pictures Gallery

Cheapest plate rack ever !!

2011-10-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

This is with no doubt the cheapest plate rack ever.
I have been using these for already a few years now and they are just great.
Able to support plates even up to 30 x30 cm (or more).
Ikea is selling them for .... € 3,49 !!! You can't even buy the wood for that money.

IKEA Magasin plate rack

Demonstration at Photo 3.0

2011-10-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last sunday we were invited to give a wet plate demonstration at the new Photo 3.0 event. Together with my friends Ben and Ad i had a great day !
If you want to know some more about that event, just have a look at this website :
http://photo30.nl/

A few very talented photographers were showing there works like Mike Roelofs, Kim Boske, Femke Schaap, Martijn Hesseling, Marjan teeuwen and many others
It was located at the temporary Art centre in Eindhoven.

I am always surprised how much stuff i have to bring, just to make one picture.
My car was fully loaded with camera, lights, chemicals, trays etc. etc.
But it's always a pleasure to give such a demonstration in front of very enthousiastic people. People who are interested in this beautifull kind of photography.

There's something else which surprises me. Many woman are very interested in wet plate photography. More than half of the listeners were female !
So it isn't a men's world anymore....

The pictures below were made bij Ad v/d Beemt and Theo Visser

Lisa

2011-09-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a picture of Ed Ross i finally was able to get my daughter in front of my camera again.

Clear glass ambro

18x24cm

exposure time 4 secs

Dallmeyer 3b open
Alex collodion mix
KCN fixer

Gathering with two Belgian photographers

2011-09-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

Last saturday Kelly and Michel, both professional photography teachers, visited my small studio. They were eager to get more knowledge about the wet plate process.
It was funn working with them. It's always nice to see that everybody has it's own vision about photography.
So we made some plates together.

8x10" (black and normal glass)

alex collodion mix ( no additional ether)

Dallmeyer 3b wide open.
exposuretimes aprox 4 secs.

KCN fixer

Three fixer test

2011-09-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

Recently i bought Amaloco x-89 rapid fixer as i was wondering if it would work with Collodion. Well it did, and i was surprised by the result.
Is it a scientific test. NO ! but i tried to show you the differences using three different fixers.

The result ? Well they are close to each other. The KCN gives a bit more yellow look.
Can you call it warmer ? Maybe, but the differences are really close.

The other two show a little bit more magenta/red tone. But again, it's close.

Just one remark. It looks like the KCN also has a bit influence on the exposure ???!!!
It looks just a tad brighter.

If you make two identical pictures (which is almost impossible with collodion) and you lay them side by side you might notice some difference. But when showing just a single plate for me it is almost impossible to tell wich fixer was used.

From left to right
1. Amaloco x89
2. KCN fixer
3. Natrium Thiosulfat (HYPO)

First i precutted a plate so it was easy to break it after the developing stage.

Three fixers. from bottom to the top : Amaloco, KCN, Natrium

After developing

Again, from left to right : Amaloco, KCN, Natrium Thiosulfate
Plates were still wet.

when dry the diffence is even closer.

Got published in Fuzion magazine

2011-09-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

A few months ago i got in contact with Gabriel van Ingen.
He's a very talented wedding photographer http://www.gabrielvaningen.com/ but also publisher of a fantastic photographic magazine called Fuzion magazine.
If you are a lover of analogue and conceptual photography than this is a must to read.

This time Gabriel dedicated the whole issue on Collodion Photography which exposes beautiful work from "wet platers" all over the world.
You can download the PDF for free or get yourself a hardcopy for only USD 20,=

Have a nice time reading this beautiful magazine : http://www.fuzionmagazine.co.uk/

Gabriel, many thanks for offering me this opportunity

Alex

Wet plate demonstration

2011-09-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a friend of mine organized a open day at his photographic education centre at Veldhoven ( near Eindhoven). http://advance-cvf.blogspot.com/

There were a lot of visitors who were interested in the wet plate process.
This time i have used my Calumet c1 with a 13 inch Hermagis petzval
I was able to give some demonstrations despite the lack of a real darkroom.
I used my "grow tent" again which is a very good alternative. The size is just perfect and can be build up in about 10 minutes. The only thing is that you cant open the zipper from the inside, so you always have to be with two persons.
I seriously have to start working on a mobile box'.........(lack of time)
A brief overview of that day.

The following pictures were made by Henk Peters.

Many thanks !

Clear Glass Ambro

13 inch hermagis petzval

poorboy collodion

KCN Fixer

exposuretime 6 seconds

Donchev camera is "deflowered".........

2011-08-28T02:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i was finally able to "deflower" my new Donchev 20x20"camera.
It took me a long time to finish all the needed material and find the time to start with this project.
So yesterday i phoned my friend Ad and asked him if he had some spare time.
It's time, i told him. Let's make a large plate....

So we made the set-up but i made several mistakes.
This plate isn't my best.
The glass wasn't properly cleaned, so this is not what we call "a clean plate".

Producing small plates is something like working on automatic pilot.
I can tell you, i have to relearn all my skills. This is totally different ball game....

But it was fun to do.
Andy Donchev you made me a great camera !!

