Nice Trays

Picked up some mini bus trays that will work well with the 11x14 plates. 3 for $4.50 each from Goodwill. Thrifts shops provide most of my working tools in the trailer. Gotta love that, cheap and well made.

Honey Works Well

I did further tests using honey on 11x14 Ambrotypes. Mixed a 2 part honey to 1 part water solution. Let the first plate sit for 1 day before washing, the second sit around 1 week. No issues with either plate post 2 hour wash.

I think I got something good here! This should revolutionize my remote shooting in the trailer. Now I can depart a location much sooner and wash the plates at my leisure when I have time and a good supply of water.

Note * I am finding/making more and more storage trays, that I can use to place the honey covered plates in before they are washed. 

Things are looking good!

Today’s Gym Work

 I am pretty inconsistent with my gym work but today was  pretty good.

- Walked fast on the track for 30 minutes plus.

- 200 calories on the bike. Read a cool book about the Italian renaissance .

- 4 muscle machines, reps of 10 x4 for each machine.

- Stretching

 If I could do this workout at least 3 times a week it would eventually have a positive effect on my conditioning!!

Social Document PowerPoint Presentation, IMPROVING

My PowerPoint for the coming two camera club talks in Edmonton and Red Deer are improving. All money earned at these talks will be used to help the people in the photographs.

Working On My PowerPoint

Spent several hours tonight working on my Social Documentary Photography PowerPoint presentation. I have two talks coming up. One in Red Deer at a photo club in Late March and a second in Edmonton at my my old photography club “Images Alberta” in April.

Lots of work needed yet on the presentation. I will cover 3 projects. THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP, MY FATHERS LAST DAYS, and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY.

Quote: Dr.Martin Luther King

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

300mm versus 360mm Schneider Xenar Lens Camera Differences

Trying to figure out which Xenar lens will be better for my 11x14, 14x14 inch tight head ambrotype portraits. Should it be the 360mm or the 300mm?

I like the less bellows extension and the more distortion from the 300!! Leaning that way.

360mm bellows extension and head

300mm bellows extension and head

Practicing Headshots

Looking to start doing wet plate headshots this year. Will be making shallow focus tight heads onto 11x14 and 14x14 inch clear glass plates, ambrotypes. Experimenting today with my 360mm Schneider Xenar lens. Am using my thrift shop hair model head to focus on.

Note* I have a couple of heads planned for the spring. My friend Larry and my cousin Frankie (in cosplay makeup).

Acetone Test?

I added Walmart Acetone to my old Collodion to see if I could revitalize it a bit. Online they recommend 1 drop of Acetone to 100ml of old mixed collodion. I gave a 1000ml lab bottle of collodion around 15 small drops.

We shall see what happens? It is supposed to add a bit of speed and refresh the collodion.

Sunflower Ambrotype

 Did up an 11x14 inch Ambrotype for the first time in a long time tonight. Was using old collodion and a vinegar developer with sugar.

1000 ml White Vinegar

30 gr iron

40 ml bio ethanal (my version of alcohol)

40 gr white sugar

6+ minutes in the Silver Bath

I gave 7 hits with the Blackline flash at 2400 watts, one head. The lens was my Russian copy at f32

Quote: Michelanglo (a Poem)

My Course of life has attained, 

Through stormy seas, and in a flimsy vessel,  

The common port, at which we land to tell

All conduct's cause and warrant, good or bad, 

So that the passionate fantasy, which made

Of art a monarch for me and an idol,

Was laden down with sin, now I know well..

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

New Discount Art Book

Today’s thrift store buy. $8.80 CAD. 604 pages. When I go back to the Vatican I want to know more!! Around $100 CAD new.

There is so much beauty and profound humanity in great art. 

The King

The king looks down on his Kingdom from his new favourite sleeping place, under the Gauguin and above my bed!

Dimsum watching me read.

Quotes: Marian Turski

Please give the 2025 documentary "Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On" a viewing. It is only 59 minutes long, and has much to teach us.

I met this man Marian Turski there.

 

"It comes step by step. Evil comes step by step. And therefore you shouldn't be indifferent. Let's start with reducing hatred, and trying to understand different people."

 

"Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It began with small forms of persecution of Jews. It happened, it means it can happen anywhere. That is why human rights and democratic constitutions must be defended. The eleventh commandment is important: Don't be indifferent. Do not be indifferent when you see historical lies, do not be indifferent when any minority is discriminated, do not be indifferent when power violates a social contract."

 

Marian Turski 

 

(Survivor of the Polish ghetto, 2 death marches and Auschwitz concentration camp.)

 

Marian Turski, photographer unknown