Video: First Portrait Attempt

14 inch, F2, Projection Lens. 6 second exposure. 8x10 inch Clear Glass Ambrotype.

Lisa, Edmonton, Alberta, August 2023

Video: Daisies in my backyard, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype

 Daisies in my backyard, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, August 2023

Bought Me A {MINT!} Lens INDUSTAR 51 f 4,5, 210mm For Large Format Camera

Bought an old Soviet era lens from Kazakhstan tonight, an INDUSTAR 51 4,5/210, cost was $190 CAD plus shipping. I saw a close-up headshot made with a similar lens had a great depth of field for the portraits, just the eyes in focus. This lens covers 5x7 and I am told 8x10. Will try to do 8x10 Ambrotype portraits with it.

INDUSTAR 51 f4,5 210MM

Sad and Haunting Dreams

I wonder if as you age you’re a victim  to more and more haunting dreams? Dreams of people you knew of, cared for, then lost.

Today I dreamed of a person I knew in Thailand and a person I knew in California, both f people I was close to from years past.The dreams were not nightmares but still sad and melancholy. 

Will this happen more and more as I age?

Video: 14 Inch F2 Projection Lens Image

Something different.

Daisies in my backyard, August 2023

Love For The Group Of 7

A lovely book bought used in the Group of 7 plus Tom Thomson. The 7 is a group of Canadian Kanscape painters,  who created from the 1920s to 1950s (mostly). 

When I was younger I was not a fan but now with the AMBROTOS KANATA work I have fallen in love with their truly remarkable and beautiful work. just devouring the artists work and lives. Their level of commitment is truly inspiring. What the created and left behind us to be admired. Lives well lived.

They captured “The Spirit of Canada”.

Quote: Marilyn Monroe

"I met them all. Phoniness and failure were all over them. Some were vicious and crooked. But they were as near to the movies as you could get. So you sat with them, listening to their lies and schemes. And you saw Hollywood with their eyes--an overcrowded brothel, a merry-go -round with beds for horses."

Still Alive Inside the Glass!!

Looking over some of the small Japanese Ambrotype portraits in my little collection. I think I have 6 or 7 of these now. I love these pieces; it is like I am sharing a bit of their lives. In a strange, magical way, it is almost like they are still alive inside the glass. Long gone but still alive, their spirit still exists. The beauty and wonder of photography!!!!!!! Gotta love it!

Part of the Japanese Ambrotype Collection

For Yin-dee’s Mom

Forest scene #5, AMBROTOS KANATA, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Badlands near Drumheller Alberta, Canada July 2023

Forest scene #5, AMBROTOS KANATA

Forest scene #5, AMBROTOS KANATA, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype, Badlands near Drumheller Alberta, Canada July 2023

Quote: Ernest Hemmingway

 

Not Explaining My Art

 "Art is what it is, you need to look and find your own way in it., your own meaning, your own ideas, your own feelings and emotions."

"Art is what it is, it should not be explained by the artist. You need to look and find your own way in it., your own meaning, your own ideas, your own feelings and emotions."

I think this is what all great art does, the artist explaining it, sort of destroys the experience. This is what I hope to do with AMBROTOS KANATA, create work that the viewer can explain and interpret in their own unique way.

Quote: Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy

RFKs dying words to the busboy Juan Romero.

"Is everybody OK?"

Kennedy asked Romero, "Is everybody OK?"; Romero responded, "Yes, everybody's OK." Kennedy then turned away and said, "Everything's going to be OK." The moment was captured by Boris Yaro of the Los Angeles Times and became the iconic image of the assassination.

Boris Yaro, Robert F. Kennedy Shooting, Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, 1968

Sisters In The Dump

The older protected and mothered the younger. Linhof 5x7 camera.

Sisters next to the dump 2017, FROM THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP.

Another Cancelled Thai Trip, And A Found Dao Photograph

I delayed my return to Thai a second time. Air tickets are so expensive now. I just bought the big 24x24 camera, I need to pay that off, cannot afford a $6000 Thai trip. Feel I am letting the folks down there and also missing so many photo chances, chances to tell important stories. It is hard to do everything you want to do.

Maybe I can go for an extended trip after I retire, before the next AMBROTOS KANATA shooting season.

This is a recently found photo, from THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY. 

Dao starting a fire under the freeway, THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok, Thailand 2022

240mm El-Nikkor Enlarger Lens Images

Playing with the 240mm El-Nikkor enlarger lens now. F45, 45 sec to 1 min 10 sec. The light changed fast as it set forcing me to stop making images. The last 2 images were fogged, not sure why, same exact problem 2 times. It was over 29C in the trailer, maybe that played a roll. The Silver or the Collodion might have been too hot. I had the developer cooled, in an electric cooler.

I will try to photograph daises with this lens again, possibly on 16x20.

Daisy's as Ambrotypes

 

Some Fun Ambrotype Experiments

I have never used one of these fixer tank before . I kinda like them. They give you a quick, compact high. You get to see your latest attempt immediately. I m ight try to get a 16z20 version!

Today am trying to use a daylight and flash combo.
This exposure is 5-10 seconds with the 14 inch projection lens and a 400w flash shot (hooked up to a Jackery).