Thinking Time

 

Is Prem Alive!?

Found these today. Selfies with Khune Prem from 2025. I need to go back and see if she is still alive.

Will return and buy more food then donate it, with the photography talk money.

Project: THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, Khlong Toei Slum Bangkok

VIDEOS: 2 More 11x14 Ambrotype Portraits

Finished up a few more 11x14 Ambros. I do not think the one of mom really works but it has some potential, so I placed it with tape against a black substrate. I will play with the idea.

Note* I have also started writing titles on the back of the taped plates.

VIDEOS: 3 New Ambrotypes

Three more 14x14 inch Ambrotypes.

Lisa #2 and #3, AMBROTOS KANATA, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada July 2026

Taken with 8000w flash setup and 360mm Schneider Xenar and Chamonix 14x14 Camera.

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Northland’s Coliseum before demolition, AMBROTOS KANATA, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, July 2026

Lisa #2

Lisa #4

Northland's Coliseum

VIDEO: Lisa Portrait #1

This shot is from the recent trip. Looking to figure out the best combo of lens, exposure, composition and sharpness. 

Trying to find that look u see in my mind. Getting closer.

Will post a variant tomorrow.

Lisa 63, 11x14 Ambrotype on clear glass, AMBROTOS KANATA, July 2026, Gull Lake, Alberta Canada

24x24 Portrait? Ambrotype

Will do some testing with the 24x25 inch Ambrotypes, with the current set up. I do not believe I can shoot these, but will try. Figure out what I got with the camera and the vintage brass lens.

Chamonix 24x24 with a Voigtlander 655mm F6

Various Ambros

Some Ambros from the last bit...

These images do not have thee proper black substrate backing yet. Will work on that soon. They are just sitting on a black garbage can.

Mom at 90

Northland's Coliseum

Lisa

Trying Ambro Head Portraits AGAIN! Testing

Will try again to capture the type of wet plate collodion image I see in my mind on 11x14, 14x14 inch glass tonight. Hope these tests work!

I am pulling out all the guns tonight. 8000 watts of flash power over 7 flashes. 800w (ring flash)+ 1600w + 1600 w + 1000w + 1000w + 1000w + 1000w.

Will give the Schneider Xenar 360mm f4.5 lens a go.

Chamonix 14x14 camera.

Portrait in the bath with floating collodion pieces

Doctrine of Discovery

Doctrine of Discovery: A series of 15th-century papal bulls that granted Christian explorers the right to claim lands inhabited by non-Christians, treating the Indigenous inhabitants as mere occupants without sovereign title.

Quote: Fran Lebowitz

2nd Place, 2nd Bangkok Subject?

I need to book a flight to Bangkok. I am looking for a second photo project to work on. If I do not return to Mae Sot and the families at the dump, I need another project besides the UNDER THE FREEWAY series to work on.

Possibly  this?

Slums and Informal Settlements: Some refugees integrate into existing local slums, such as Khlong Toei. These areas offer cheap living, but residents are subjected to extreme poverty, poor sanitation, and high risks of eviction

Note* I am trying to talk myself into returning to Thai. I need to return for more donation work but I also need a  photographic  inspiration.

Ambrotype of the High Level Bridge!

Monet and Me, The Rocks at Belle-Ile

One of the problems with wet plate, or at least a difficulty, is the length of exposure needed. Because of the long exposures, there is often blurring in the moving areas of the shot. I want to photograph the oceans of Canada, but how to do that? Will everything not be a blur of motion? Indistinct, confusing, mushy? Then I thought what if I photographed rock formations within the ocean, the ocean can move all it wants, but the rocks will remain solid and sharp in the Ambrotype. I thought, would that not make a beautiful looking Ambrotype? A feeling of both motion and strength. I could even try it as a diptych or triptych.

Then yesterday I came across this painting by Claude Monet.

The Rocks at Belle-lle by Claude Monet

Mom Shoot!

11x14 and 14x14 Ambrotype portraits of mom today, aged 90.

 

Will try 2 at a time, with an elevator trip and walk down to the darkroom trailer. Hope the plates do not dry out.

Will sync 2 1600w flashes (my last test used 1) along with the 800w ring. Total 4000w.

 

Note* The mom shoot was basically a failure. First 2 images were under exposed, later the flashed created multiple esposures, that were different looking but for the most part failures. A good learning experience, it was difficult to get back and forth from the cameras to darkroom as she lives on the 7th floor of her building.

 

 I will try again.

 

Update* I need to do more testing, I can brink in 4000 watts of more power flash, with the Speedotron heads I got from the the same seller a while back. I can use the same 1600x2 white lighting heads plus the 800w ring flash, and add up to 4-1000w Speedotron heads. 

 

The flash is going to have one hell of a kick thou for the subject, and draw a ton of power, 6000w to 8000w. 

 

Apple Still Alive??

I wonder if Apple is still aliv?

THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, Khlong Toey Slim, Bangkok, 2025

 

Note* Medusa facts:

“Medusa, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the monster figures known as Gorgons. She was usually represented as a winged female creature having a head of hair consisting of snakes; unlike the Gorgons, she was sometimes represented as very beautiful.”

 

 

Cutting More Glass

Cutting the farm glass up, at least a bit of it. I have so much glass now, I am a bit overwhelmed. I will use most of it eventually. Today cutting to sizes 14x14 inch and 11x14 inch 3mm and 4mm.

When I make mistakes I can recover some of the plates with uneven cuts, using a used ceramic saw I picked up. Not as pretty as a clean cut but usable!

 

Note* I feel down that most of the sheets I brought in were tempered glass, so useless to the project. I did get some small pieces that I was able to cut today, but all the tempered glass was a waste of time, and effort, plus diesel to go pick it up. 

 

Some marked refrigerator glass, that I will try to paint black for use as background substrate for the plates.

FUCK Tempered Glass

FUCK!! A lot of work for nothing. Live and learn! 

I knew tempered glass was no good for me and I have been asking people on marketplace if their glass was tempered or not. I just was shitty at identifying it. There is usually a white label, sometimes very hard to read on the corner of the glass. I did not know that until today.

I need to be smarter and not waste energy and resources on things like this! 

Note* I will likely throw away this useless tempered glass at a big bin event.

Note** Tempered glass is made by heating the glass, it becomes about 5 times stronger than normal glass. It shatters into 1 thousand pieces when broken.

Our Common Shared Humanity

More FREE Glass in the House!

FREE glass for Ambrotypes. Second time in a month I was able to score some. Mostly 4mm, some 3mm. I will cut into 14x14 inch plates, some larger some smaller.

 

Not as much glass as last time but still probably $ 800-1000 CAD or so worth. If not too scratched, it’s a go!!!!

 

Thank you Doug and Emily

 

Loaded on the truck!

Wet Plate is Pretty Easy

 

Re-Using Honey!

 

Trying to reuse my honey. I cut the dilution to 50/50 honey and water. It still worked well for a 2 day later wash time. Not sure how it will work at that dilution if I store the plates a week or longer before washing

As an added bonus I am trying to use the used honey for a second run of plates, then maybe a third. The used honey seems thinner so will add a bit of pure honey to each bottle to even things out. 

 

I am also filtering the honey thru a metal screen to pull out the bugs, and other debris.

 

Will need a Lott of this stuff as I am moving up to 24x24 inch plates! 

 

the used honey

Quote: Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

Art Books From Thrift Shop

 Nice find of art books today at the Thrift Shop. With the old fogey discount it was $26.60 CAD