Well figured out a couple of things today, took some small steps forward.
The hydrometer I bought off E-Bay was the wrong type. I think it is designed for denser liquids. I went down today to a local wine beer making shop and spoke to the knowledgeable fellow there, he recommended another type of hydrometer. I bought his choice, tested it, and it works fine (see photos). It works as I thought a hydrometer should work and as my wet plate Facebook friends told me it should. So now I can check the specific gravity of my 2 silver baths and add distilled water or silver (AgNO3)as needed. Will do that tonight.
The second step forward is my artificial light sunning device that I picked up for $25 at Goodwill yesterday, works! Yesterday I had sunned my silver (cloudy day) for around 4 hours and filtered it, thinking it was pretty clean. Last night I re-sunned the same 2 silver baths under my artificial light source ("Daylight 10000 Classic") for around 10 hours. I had a lot more black organic material form. It seems the artificial light source actually did a better sunning job compared to leaving it outside under the cloudy sky. It is hard to judge how much better it was as the time under the different light sources was quite different, 4 hours versus 10 hours. It sure was a lot easier to do the artificial source sunning. No worries about people, animals or changes in weather affecting my expensive silver. I just locked everything up in my darkroom trailer and turn on the power switch, easy speezy!
Now I am re-filtering 2 silver baths, see photos. I have it rigged up on a stand allowing me to multitask (Thanks Quinn J for that idea).
Anyway a good couple of steps forward. The major wet plate project KANATA seems more doable all the time. It is slowly leaving the category of dream world and entering the, "YES THIS CAN BE DONE THING!!"
I will approach KANATA as a social documentary type project (the type of photography I love). I plan on photographing important subjects, like the destructive genocidal First Nations Residential Schools as well as old battle sights -grave yards etc. I also hope to photograph First Nations reserve areas (if I can make friends and get permission). I wish to photograph the areas where the Japanese were interned during the second world war and parts of the cross country railway lines where Chinese labour was used. This project needs to paint a accurate, true picture of Canada, the good and the bad. I will of course do the beauty spots along the coasts, the national parks, Niagra Falls, places like that as well. Will be making portraits of people from all the different cultures, races, religions across Canada.
I know that's a pretty tall order, but hell, impossible actually but I got to give it a try! Got to take my shot before they burn me up and place me in an urn! I would much rather live with failure then live with regret. So lets reach for the stars!
The hydrometer I bought off E-Bay was the wrong type. I think it is designed for denser liquids. I went down today to a local wine beer making shop and spoke to the knowledgeable fellow there, he recommended another type of hydrometer. I bought his choice, tested it, and it works fine (see photos). It works as I thought a hydrometer should work and as my wet plate Facebook friends told me it should. So now I can check the specific gravity of my 2 silver baths and add distilled water or silver (AgNO3)as needed. Will do that tonight.
The second step forward is my artificial light sunning device that I picked up for $25 at Goodwill yesterday, works! Yesterday I had sunned my silver (cloudy day) for around 4 hours and filtered it, thinking it was pretty clean. Last night I re-sunned the same 2 silver baths under my artificial light source ("Daylight 10000 Classic") for around 10 hours. I had a lot more black organic material form. It seems the artificial light source actually did a better sunning job compared to leaving it outside under the cloudy sky. It is hard to judge how much better it was as the time under the different light sources was quite different, 4 hours versus 10 hours. It sure was a lot easier to do the artificial source sunning. No worries about people, animals or changes in weather affecting my expensive silver. I just locked everything up in my darkroom trailer and turn on the power switch, easy speezy!
Now I am re-filtering 2 silver baths, see photos. I have it rigged up on a stand allowing me to multitask (Thanks Quinn J for that idea).
Anyway a good couple of steps forward. The major wet plate project KANATA seems more doable all the time. It is slowly leaving the category of dream world and entering the, "YES THIS CAN BE DONE THING!!"
I will approach KANATA as a social documentary type project (the type of photography I love). I plan on photographing important subjects, like the destructive genocidal First Nations Residential Schools as well as old battle sights -grave yards etc. I also hope to photograph First Nations reserve areas (if I can make friends and get permission). I wish to photograph the areas where the Japanese were interned during the second world war and parts of the cross country railway lines where Chinese labour was used. This project needs to paint a accurate, true picture of Canada, the good and the bad. I will of course do the beauty spots along the coasts, the national parks, Niagra Falls, places like that as well. Will be making portraits of people from all the different cultures, races, religions across Canada.
I know that's a pretty tall order, but hell, impossible actually but I got to give it a try! Got to take my shot before they burn me up and place me in an urn! I would much rather live with failure then live with regret. So lets reach for the stars!
