'Shave' in Ambrotype

A long overdue overhaul was needed mentally and physically and websitedly (what? not a word?). It’s easy to lock yourself up in the darkroom for a year with all sorts of funky chemicals and 2011 was my year to do it. I taught minimal classes, shot minimal clients and my online presence while not intended, was minimal as well. I suppose I can consider it climbing the photography mountain and living with the monks for a year, speaking very little and listening a lot.

I read tons of crazy technical books and magazines, the ones from a century ago and smell like feet. Also the digitized ones that end up on Project Gutenberg or Google Books for free. I shot lots of film, enlarged to lots of paper, exposed lots of crazy chemicals under UV and halogen lights. Built and destroyed cameras, built and destroyed lenses.

2011 was also the year I finally reached my goal of wet plate collodion. I always promised myself that once I have worked in every alternative process I would treat myself to wet plates. When asked what I wanted for Christmas, give me the chemicals I need.

2012 is going quick and spring is here. I can’t hide in the darkroom for much longer. It’s time to get out and explore the world with a bunch of new artistic techniques to capture my subjects with.

One note, all of my old articles are searchable. You can even click ‘Archives‘ here, up top or by using the calendar on the right. They’re all there, they just won’t show up on the main page.

Cheez-It Camera

The camera is made from 24×18″ black Coroplast, gaffers tape, black poster board and one Cheez-It® cracker. I went through the whole bag to find the one with the smoothest center hole. All the rejects were promptly eaten.  The hole was 2.5mm, at this diameter the optimum focal length (from the pinhole to the photo material where the size of the pinhole will be the sharpest) was 15 feet! Well, we were going to have to see how 18″ worked.

A pinhole of 2.5mm at a focal length of 18″ gave me an aperture of f/183. I was using Ilford 8×10″ Photo Paper which sits at around ASA/ISO 6. My Sekonic light meter will actually go to f/128 so I used that to get close. A grey card reading of the scene at ISO 6, f/128 was 2 minutes. You will need to compensate for Reciprocity Failure which is a problem when exposing silver based photo materials (like film or paper) for extremely short or long times. In this case I knew that I needed about 10 times the exposure. My exposure was 20 minutes (2 minutes x 10).

Cheez-It Lens

You may think that an exposure of 2 minutes is quite long. Not really for a pinhole. In my studio I use 2400 watts of halogen light to light my subject. This was a problem. I knew that first of all since we’re not at the optimum focal length of the pinhole we weren’t going to be sharp. Secondly, there’s no way I would be able to hold perfectly still for 20 minutes. But I tried it anyway. I loaded the paper negative under a red safelight into the side panel I built into the camera. I kicked on the lights, sat down and pulled at the piece of tape I had covering the lens to start the exposure.

2400 watts of halogen lighting isn’t good for the eyes, so I had sunglasses on. This worked great because I could watch the clock. About a minute in the heat hit me. There was no way I could sit here for 20 whole minutes. I closed my eyes and listened to the ticking of my wall clock. Five minutes in the first bead of sweat started to form on my brow. Ten minutes in my legs (which were crossed) started to fall asleep. Fifteen minutes in I had an itch on my nose that nearly wrecked the whole shot. This was probably one of the most painful 20 minutes I’ve ever endured for a shot. Once the twenty minutes was up I covered the pinhole, turned off the lights and took a walk. My hands, arms and legs were numb.

In the darkroom the shot came out quite nice. The image here is scanned in and inverted but I’ll ideally contact print it to another sheet of photo paper and tint it orange. The color of baked cheese products.

Update: More photos – ‘Barstool in Cyanotype’ and ‘Barstool, the negative’. Taken with the Cheez-It camera.

Kodachrome

Then Kodachrome, an American legend will be gone forever.

Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is located next to Camden Yards in Baltimore Maryland right above the Sports Legends museum. I’m not a big comic book fan, I can only imagine that their huge comic book exhibit is completely drool-worthy for even the slightest fan. Not to say you need to be into comic books to enjoy the museum. There are rooms full of old toys and lots of pop culture. Movie posters line the walls. There’s certainly something for everyone!

The museum has one specialized theme room they use to spotlight interesting exhibits. From now until December 31st, that spotlight is Devin Hannon’s amazing Zombie Nation exhibit. What’s the easiest way to describe the exhibit? Pop culture after the zombie apocalypse.

