Love the Beast!!

The diesel engined BEAST truck (2003, Ford 350, Flatbed) pulls the darkroom trailer easily. Sometimes I need to check to see if the trailer is still there. I also love the truck as a raised shooting location and as a big table for all the big ass trays I use.

Love the new 4mm glass as well. I will need to buy more, it is expensive, but I think will make for better Ambrotypes. More depth looking through the 4mm glass and most importantly, less breakage. I also just like the heavy feel to it One annoying thing is I need to tape the back of the Chamonix wet plate holders when using 4mm, to prevent light leaks and fogging.

Hope to go out 2 times next week and try my hand at 24x24 inch plates. Short of trays thou, need to remedy that.

Big ass glass stand, made in Czehia

4mm Glass, gotta love it

Cement mixing trays, cheap and effective

My flatbed as a table

The BEAST and Freddy the trailer (named after Frederick Scott Archer, the inventor of wet plate).

Video Link: Tondo Slum Visit?

I need to buckle and start preparing for my next Asian trip. To that end I am preparing more for the Philippines. I am concentrating on learning to speak Tagalog (Filipino) and doing research on the country and its history.

Thinking of doing a photo story, or stories on the Tondo region of Manila. Here is a video:

Link: Life inside PHILIPPINE’S MOST DANGEROUS SLUM

Yaum Title

 Think this is from the recent interview, for  FRAMES Magazine.

Link: Interpreting Bach with Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein!

Learning more about Classical music and how it is interpreted. This short video is fascinating, give it a look! Gould is something else!

Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein: Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 (I) in D minor (BWV 1052)

My Evil Plan!

Am thinking of a possible evil plan. Retire in March 2025, head to Southeast Asia for 3-4 months. First Thailand to do donation and photo work at the dump and under the freeway, and then visit Philippines for the first time. In Manilla find another photo series to work on. Then return to Canada to work on AMBROTOS KANATA ambrotype/Canada project, full time, for the rest of my life.

Got to learn me some TAGALOG!

"English

I am learning tagalog

Filipino

Nag-aaral ako ng tagalog"

#PUF-77, Self-portrait under the freeway, THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok, Thailand 2022

New Policy

 

Quote: Sitting Bull

 “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil, and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins, I answer, the one I feed the most.”

Ambrotype Wash Issues to be Solved

The AMBROTOS KANATA project is very often about solving tech problems. My latest is as follows. When making large plates onsite, there is a long cue to wash the finished images. This last week I lost several 11x14 inch and 14x14 inch plates to collodion lifting off the glass issues. The collodion/glass connection was fine initially but the plates had to sit for long periods of time in water trays waiting for their wash turn. Often the plates would stay wet for 12-25 hours, that is unacceptable and leads to adhesion problems.

How to solve this issue?

- I could try edge albumen on the glass, pre collodion pour, for better adhesion (Think I will do this for sure, from now on)

- Entire plates covered in albumen? (A possible solution but maybe an overreaction at this stage).
- Multiple wash baths with proper size trays. Much less waiting in water time. I can wash the Ambrotypes faster and get them to the drying stage sooner. (I will do this also, after I can arrange the super large trays, the pumps, tubing, clamps, and tables that would be necessary.)

Note* After hours of searching on many occasions I think I finally found trays big enough to do 24x24 inch Ambrotypes and 35x35 inch Ambrotypes. Big black plastic trays that are used for gardening. They cost $49.99 CAD for an 80mm (31.5 inches x 31. 5 inches x 5 inches) square tray and $64.99 CAD an 100cm (39.5 inches x 39. 5 inches x 5 inches) square tray. This will be expensive but necessary. I will go with 8-10 of each type of tray or just go with the larger ones for both Ambrotype plate sizes. I will need to pick them up in Calgary next trip, they do not have an Edmonton store, and shipping costs are prohibitive.

Note** Thank you Ross, my Facebook friend from Vancouver, for help with this issue.

24x24 Inch Plates!!!!

 

Video Link: Beauty of 14x14 Ambros

I love the new 14x14 inch, 4mm think Ambrotyoes made today!

14x14 Ambro

14x14 Inch 4mm Ambrotypes

14x14 inch 4mm thick clear glass Ambrotyoes from today. Gerry Collodion, Vinegar Developer. Made with a 11x14 Chamonix camera and 450mm Fuji lens. Exposures varied from 1 mint 50 seconds at f45 to the last losing light shot of 7 minutes at f64. Listened to Mozart as I worked my the 14 hour day, it helped!! Part of the cross Canada retirement project AMBROTOS KANATA.

