Todays Jobs!

- Bought a new battery for the van $186 CAD. The van started on the first try, a good sign.

- Cleaned the garage.

- Moved the HF3535 camera, all the backs and holders into the house. Now that was an INTERESTING thing to do. Am huffing and puffing like a 80 year old many running a marathon.

- Drilled a hole in my adjustable table. I plan to run a 1/4 in screw through the bottom of the table into the bottom/left tripod mount of the HF3535 camera. The idea is not to hold the camera firmly, which it will not. The idea is to prevent the camera from accidentally sliding off the table and crashing to the ground.  I positioned the hole to allow a 4 inch work space on the back of the table. There is also room for the hand crank to be turned on the table, raising the camera up and down.

- Cut away excess expanding foam on my large Igloo cooler. I might transition the 4-5 litre bottles from Silver Nitrate to Collodion.

- Put small rubber knobs and black silicone in the holes in the 16x20 metal camera transport case. I will do a second coat later, then do the silicone on the inside of the case as well. This $40 case buy should last me the 20 years of the AMBROTOS KANATA photo project. It took 3-4 years to find the darn thing, but got a good one in the end!

- Will also add the hinges and lid snaps to the cooler when they arrive via Amazon.

Quote: Nelson Mandela

PDF? How?

Not sure how but a piece of one of my YouTube vids, ended up on his rather interesting PDF file. You lose control of stuff when you put it online. Oh well!

https://medp150.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/collage_photomontage-sp20.pdf

 Chaplin (Modern Times) was the next dude down, that can't be a bad thingy!

Will Work On The Camper Van Tomorrow

I will get a new battery for the camper van tomorrow and start to get it ready for the year of camping and photo making ahead. I am not sure how well this old 1989 unit can tow, but I will make an attempt at using it to tow my darkroom trailer. 

I need to start the AMBROTOS KANATA photo project as soon as I can, today is my 57th birthday. I am running out of time to accomplish my dream images. So many are people telling me how this cannot be done and that cannot be accomplished. That is all BS, you just have to drive yourself to succeed and work your tail off. Am so tired of the negative Nelly crap, I aim to prove them all wrong!

Tomorrow will work on the van, then the trailer. I need to get everything up and running by May 1!

The camper van, this photo is from around 2015

35x35 Back And Holder On The HF3535

I placed the 35x35 back and holder on the HF3535 camera today for the first time. The plates that I will make with this gear. Will be HUGE HUGE!!! I am learning the intricacies and eccentricities of this wonderful camera. Things are slowly starting to come together. Both the 27x35 and the 35x35 wet plate holders are very heavy. They are heavy even without the 3-4mm glass inside. The holders large- long dark slides are made out of tough sheet metal.

The 35x35 back and holder on the HF3535

Played With My 16x20 Lens On the HF3535 (27x35 Back)

Played with some of my 16x20 lens on the HF3535 camera with the 27x35 back on it. They actually looked pretty good. Am pretty sure there was not near full coverage but it still looked OKish and was fun, see photos. The lens were bought for use with my 16x20 Chamonix.

Will any of these lens work with the 20x24 back? 20x20?

 

- 600mm Fujinon F11.5

- 450mm Nikkor F9

- Process lens with shutter bought a few years back. 21 1/4 inch F 12.5

My lightweight, huge dark cloth also kind of fits the camera, probably usable. The subject was Santa on a garbage pail.

 

21 1/4 inch F12.5

450mm Nikkor F9

600mm Fujinon F11.5

The dark cloth kinda works.

Think this is the 450mm lens view

600mm view?

Igloo Cooler To Carry Silver Nitrate!

So I am working on a little project today. I got a free, used, large Igloo cooler from work last week, today I am adapting it. I bought new hinges and latches off Amazon for $25 CAD as they were broken and needed replacement. I then made up 4 large tubes from some old mat board, to hold 4 large 5000 ml glass laboratory style bottles. Today I am adding expandable foam to the inside of the cooler around the tubed bottles, 6 cans so far (expensive).

The Silver Nitrate bath solution is the most expensive part of the wet plate photographic process. The 4 bottles will eventually hold thousands of dollars worth of silver nitrate. I need to protect these bottles as best I can. There will be many a bumpy road in the future! I want to use glass so I can see the Silver Nitrate bath clearly.

This large cooler should be able to hold 20 000 ml of Silver Nitrate safely! I might be something similar for Collodion later on.

Note* I will add another 1 or 2 cans of more foam to the cooler, ran out of cans today! This stuff does not expand a much as I need it to expand.

A cooler that will be filled with 20000 ml of Silver Nitrate!!!

Update* Uh Oh!! The foam is EXPANDING!

No more foam needed! There might be too much!!

Unboxed The HF3535!!!

Unboxed the HF3535 camera today, ALL LOOKS GOOD! There is no shipping damage to the camera that I can see. With some (LARGE) effort and a little confusion I managed to set up the camera myself. I attached 2 of the 3 wet plate backs and also attached my mammoth 1780mm Nikkor lens. The camera is solidly built and should allow me years of use. I was surprised at how solid the front standard is. When it is locked down, it is LOCKED DOWN. I do not know if I will require the added lens support device, maybe not. I made an unboxing video with 3 (2 go pro and a iPhone) cameras and a lavaliere microphone. I will post the video later this week on the new YouTube AMBROTOS KANATA wet plate channel! More to come!

In the box shipped from the Czech Republic:

- HF3535 Camera made up of 2 sections. A bellows plus rear standard, and the base with the front standard. Putting these two parts together is the hardest part of the solo set up.

- 5 lens boards of various types, one an adapter that takes Sinar lens boards.

- A 35x35 back with plastic ground glass

- A 27x35 reducing back with plastic ground glass

- A 20x24 reducing back with plastic ground glass

- A 35x35 wet plate holder

- A 27x35 wet plate holder

- A 20x24 film holder

 

Note* One of the focusing knobs was forgotten in the Czech Republic, Filip is sending me that knob with the next camera I am buying from him, a HF2024. So in these pictures the HF3535 is missing those focusing knobs.

The 1780mm Apo Nikkor lens mounted HF3535

Here is a wider view of the 1780mm Nikkor mounted on the HF3535. Funny how small this huge lens looks on this large camera

20x24 reducing back

27x35 reducing back

Camera set up on the HUSKY adjustable table I bought for it

The 35x35 back with wet plate holder inserted.

27x35 holder, boy is the baby heavy!

Quote: Rueben Hurricane Carter From The Film "The Hurricane"

 "You see, writing is a weapon and it is more powerful than a fist can ever be."

A Nice Compliment On Facebook

Received a nice compliment from a friend on Facebook tonight. When you read things like this, you hope they are true but your never quite sure, they seem wrong to you. I hope, this is true, I hope the coming AMBROTOS KANATA project will yield world class pictures of compassion. We shall see, I will try my best, all I can do.

MS wrote:

"you have shown commitment and dedication to this project. and you are a great photographer. But beyond that you have compassion for your subjects and are able to use it all your talents and technique to tell your stories."