Ambrotypes Rejected

Got a rejection notice this morning from the Albert Foundation for the Arts, Art buy. Sold 2 8x10: in 2023 and 1 8x10 in 2024. The larger plates I tried to sell this year were a bust. See link:

AFA Art Buy Hopes 2025

A Strange Dream!

 

Alberta Art by Acquisition Buy of 2025

I have submitted my "Art Acquisition by Application" buy-grant for 2025 to the AFA (Alberta Foundation for the Arts).  Hopefully they accept some work again this year, which would make it 3 years running.

In 2022, they bought 2-8x10 inch Ambrotypes ($2000), in 2023, they bought 1-8x10 inch Ambrotype ($1000). I hope they will buy some of the larger, higher priced 11x14 and 14x14 inch Ambrotypes submitted this year. 

I use all the buy money to purchase Silver Nitrate for the AMBROTOS KANATA project.

This Years AFA Art Buy Ambrotypes

 

Here are this years submissions to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts buy.

14x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Tree Abstract, Elk Island National Park, Alberta, 2024

14x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Keyera Alberta Envirofuels Petrochemical Plant, Edmonton, Alberta,  August 2024

11x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype #2, Keyera Alberta Envirofuels, Edmonton, Alberta, 2024

14x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Calgary Cityscape, Calgary, Alberta 2024

11x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Boilers Keyera Alberta Envirofuels Petrochemiical Plant, Edmonton, Alberta, 2024

Swimming Felt Good Today!

I am enjoying my workouts! I went to the gym/pool today the third straight day and have gym/pool visits already planned for Friday and  Sunday. I think it is very possible I can reduce my weight from 240lbs to 200-210lbs, and increase my aerobic conditioning and maybe my muscle mass and flexibility.

3.5 work shifts before I am officially retired!! So I will have more time to exercise.

Improved physical conditioning should help my photography, especially the AMBROTOS KANATA project.

Note* I always wondered how people could be so comfortable at freestyle swimming (front crawl) that they could swim over lakes, or across the English Channel. It always tired me out, hurt to do the stroke. Today was the first time, I kinda felt comfortable doing front crawl. It seemed easier, even calming. I enjoyed it, and kinda felt bad when I stopped to climb into the hot pool. Easy freestyle swiming is weird sensation when you have been swimming all of your life and you make that discovery at 60. I hope this feeling continues and gets stronger. Allowing for longer and longer swims with FLIP TURNS :)!!!!

8 More Shifts!

After tonight, it will be 8 shifts till retirement, after 30 years onsite as a guard. It all feels so strange, dreamlike and not real. Saying goodbye to a lot of good people now.

Video: Homemade Exhaust Fan Build Completed

 It might not be pretty but it works! This version is also much more durable than my previous cardboard box setup. The woodworking tools are coming in handy. Many more better built projects ahead!

Workout’s Begin!

So am starting my workouts to get into better shape. If I want to do AMBROTOS KANATA into my seventies, I need to be in much better overall physical shape condition.

Cheaply Exhaust Fan System for the Darkroom Trailer

 With 10 shifts until I am unemployed (retired). I need to get my wet plate trailer up and running!

Been working on a simple homemade exhaust fan. I tried this last year with a cardboard box and it did seem to work but the box broke down as expected. When I ran it the fume levels/smell did seem to go down in the trailer. The fan looks shitty but works fine, a $15 CAD Goodwill find.

I decided to upgrade the box to 1/4 inch plywood. I found a very old board in the garage, it worked fine. Put some paint on to help preserve things.

The two exhaust fans sit in the plywood box then exhaust the fumes down a flexible plastic pipe to a hole (used for the power cable) to outside. My trailer door and roof vent allows new air into the trailer. It will be completed in a few days, then I can test it out.

Every year the trailer gets refined and upgraded. This years trailer should be the best yet, I am having a bit of work done on the ”BEAST“ 1 Ton, which I use to tow the “FREDDY” the darkroom trailer. When both are 100% I can start to make Ambrotypes again. I need to do some shooting before I go to Asia for two months of photography.

1 Month to Retirement!

 

Yearly Pass?!

Did my second work out today, at a very nice gym/pool facility. In retirement I will probably get a yearly membership, allowing for exercising to every Edmonton operated fitness centre/pool in the city. To make it worthwhile, I will need to attend at least twice a week.

Getting in shape will help me create the Ambrotypes for the AMBROTOS KANATA project, into old age.

AMBROTOS KANATA Camera Positions

Some past camera setups from the AMBROTAS KANATA wet plate Canada project. Post retirement we are planning a long trip to Vancouver island and the West Coast of British Columbia, possibly a 2 month trip. More camera setups there!

Cezanne & Pissarro Book

Fairly cheap and beautiful book buy. The reproductions are quite lovely. 

Back when I started studying the Impressionists work, I was not a Pissarro or Cezanne fan. Now I am! It’s funny how tastes change with time. 