There’s no doubt that Geppi’s is the perfect place to exhibit such a collection. The very pop culture icons you see in other rooms are present in the exhibit room as zombies. My favorites are the zombie Three Stooges, Pac-Man with teeth gobbles Eyeballs and who can’t feel sorry for Spongebob and Patrick in their new zombie lifestyle. In the center of the exhibit is a life sized Silver Surfer completely zombiefied and holding what else? Braaaaiiinnnnsss.

The Silver Surfer piece is by far the scariest piece in the collection and I think that most little ones can handle it without any problems. Well, with a little help from their guardian(s).

If you’re looking for something to keep you in the Halloween Spirit for a little longer be sure to stop by Geppi’s Entertainment Museum and let yourself be surrounded by pop culture zombies with a lust for brains. Give yourself plenty of time to roam the halls because there’s at least a few hours of exhibits to see in the other rooms. Bring the kids of all ages, the old timey toys exhibits will be sure to take the older folks back to their childhood.

And don’t miss the gift shop, it’s a perfect one-stop shop for the kids and kids at heart on your Christmas list!

As for me, this opportunity did not make me an instant fan of the ‘Zombie’ uproar but I am certainly a new fan of Devin’s work – these pieces are spectacular and really well thought out. I am happy I got a chance to see them in person.

Now if Devin can only do something to bring these ‘Twilight Vampires’ down a notch or two.

Geppi’s Entertainment Museum can be found at: http://www.geppismuseum.com

Devin Hannon can be found online at: http://www.foulplaysyndicate.com

The contents of the film? Wouldn’t you know it – Baltimore. Interesting that the film made it back to my hands in Baltimore to be rescued.

It seems as if a New York Yankees fan came down to Baltimore for a day. Took a few shots of the Inner Harbor and some at Camden Yards. Checking box scores, I was able to match up the shot the photographer took of the scoreboard with a date. September 9th, 1992. The Orioles will lose this one 5-2.

Looking at other shots we see we believe to be a self portrait of the photographer on the first frame, and a capture from a television in the last frame. Most likely burning through the last shot of the camera.

This is the first roll I had that I have a self-portrait. Even though it is underexposed and out of focus, it’s there. With every abandoned roll there is a story. I believe this roll gave us enough clues as to what most of the frames were about – and that’s all we can ever really hope for.

Click more to see the gallery.

Blue Jay

I use the term ‘bird feeding’ because when I think of traditional ‘birding’ and ‘bird photography’ I think of birding enthusiasts dressed up in camouflage and hiding in bushes for hours on end. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Never say never, but that’s just not for me at this point in my life. Why not have the birds come to me in the comfort of my own home  instead?

Chances are if you don’t live in a skyscraper you can easily set up a feeder near a window and shoot through the glass. If I can do it, you can do it. As a matter of fact I was able to capture this photo of a Blue Jay the very day after I put up my feeder.

There are a few things to think about before setting up a feeder.  First off, do you have a window that is easily cleaned? How clean the window is really affects your image quality. Make sure there’s no window screen either, or that it can be easily removed. On the other side of that window do you have a comfortable place to sit for long periods of time? The more comfortable, the better.

Photographically, keep an eye on where the feeder is in relation to the path of the sun. If your feeder is in the shade when your local birds decide to visit  you’ll have light issues to deal with. Keep an eye on your background too, do you want a background that looks natural or one that contains that shiny red car in your neighbors yard? Luckily can usually situate the feeder so that a more natural background will be visible or you could always invest in a container plant that can be moved into position or just planted where you need it. Lastly on the photographic side, my next step is to make natural perches for the feeders. What would look better, a photo of my local birds perched on a commercially bought metal feeder or perched on what looks to be a tree branch? The tree branch for sure.

Safety is another concern. Keep your feeder a little out in the open, think of where a predator could hide (like cats) and make sure none of them can sneak up on your birds!

Squirrels Suck

Squirrels. Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of those who buy nice bird seed than ‘squirrels’. I’ve got nothing against the little furry buggers, they need to eat too. But once they perch on your feeder not only will they keep your birds away, they’ll sit and eat and eat and eat. There are baffles, domes, tubes, powders and all sorts of home remedies to deal with squirrels. By far the best is a feeder that spins as soon as it detects the weight of a squirrel, hilarious yes – the price is not. Usually over $100. That’s a season of bird food for how sparingly I put it out.

