Carpentery, Frame Making Room

One of my many retirement projects is to clean out the room behind the garage and to use that space and the accompanying out door area to do wood working . My carpentry shop so to speak (even thou I have very limited skills).

The plan is to use this large working area to build big diptych and triptych frames for the coming 20x24 and 24x24 inch Ambrotypes. 2 pic diptych and 3 pic triptych stories, for the AMBROTOS KANATA project. 

I can see Ultra Large format framed Ambrotyoe triptychs in my minds eye. Ambrotypes of the coastlines, mountains, forests, cities ad industry of Canada. Works that do not exist yet but that I know will be made.

I do not have the ambrotypes or exhibitions yet but I will have a place to make large frames!!! 

Been working on this the last 4 days but as you can see a LONG way to go,

Attempted Wet Plate Darkroom Trailer Break In.

 

Miss Doing Wet Plate!!

I miss doing wet plate. These photos were shot at the cemetery dad is buried in and where I will be buried. The camera is a 24x24 inch Chamonix, that cost around $11000 CAD (with extras) second hand. The darkroom trailer (FREDDY) before additions was $7600 CAD the truck (THE.BEAST) with a couple of repairs around $9000-$10000 CAD.

Wet plate photography is very expensive but I love the creativity, history and most importantly the wonderful timeless beauty of the finished plates. Ambrotypes have a subtle power that I have not seen in any other art form.

I will continue the AMBROTOS KANATA wet plate projeect when I return to Canada Making Ambros till I die, is a good way to go out! Am 61 now, I hope I can continue working on the project, slowly but deliberately into my 80s.

Ocean Quadtych Ambrotypes, Idea

The view from a restaurant I was at here in Thailand. The tide movement changed the view/feel of things, quite quickly.

I could have set up a view camera on this spot and over 2-3 hours created a variety of photographs. It would be an interesting experiment. Do a Triptych or a fourtych (what are those called?, quadtych??), of images from the exact same camera position, as the oceans water progresses or recedes. Maybe can try that on my wet plate collodion project in Canada, AMBROTOS KANATA.

New ideas are always coming in, need to remember this one. OCEAN AMBROTYPE QUADTYCH!!

Tree in the ocean, Thailand, 2025

Manet Book of Inspiring Seascape Paintings

I never buy art books in Thailand but today I did! Only $11.48 CAD for a large, wonderful, well orinted book of seascaoes by Edouard Manet and other artists.

I am hoping this work will be an inspiration for some large seascape ambrotypes I am planning for th AMBROTOS KANATA wetplate photography project.

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.