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Dim room status: still damp. Perhaps slightly less damp than yesterday. Prognosis: time to post some street photography.
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As with the other prints I’ve posted, this doesn’t really translate to digital very well; everything I’ve done to try to bring these online leaves the images somewhat washed out and thin-looking. Perhaps someday I’ll have a breakthrough and re-post all of these.
Brooke, owner of Dragontown Corsets in Jim Thorpe, PA. This was, I believe, from the 2007 St. Patty’s parade.
5 layers of 3/16″ glass, for a total of 9 printings (double-printed most of the layers). I think I only woun …[more]
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From 2009’s Jim Thorpe St. Patty’s parade, originally shot on a Canon 5D.
This is a 6-layer casein-on-glass print; two layers of each magenta, cyan, and yellow. Visually, I’m happy with it. But it doesn’t fit well in the frames that I like, so I’ll probably double-up the printing of the magenta and yellow layers. I want to leave the cyan as two distinct layers, which helps the tartan over this man’s shoulder (upper-right) appear to “float” over the rest of the print.
In 1987, I started growing my hair long. Not because I thought long would be good, or good looking, but because I hated having other people cut my hair. Some time in late 1988 or early 1989, the waves that became curls finally became long enough to reach my shoulders.
I had it trimmed – I believe three times – by my friend Val, first in 1990 and most recently in 1992 or 1993. And even with those trimmings, it still reached my shoulders.
As I’ve approached 40, I’ve found that m …[more]
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My friend Simon, reviewing his 16mm negatives as they hang in the back yard.
Simon’s family came for a weekend visit – and brought along a Bolex and two 100′ spools of 16mm Double-X. I added a roll of 16mm Tri-X reversal to the fun, and did some ad-hoc improvisation to develop all of it.
First up: Double-X with a pre-hardener. Kodak says to pre-harden it in SH-5 (which I can’t find) and then develop it in D-96 (which I also can’t find). I wound up developing it in ID-11 1:1 an …[more]
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Sheila of the Gilded Cupid B&B in Jim Thorpe, PA surveying the St. Patty’s Day parade route in 2010.
This was originally a digital shot, printed as a casein bichromate on six layers of glass – about 30 hours of work, including the dozens of layers that I printed and discarded. The final print is just over half an inch thick.
During the process of making this print, I’ve cataloged about 20 different variables that are affecting the prin …[more]
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Happy Father’s Day! I got three awesome presents today.
First, a bowl of radishes from our garden. Yummy, but photographically uninteresting.
Second, some sodium citrate and tartaric acid. Yay more kallitypes!
Third, the first hints of success with the process that I’ve been trying to get a hold on for something like 7 months now.
This shot is a reasonable but somewhat untrue representation of a shot through my first monstrosity: a 10×12″ casein print on glass. …[more]
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Shot on Delta 3200 in a Mamiya 7, developed in Perceptol. Printed on Arches Aquarelle hot pressed 140# as a kallitype and toned with palladium.
From his fifth birthday, our good friend Nate.
Note that this is Nate building with Legos. Not to be confused with Nate’s other roles as truck driver, rock star, superhero, trampoline artist, and so on.
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I promised this one a few days back and then was distracted by kallitype fun. Perhaps I should have just printed this and killed two birds with one stone!
Markus here was shot on my Mamiya 7, Acros 100, developed in caffenol-C for about 15 minutes at about 75 degrees. Both he and I lived to tell the tale.
Markus and Johanna both were very interested in Caffenol or I wouldn’t have picked it up right now. I admit that I’ve had a passing interest in it myself, and had washing pow …[more]
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Originally a digital shot, this kallitype (on Stonehenge 11×14) is toned with palladium. I suspect that the “pure” table salt that I used in making the toner is not actually pure. I expected this to darken and head more toward gray, and instead it gained some slight density and went to this light brown-ish color. Still, quite a pleasant print. And reason for me to place another order with Bostick & Sullivan as I’m also nearly out of silver nitrate …[more]
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Mamiya 7, HP5, Microphen, EI around 35000.
Yes, another 50-ish minute developing effort – then printed as a gold-toned kallitype. The print picked up more density during the toning than I expected. In the untoned print (a beautiful warm chocolate-brown) her legs had very little definition and very high contrast. About 8.5 minutes in a gold chloride toning solution just before fixing and the warm browns all turned in to cold grays, with more density and reduced contrast.
This p …[more]
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Acros 100, developed in… coffee.
We’ve had a couple of house guests this week – Johanna (here) and Markus (tomorrow’s post). The two of them have been on a year-long trip around the world and stopped by for a short visit on their way back to Germany. They were also curious about alt-photo processes, and I was more than happy to oblige.
Over their short stay, we made kallitypes and toned cyanotypes. We also developed film in Caffenol-C basically every day: instant coffee, was …[more]
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Made with a homemade matchbox pinhole camera, shot on Acros 100, and developed in DD-X. Almost all of my shots were terribly over-exposed, which I find rather unbelievable but undeniable. Next year I’ll need a faster shutter. Which is to say finger-over-the-pinhole. 🙂
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I love it when things just work.
From the Jim Thorpe Burlesque Festival: the negative comes from 4 rolls of HP5+, under-exposed at least 3 stops at the Mamiya’s metered 3200 (which I find to already under-expose a touch). I optimistically developed the first roll at 6400 in Microphen (finding it very thin), and then the other 3 rolls at an approximate ISO 35000 – 40 minutes, based on the response curve I’ve calculated from repeated development work with this film and developer. All of …[more]
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I’m traveling for a conference this week, which means I haven’t been able to work on Kallitypes. I had a good breakthrough just before I left (in fact, 60 minutes before I left, which left me just enough time to sensitize/expose/develop 4 test Kallitypes and bring them with me) and I’m dying to get back to them! Which was at least some of why I saw this particular shot at the Jefferson Memorial last evening. The tonality really caught my eye.
In other news, I apparently labeled a roll …[more]
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From the Jim Thorpe Burlesque Festival a few weeks back. I’ve been working on various print techniques this year, one of them being these Kallitypes. It’s been quite a learning experience (my background is in engineering, not in art) and I’ve finally got repeatable results.
This is an un-toned kallitype print on Arches hot pressed 140#, developed in a mix of sodium acetate and ammonium citrate. Interestingly enough, a second print developed in borax and rochelle salts looks almost ide …[more]
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