Almost as entertaining is spraying your feeder pole with some good ol’ kitchen lubricant. Pam. If you want to save money, get the cheap off-brand stuff. At first all the neighborhood squirrels will jump on the pole and slide down with a suprised look on their faces. Eventually they’ll get the picture, or wipe off all the Pam from multiple attempts. I’ve found that Pam won’t last a full day and certainly not overnight. I have noticed that the grass is dying where I have the pole inserted in the ground. I only put feed out on the weekends, not only to keep the birds from being too dependent but because the weekends is usually the only time I have to photograph them. A spray of Pam each day in the morning and I’m all set. I will eventually need to get a baffle for the pole though.

Gardman USA

Two more thoughts. First, squirrels are smart. They can vertical jump a few feet and I’ve read that they can jump six to eight feet away off a shed or tree and land on your feeder. While I’m saving money by not letting them feast on my good seed, I certainly don’t want to replace bent and broken feeders from incoming squirrels. Second, if you set up a dedicated squirrel feeder elsewhere in your yard it may convince them to keep away. I have not tried this yet, but it sounds convincing.

There are many types of feeders, I won’t get into all of them but I’ll certainly tell you what works well for me. In my yard I have two feeder stands. They’re both Gardman USA stands. At a bout 6′ tall once staked to the groundthey’re really good entry level feeders that come with a seed basket, a tiny water dish and three hooks for hanging other types of feeders.

W1 'Winner'

To prove that long lenses are not required, I also have two Window Feeders – ever want to shoot macro bird shots? I find that the Droll Yankees W1 ‘Winner’ feeder is the best I’ve found. It’s adjustable to keep the bigger birds out (my local Doves have found the feeder so I need to shorten the base to make it smaller) and it doesn’t have a plastic back! Most other feeders use a plastic back for support, what good is that when you’re trying to photograph? Now you have a cheap piece of clear plastic blocking your view. The W1 uses the center brass support and suction cups to get around this. Is that brass center bothering you? Carve out a stick and wrap it around the center post. The dome above the feeder keeps out rain and the bottom tray has drainage holes. My plan is to sand the top dome to give the plastic more of a frosted look which should soften the light a little when I’m making photos.

House Finch in W1 Winner (Macro)

Depending on how close you want to get to the window feeder you can use a telephoto from the other side of the room or a macro lens to get up close. Instead of sitting still for long periods of time, purchase some two-way mirror film and cut a square to tape behind your feeder. As long as the outside is brighter than the inside you’ll be able to see your birds and they’ll just see a mirror reflection of themselves. Pull it tight and tape it to the window, you will lose probably one to two stops of light and the film will be reflective while you are shooting so be aware of that potential problem. The window film can be found at any Home Depot or other hardware store. Just ask for Mirror window film.

Northern Mockingbird

Two other feeders I have are a suet and a hummingbird feeder. The suet feeder is a cage for suet bricks. Since suet is fat and not found in the wild you need to convince your birds to try it by smearing some peanut butter to the suet cage and then sticking some bird seed to that. The hummingbird feeder is a simple hanging feeder. The glass is tinted red to attract the birds. While you can use commercial products you can make just as good feed at home. Boil one part sugar with four parts water to dissolve. Never add food coloring as this has been linked to tumors in birds. Make up a bunch, it keeps well in the fridge. I find 1 liter water bottles to be perfect, if you decide to use soda or juice containers, be sure to rinse them out well.

Now food choices will vary depending on your location. Don’t skimp on a book about birds found in your state!

Backyard Birds of..

Not only will this help with identification but it will tell you which birds eat which seeds and how to make your location desirable to each species. I really like the ‘Backyard Birds of‘ series.

You’ll soon learn which birds get chased off by other birds, separate their food between feeders. Even if you plan to only shoot on the weekends, keep the feeders full for a few weeks. While it took less than one day for a Blue Jay to find my feeder, it took about a month for Gold Finches. Patience is key. Set your camera up on a sturdy tripod, zoom into your feeder, focus and keep your hand on the shutter button or a remote release. Note that if you study tour birds you’ll find a pattern. Most birds will land on a nearby support before going straight to the feeder. Use this to your advantage. Keep your feeders cleaned, keep fresh water available. Standing water is better than nothing, running water (bubbler, dripper) is best.

One last note is to encourage birds to follow their normal migratory habits. Your local book will let you know when birds will be migrating to your state. For example Hummingbirds fly past Maryland in Spring and then again in Fall. There’s no sense keeping your hummingbird feeder out while they’re gone or you may help convince some slackers to stay behind.

