During the Exposure

4x5 photography is supposed to 'slow you down' and to me, it does. I pre-visualize before I set up my tripod, go through the elaborate process of using the camera, then spend an hour re-visualizing the shots while I develop in the dark.

Trash-o-type

Whats with the obsession with "-o-types"?

The above image is what I've been calling a trash-o-type. It is made (or should I say discovered?) when a piece of photosensitive paper is discarded. As the paper sits in the trash it will come into contract with photochemistry residue from all sorts of darkroom related trash. It is 'finished' by a prewash, a fixer bath, then a final wash. After the jump is a narration of the creation process for a typical trash-o-type.

Thank You's

I just mailed out 6 thank you notes. They are cyanotypes made on canson watercolor paper. For some reason the image seems to be leaking through the paper and appearing on the back. I've never seen this with my cyanotypes before, and its consistent through out the batch so I'm going to attribute it to poor paper quality. The paper came from a pack of water color paper targeted at children after all.

Feeling art

When I look at artwork I spend a lot of time focused on its ethics, meaning and my emotional reaction to it. I had a realization today. I had not been paying enough attention to the physical reaction I have when looking at artwork.

DIY Plate Rack on Instructables

One of the required pieces of equipment for dry plate photography is a plate rack. I wrote an instructables so other photographers can make a simple plate rack. Hop on over to instructables and read the tutorial.

Success!

I made mark's 1880 dry plate emulsion found here, poured it on glass (3.25x4.25), exposed it and developed it. After the jump is a rough outline of how I processed this plate.

How To: Dry Plate Leveling Table

I've been getting ready to mix and pour my first emulsion. One of the recommended materials is a leveling table. This is so the emulsion on the glass plate can set uniformly. I documented the process and published it on Instructables. Also included are some suggestions to improve the design.