Hopefully their compositions can help the AMBROTOS KANATA project.

Video: Ambrotype Scan, Pt-Pd Print

Tonight am trying to print a Ambrotype plate I scanned. Making an 8x10 Platinum-Palladium print. Anyone done that before?

First attempt too contrasty, made a softer neg, will try that next.

Ambrotype sold to the Alberta provincial art collection. I no longer own it.

Drops 14-FO, 13 Pd, 1 Pt Na2. HANH paper

I adjusted the digital negative of this print with -50 contrast and went 100% Platinum. It turned out softer, as expected. I will wash and dry it to see where I am at.

8x10 inch Ambrotype

-50 contrast negative 

Link: Ambrotype Wash Process

Wrote this up for a Facebook friend, thought I would share it here.

I use hypo and wash in the field with no electricity. My process is to first hypo clear, then use wash trays for large plates (last season 11x14 and 14x14 inches). I use agitation pumps and sometimes fish tank underwater fan type units to agitate and circulate the water. I wash for 2 hours plus with many water changes. For power I have 3 different type battery power set ups that I usually run dry. This requires you carry a lot of water. I then go to a campsite, recharge my batteries and refill my water. I will try this set up with 24x24 inch plates this year.  So this wash process has worked well for me.

The plan is to use this type setup in very remote locations in places like Northern Canada. I will probably be refilling water supplies in streams and using solar at times to recharge batteries. 

Washing 11x14 and 14x14 inch Ambrotype Plates

Swimming Pool Sodium Thiosulfate!

 I picked up a 55lb pail old Sodium Thiosulphate today, cost was $176 CAD. The product name is “Chlor Out” and is used in swimming pools and hot tubs to lower chlorine levels. I have used a variation of this product from an Amazon source, thou that cost more for 5 lbs. less product. I use this type of Sodium Thiosulphate as fixer for my Ambrotype work.

After mixing the fixer (hypo), I filter to remove any precipitate, then use it as normal, at a 30%-40% dilution. My old pool Sodium Thiosulfate stuff worked great. I am hoping this brand does as well. If it works for me, I will buy 3 or 4 pails next time. In my wet plate work, I go through a tone of hypo. 

Note* From an online search.

Pool sodium thiosulfate, also known as "hypo," can be used in photography as a photographic fixer, meaning it dissolves the unexposed silver halide crystals on film or photographic paper, effectively making the image permanent by preventing further light exposure from affecting it; essentially, you can use pool sodium thiosulfate as a substitute for the dedicated photographic fixer solution, though it's important to check its purity and concentration before using it for photography.

Another Plate of the Forgotten Saskatchewan Church

Forgotten Church, 14x14 inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Saskatchewan, Canada, August 31, 2024

Saskatchewan Church Ambrotype

I think 11x14 will be my main small type Ambrotype for the AMBROTOS KANATA cross Canada wetplate project. They are pretty easy to make, yet they have nice semi large size, good for viewing.

Forgotten Church, 11x14 Clear Glass Ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Saskatchewan, Canada, August 31, 2024

12x20 Ambrotype

Finally got around to varnishing this plate from 2023.

Cottonwoods, 12x20 inch clear glass ambrotype, AMBROTOS KANATA, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Southern Alberta, 2023

Drying After Varnishing, 14x14 Inch Plates

Varnishing some 14x14 inch Ambrotypes from September 2024.

Retirement?!!

 

Vancouver Island First?

 

Boxes for Ambrotypes

After my recent plea for ways to store my Ambrotypes from the project AMBROTOS KANATA. I received the following. I think I can make some of these with my new woodworking tools.

DW - My suggestion would be to go out to your woodworking shop and make cases sized to fit. A box is a relatively easy thing to make, with the only consideration is to weight: the heavier the plate totals the sturdier the box needs to be. To give a really rustic look, butterboxes can be found at any antique store, just fabricate the slots to hold the plates in the vertical position. This apothecary style cabinet holds 26 glass plates per drawer, or back-to back 52 aluminum per drawer.

Meanwhile this 5x7 road case uses 3D printed slots and holds 18 plates. I no longer use the 3D slots as they make more noise than wood grooves as the glass rattles when "driving down the road."

BR-big boxes for the 20x24 need the plates spaced out better. I alternated the grove is the bottom so every other plate is higher in the box makes it easier to grab hold of.

DW-Here is your guide to making the "racks" for inside the box.  I use low grade poplar available at any building store. You want on the sides AND bottom. The trick here is cutting the slots with a 60 degree bit on the router table. If you look long and hard, Craftsman used to make a moulding blade for table saw, one of the blade was a 45 degree bit, and that works.  If you have a sled made for your table saw, it would be the easiest and fastest. (You should have a sled - it will make all your crosscuts so much easier and far more accurate)

DW boxes

BR boxes