, potentially dangerous, very difficult but so rewarding if you get it right. For me, I love Ambrotypes because it is as if the subject is alive INSIDE THE GLASS. A really unique and wonderous thing.

Videos: Kinda Like Them!!

 Kinda like these far off, quiet, wooded forest scenes, they relax me. I feel at peace when I study them, absorbed into the warm tones. Thinking of doing some 20x24 diptychs of these type scenes, if I can technically manage those size plates. 

Making these pretty plates now as I continue to learn seems a sound way forward. Later when the technique part of things are under control I can move onto more serious documentary style imagery. At least that’s the hope!

Bought Me A Small Refrigerator/Freezer, F40C4TMP 12 Volt Refrigerator 13 Quart(12L) Portable Freezer

Picked up this little unit at 20% discount. A tiny fridge/freezer that can run off 110 or 12 volt. I kept hearing that I needed to have my developer at as near 20C as I can get it. The problem is the temp inside the trailer can vary widely during a day. It can be 12C at 7am and 28C at 2pm. I am not sure how much developer temperature changes affect the print, but I have been told by people I trust that keeping the developer at a constant temp is very important and one of the few things you can control. I have been told you want to keep the 20C constant, so you have some control over your image.

To that end I bought the itty-bitty fridge unit. My plan is to put jars of developer inside that cover my 20x24 plate size. I can rotate the jars and add new jars of developer as I use them up during the days shooting. The fridge unit allows me to set exact temps on it and also allows me to control the amount of power used, so it is less likely I will drain the trailer batteries.

I feel that any reasonably priced tool, to help AMBROTOS KANATA get done, is money well spent! Hopefully this new small fridge, helps make better plates.

Note* Fridges cannot be used for the same purpose to store collodion. Collodion has alcohol and ether in the formula. If you store collodion in a sealed small area like a fridge, the gases could build up and be triggered by a spark from the fridge compressor causing an accident.

So, to keep my collodion at cooler temps I will be forced to use a standard cooler with ice packs.

F40C4TMP 12 Volt Refrigerator 13 Quart(12L) Portable Freezer

Videos: Kinda Like Them!

Kinda like these far off, quiet, wooded forest scenes, they relax me. I feel at peace when I study them, absorbed into the warm tones. Thinking of doing some 20x24 diptychs of these type scenes, if I can technically manage those size plates. 

Making these pretty plates now as I continue to learn seems a sound way forward. Later when the technique part of things are under control I can move onto more serious documentary style imagery. At least that’s the hope!

Video: Forest, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype

Forest, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Highway 11 Near Nordegg, Alberta, Canada, July 2023

I Can Almost Touch Them

Video: Dying Tree, Clear Glass Ambrotype (LOST IT)

 Dying tree, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Highway 11, Alberta,  Canada, June 2023

Video: Washing A 20x24 Ambrotype

Washing this plate for practice purposes! Need to develop sound techniques for the later good Ambros.

Video: Attempted 20x24

Learning, learning and learning some more. Today I took some 20x24 Ambrotype steps , more steps needed!

Exhausted!

 Two days of shooting wet plate. The seconds day 20x24 plates. Did about 14 hours each day. I am exhausted!

Rain Roof For HF2024

Shooting the HF2024 today. The new roof shelter I got for her works great! It measures 6.6x6.6 feet, I managed to set it up by myself. Even though they do not advertise it as being waterproof, it pretty much is. There has been two major rainstorms and items underneath have remained dry.  Is I do not need to be afraid of the rain.

Note* I will need to get some kind of big ten for the later HF3535 shooting. When I set up that camera it will probably be in place for 4 days to a week at a time.

I Need To Be Persistent With My Ambrotypes!

 

On The Road With Rembrandt!!

On the road, should be making Ambrotypes soon. Love the experience of traveling in Fanny the RV with Freddy the darkroom trailer.

When your away from everything and everyone there is a sense of freedom and creativity that is hard to describe. Whenever I am in Thailand for extended trips of 6 months or longer I feel it to an even greater degree.

Yesterday in Ponoka, Alberta I picked up a bunch of CDs, DVDs and book. A ton of entertainment for $30. The highlight is a wonderful book, with great reproductions, on one of my favourite artists, REMBRANDT!! Cost? $2.05.

20x20Inch Mammoth Ambrotype

This is my first successful (kinda) mammoth 20x20 Ambrotype. It is the second one I varnished (first overexposed). .

QQC Collodion with a 13 minute exposure, HF2024 camera and 19 inch lens.

Note* Ordered another 10 sheets of 20x24 clear glass/3mm!! I pick it up today for the week ahead of shooting.

Video: 4 Ambros, 2022-23, 8x10 Clear Glass

 4 Ambros, 2022-23, 8x10 Clear Glass

Video: Forest Plain, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Preacher Point, Alberta, 2023

Forest Plain, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Preacher Point, Alberta, 2023

This image is back lit, not sure I like that effect, but it certainly looks different then my other ambros.

It’s Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2nd 20x24 Wet Plate Holder

I ordered a 2nd 20x24 inch wet plate holder from Filip in Czechia (Czech Republic) tonight. I might get this one with carbon fiber slides, not sure just yet. Cost of a normal holder is $400 Euro, for a Carbon Fiber double slide holder it is $800 Euro. I paid 1/2 up front, the build started. It will take a month or so.

I figured I needed a backup holder just in case my plastic slide version breaks down. Which it will with the hard use I plan to put it through. I do not want to be in far off Northern Yukon making 20x24 Ambrotypes and my one and only holder becomes damaged and unusable. It would be extremely painful to not be able to make beautiful Ambrotypes, in a beautiful, important location because my holder broke!! After I receive this one, I will always have a backup. Expensive, but important.

Wet plate and this project is so expensive. I need to get additional funding somehow, some way.

2023 Ambrotype

This year! Forest at Preacher Point, Clear Glass Ambrotype, Highway 11, Alberta

8x20 Deardorff (Eddy) with120mm kens and Quinn Quick. Clear Collodion (QQC).  

The temperature was over 25c in the trailer. I was getting artifacts with Gerry Collodion. QQC seems to handle higher temps better. Will keep experimenting.

Exposure is so difficult with wet plate work. I feel this one might be a tiny bit under and the 20x29 inch flower shits from last week, might be a bit over