Tonight, at work during my security rounds. I have been thinking up a system to allow me to BLAST OUT THE AMBROTYPES. The recent success, making 5 Cottonwood Ambrotypes in less than 2 hours, got me a thinking. If I did it once, why can't I do it again and again? Why can't I do quick 2–3-hour wet plate shoots all over the country?
The main problem with doing Ambrotypes quickly (outside of their finicky-complex nature) is the fact you have to wash them then dry them before moving on. Because I am using regular hypo (Sodium Thiosulfate) as my fixer, not Potassium Cyanide. My wash times are long, even when I use a hypo clearing agent. Dry times, especially in cold weather can take quite a bit of time as well.
The only way I can speed up my on-location time, is to do it later. Do it when I am parked in a campground (or boondock location) for the night and have loads of wash/dry time available.
So, this might be my working system. This might work.
- Arrive on location and shoot my 8x10, using the darkroom trailer. Or I could arrive on location, pull out the bike-trailer and pop-up Ilford darkroom tent, plus all the supplies I need and drive to somewhere I want to shoot.
- After the plates are fixed and rinsed, place them in an airtight (non-leaking) type of container measuring a bit larger than 8x10 inches. Add water and glycerin to the plate-container to keep everything nice and moist.
- Place 2 airtight containers per separate busboy tray with lid. Then stack the busboy trays and lid in the RV shower. I could probably fit 10 plus on top of each other, making 20 most 8x10 plates.
- Travel to my sleeping location after the shoot. Wash, dry and store the plates that night and the following day.
With this system. I could do no more hit and run, quick location 8x10 Ambrotypes making. I might even eventually move up to quick 11x14 inch plates.
Note* The combination of the new Ilford pop-up darkroom tent, and this quick departure (wash-dry later) creating system could have very positive effects on my Ambrotype making. I can now stop anywhere, shoot farther off from that RV-trailer location, leave earlier, and finish the plate making process later. This will allow for more subjects shot, more plates made, in a variety of locations to be shot countrywide.