-J

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RolleiCord (CC: Camerafiend)

My most recent camera purchase was an early model Stereo Realist from 1951. For my birthday though, I wound up with something much more current. I figure three years newer is enough. My latest camera is a Rolleicord IV from 1954. I’ve wanted a beautiful Medium Format camera for a bit to use in the studio and in nature.

What is medium format? Without getting too technical, medium format takes a 6x6cm sized negative. It’s much larger than those taken by a normal 35mm. Now there are many flavors of cameras that can take smaller or larger sized images on the medium format film but 6×6 is certainly the standard.

The camera was purchased off Craigslist for $200. This marks my second Craigslist purchase with good success. The photographer selling it was actually running a roll through it as I knocked on his door. You’ve got to love that sort of dedication and he was thrilled when I told him that it would be used and well cared for. I wouldn’t want such a beautiful camera collecting dust either! He was selling it to make some extra cash and he was offloading some less-used gear. As I left he asked if I had any film for it, when I said no he gave me two rolls of Kodak Panatomic-X film, rated at 32 ISO and expired way back in 1986. I thanked him and was on my way.

The camera needed a good cleaning and some basic cosmetic repairs. Some time with cleaner and the lenses had them as clear as the day they were manufactured. The ground glass cleaned up very nicely as well. The camera was completely disassembled, cleaned where it needed to be cleaned, oiled where it needed to be oiled and put back together. There are a few chips here and there and the brass screws are corroded under the leather coverings. Those don’t need attention right now, but I figure on a rainy day I’ll touch up the painted areas and peel off the leather, clean up the screws and re-cement the leather back to the body.

Fast forward a few days and we have a beautiful blanket of fog over everything, I didn’t think I would be shooting with the camera this soon.. I loaded up a roll of the Pan-X and filled the roll. A 120 roll of medium format film is 12 exposures. With trusty light meter in hand I made a few exposures and when I came back home I developed this 25 year old film in Agfa Rodinal 1+25 at about six minutes. I gave it an extra minute just because the film was so old.

I couldn’t be happier with the exposures, the film base was a little fogged due to age but the negatives were just stunning. Below is my favorite image of the day and once again when I think I have everything I could ever want I now need to add to that a medium format carrier and lens for my enlarger!

Sans-Reel

It seems that in the developing world everyone is always interested in something new. Just like there are countless plug-ins for Photoshop, there are countless things you can do to Analog (Film) Photography to adjust the outcome of the image. Different films, developers, developing techniques to name a few..

There are even some people who damage the delicate emulsion on film on purpose. Why? Because scratched, burned, boiled, cracked and decomposed film can really give some amazingly artistic effects.

So, being adventurous I wanted to give damaging film on purpose a try. My method? I wanted to see how film placed in a developing tank without a reel would handle the development process. You can see how I loaded the film with the image to the right. I doubled the film back on itself in the dark until I had everything cinched between two fingers. I slipped the film with my fingers into my stainless steel tank and let it loose. You could also try crumpling the film and just shoving it in there, but I figure that this method had the least possibility of film touching film. You certainly don’t want it to spool against itself because then your developer won’t get to where it needs to go, we’re looking for a roll of ‘artistic film’ not ‘complete fail film’.

Developing is a little different as well. You certainly want to fill the tank with chemicals to guard against any part of the film sticking up out of the mix. Traditionally I invert the tank for 30 seconds when I pour in the chemicals and then three full inversions every 60 seconds until my time is up. For this process though I did one full inversion and then one half inversion every 20 seconds. That means that after every inversion the tank goes from upside down to right-side up. This also guards against any film sticking up out of the chemicals. And why an inversion cycle every 20 seconds instead of every 60? My hope was to basically give the film more of a chance to get hit by the developer. As for your other chemical steps, stop bath and fixer, I stayed with my same schedule for the developer. 30 seconds initial and one and a half inversions every 20 seconds.

Results?

Note that the sections of blue are where the emulsion sides were touching each other. With the ‘ribbon’ pattern used to place the film in the can every loop has a section of the emulsion that touches the opposite side. Not a bad effect if you ask me. There were also other areas of the film that didn’t quite touch and instead developing was thin to those sections. I suspect perhaps a pre-wash would help keep these from sticking, but I quite like the way these came out.