Do you want to see how the camera looks like ? Just have a look :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ajhI0WIZlM

clear glass ambro
30 x40 cm ( had to start somewhere........)
"poorboy" collodion mix
KCN fixer
exposure time 9 sec ( should have been around 11 secs)
No name large petzval 20" at aprox 5.6

Plate is scanned in 2 pieces and stiched in PS

How to unscrew a stuck lens element.....????

2011-08-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

Recently i bought myself a beautiful Dallmeyer 3a!
It's in beautiful original shape.
But there was one problem. All the lens elements were stuck.
Also the soft focus function.

As i have tried this solution before on a Hermagis with a severe stuck rear element i gave it a try again, but now with this beauty.

All you need is a fitting piece of thin rubber, a screwdriver, a LITTLE hammer and a large hose clamp.
Cut the rubber just as wide as the clamp itself. Make sure you cut it a little shorter to keep the place open where the screw is.
This to make sure you get an equal pressure around the element.
Tighten the hose clamp slightly. There is no need to tighten it hard! When you tighten it to hard you might break the glass!!!
After that you take a small hammer and gently tap on the screw in the direction the element has to go loose.

Before this solution i have tried several options. I tried silicon spray several times over a few days, tried to unscrew it while wearing special rubber gloves.

Nothing worked. Now it came loose within 2 seconds.

rare find

2011-08-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we participated at the fotografica fair at Doesburg.
Doesburg is a small and very old city in Holland which became a city already in 1237 !
Every year Roel Fokken organizes the open air Fotografica fair.
It's one of the largest open air fair. Even bigger than Bievres.

More than 160 stalls filled with fotografica.
We (Henk a good frend of mine and myself) were there to promote Collodion photography.

At the start we suffered from very heavy rain but at 09:30 the weather changed and we had beautiful open weather. So we had a great day explaning the proces over and over....

Last year i spoke to someone about a very special ambrotype and he promised me, if he would find one, he would bring it for me.

And he did !
Now i am the owner of a very rare ambrotype. Just have a look at the pictures.

I am extremely glad with this one as it gives me the possibility to explain the process to people who have never heard of wet plate photography.
You can open it like a book and you can look at the ambrotype at both sides.
Without one of the 2 backgrounds its transparent, but when you close one side you can see the whole plate as it should look like.

Digital animals

2011-08-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Digital animals

1. Human

2. Chimpanzee

15. Mosquito

16. Worm

3. Pig

4. Cow

5. Dog

6. Chicken

7. Mouse

8. Rat
9. Xenopus

10. Zebrafish

11. Tetraodon

12. Fugu

13. Fly

14. Honeybee

Building structures

2011-08-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Building structures

Building is defined in many aspects as: As a Civil Engineering structures such as a house,worship centre,Factories etc. that has a foundation,wall,roof.

Four views of Indian independence day

2011-08-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

Four views of Indian independence day

Guatemala ex-soldiers sentenced 6,060 years in prison for massacre at Dos Erres

2011-08-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Guatemala ex-soldiers sentenced 6,060 years in prison for massacre at Dos Erres

U.S. recovers $180 million in cocaine from sunken submarine

2011-08-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

U.S. recovers $180 million in cocaine from sunken submarine

A crew member from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oak counts packaged bales of 15,000 pounds of cocaine worth more than $180 million unloaded at Base Support Unit Miami August 2. The haul was recovered from a self-propelled submersible vessel in the western Caribbean Sea July 13, 2010 after being spotted by U.S. Coast Guard patrol.

Mood meter tracks smiley tweets and frowny tweets -

2011-08-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Mood meter tracks smiley tweets and frowny tweets

Bizarre fashion shoot highlights territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan

2011-08-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

Bizarre fashion shoot highlights territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan

Port Angeles school kids touch a piece of ground zero history

2011-08-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

Port Angeles school kids touch a piece of ground zero history

Michael Phelps wins 200m fly at Swimming Worlds for first gold medal

2011-08-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Michael Phelps wins 200m fly at Swimming Worlds for first gold medal

huge building in the world

2011-08-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

huge building in the world

Big floods hit Manila

2011-08-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Ten Top Techies Who Changed The World

2011-08-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Dancing Festival Of Leh

2011-08-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Monks wearing masks perform a ritual dance on the second and last day of a festival in Hemis Gompa, 45 km (28 miles) southeast of Leh July 11, 2011. The Hemis Gompa is the oldest and biggest monastery in adakh. The annual festival celebrates the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava, the founder of Lamaism (an off-shoot of Buddhism) in the eighth century. The festival is marked by ritual dancing in which dancers wear masks representing deities...

Stalking the corridors of power as a deal is done

2011-08-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Holocaust survivor celebrates 85th birthday with skydive

2011-08-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

With the help of instructor Josh Higgins, of San Diego, Calif., top, Gary Lenzner, 85, of Mission Viejo, free falls while skydiving on Sunday, July 31, at Sky Dive San Diego in San Diego. Lenzner went skydiving with his grandson Bryan Wasserman, 26, of Costa Mesa, in celebration of the Holocaust survivor's 85th birthday.