A long tough day. At the end of it was sunburnt, had a hot sweat rash, itchy bites all over my body and was completely exhausted, running on fumes.
On my second day at Preacher Point on the David Thompson highway, East of Red Deer, Alberta.
0830 - got of bed and outside (too late) to start my day.
0930 - started making plates, 8x10s, failed miserably with style day before making 20x24s (20x20s).
- all day struggled with marks on the plates, scratchy cleaning mark artifacts. I had the same problem last year when I was working in the Calgary graveyard. I tried many plates and many things to correct the problem. Cooled the collodion (inside the trailer it was 25c later 28+c. Cooled the developer, Cut the developer by 50%. Washed the plate carefully with my plate washing mix (Calcium Carbonate, alcohol and distilled water), washed the plate in water only, washed the plate in water followed by alcohol. Washed the holder with distilled water, washed the holder with alcohol. Filters the Hypo (Sodium Thiosulfate) more carefully.
Eventually I went to Quinn Quick Clear Collodion from Gerry Collodion, and it seemed to work. But late by accident I did a Gerry Collodion 8x10 plate and that seemed to work as well. So am unsure of why I am having the problem. It is probably heated related.
Suffered sunburn, right knee pain, heat rash and itchy insect bites all over.
1630 - Plates start working, make 5 or 6 more. Then on a whim of desperation set up the 20x24 camera on a table and made another attempt at 20x20.
2000 - Started the long clean up. Packing, cleaning, washing, stacking the motorhome Fanny and the Trailer Freddy. Also finished washing, drying and packing away the day's plates.
2230 - Finished packing, near exhaustion, kind of fell over in the motorhome at one point. Had a shower, then started driving back to Edmonton.
2300 - Red moon, lightning strikes and almost hit a galloping bear on the highway, running near parallel to the RV/Trailer. Came out of the darkness suddenly. Probably missed the guy/gall by 6 feet or less. He came at us suddenly out of the darkness, I caught him from behind. Never seen anything like it.
1230 - Arrived Rocky Mountain House, Alberta.
0130 - After dumping the tanks, filling up with Diesel ($133 CAD) and having a meal of pierogies, went to sleep.
0530 - On the road to Edmonton.
0830 - Arrived in Edmonton, parked the trailer on the driveway and unhooked/locked her down. Parked the motorhome in the back yard. Unloading.
12 noon - After much unloading and other work, went to bed. S
1730 - At work in security.