14 Hour Good Day

Into hour 12 of my work day. It should run about 14 hours today. Not including waking up every 2 hours to change out the washed plates.

It was a glorious day. Out in nature, Mozart and my first ever 14x14 inch, 4mm thick Ambrotype plates!! Cannot think of a better way to spend the day. A good kind of exhausted!

4mm Glass

 Trying 4mm glass for the first time today. It seems more SUBSTANTIAL than 3mm and much less likely to break. I like the thicker glass so far. After I wash dry and varnish the plate, I will see how the extra 1mm feels when I look through three glass to the image captured inside. If that look pleases the. I will go to 4mm for all the format sizes I use. The 35x35 inch camera might even require 5mm glass!!

3-11x14 Plates Per Tray

I can quish in 6-11x14 inch plates into the new gardening trays! Love these cheap large gardening trays!! Will use them to store all my plates waiting for a wash. The bumpy bottom makes the glass easy to remove! A nice bonus for sensitive collodion emulsions.

Gardening Trays

Like these new black gardening trays I got to store the possible plates. They work well with the 11x14 inch glass.

Ambrotypes at Dawn

Will make Ambrotypes of another forest scene tomorrow, on 11x14 inch by 3mm and 14x14 inch 4mm clear glass. Quite rainy here on the David Thompson highway. Have a umbrella tripod set up to keep the Chamonix 11x14 dry. We start work at dawn!

Will be listening to Beethoven and Berg tonight, thanks Dennis.

On the Road Again

Slept over at a free spot in Rocky Mountain House. Heading onto the David Thompson highway in central Alberta this morning. A barbacue and camping today with a whole day of Ambrotype making on Thursday! Gotta make some pics for AMBROTOS KANATA and next years Alberta art submission.

Group of Seven Type Art

Picked up a group of seven, Tom Thomson type metal statue today from the thrift shop, $7 CAD. I will place it in my music/reading room and dream of Ambrotypes!

Need to make my version of the windswept tree in a large Ambrotype! This subject seems VERY Canadian.

Added to the Slberta Art Collection?

This is the Ambrotype that might be added to the Alberta Collection. It was made last September.

Lundbreck Waterfall #2, AMBROTOS KANATA, Lundbreck, Alberta, Canada, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, 2024

4 Images in the Alberta Collection?

If this latest ambrotype makes it past the expert judges, I will have 4 works in the collection. 1 monk Silver Gelatin photo from years back, 2 8x20 clear glass ambrotypes last year and 1 this year!

Ambrotype Makes Round 2!

Part of the AMBROTOS KANATA project.

Quote: Harry Chapin

Oh if a man tried

To take his time on Earth

And prove before he died

What one man's life could be worth

I wonder what would happen

to this world

Glass, Glass, Glass!!!

Just picked up a bunch of glass for the wet plate project. Having THE BEAST truck to haul this stuff makes life so much easier. I am really glad I got my new-old truck. I am kinda surprised how large the 24x24 glass is. We are now moving from concept to reality. I will shoot 11x14 and 14x14 inch this trip and try the 24x24 inch stuff and 24x24 camera for the first time in 2 weeks.

Bought me 20 sheet of 11x14 and 20 sheets of 24x24 3mm. Also picked up 2 sheets of 24x24 4mm. I have 10 sheets of 11x14mm at home already. I hope the 4mm thickness works for me. If it does all glass will be that thickness in the future.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!’ Imagine what can be created!!!!!!!!!! That dream of making important work, with emotional value, drives me forward. 

“Ain’t Photography Grand!!”

Plato?

Here is anoth gift from Dennis. In his younger days he was studying for his masters in English literature. Plato is quite a bit above my pay grade, but going to give him a go.

On the go with AMBROTOS KANATA

 Heading out on the road next week to make Ambrotypes for AMBROTOS KANATA. Wish me luck!

Link: Another Nice Comment

Gosh did a google translate for a new French language comment on the new FRAMES Interview. Very kind words, thank you Louis. It is good to see the photos are having a positive impact, and the stories of the subjects are being told.

- Un photographe humaniste avec une maitrise de la technique construction de l'image, et le contact avec l'humain, et surtout l'univers des démunis, ceux qui ne passent pas à la télé, les oublié de la société. Merci Gerry ! pour ces images magnifiques qui disent tout dans un profond silence.

- A humanist photographer with a mastery of the image construction technique, and contact with humans, and especially the world of the deprived, those who do not appear on TV, the forgotten by society. Thanks Gerry! for these magnificent images which say everything in a profound silence.

FRAMES YAUM INTERVIEW