Planet Randy

5×7 HP5+Fujinon 180mm
XTOL
Scanned

It’s been 4 months since I poured a plate – this weekend the wife is away and I got to play!

5×7 Al plate
Quinn’s QC
Sawyer’s Developer
KCN
5″ Goerz Dagor, f/6.3 at 18 seconds wide open

5×7 Al plate
Quinn’s QC
Sawyer’s Developer
KCN
5″ Goerz Dagor, f/6.3 at 2 seconds wide open

I’ve finally  decided to buy Reinhold’s Wollaston Meniscus. I couldn’t find a decently priced  lens that will cover 11×14 format, most are ridiculously priced. This 335mm F/4.6 meniscus is only $100 and the quality is amazing – hard to believe Reinhold makes enough money to make this lucrative.

Now to find some time to play.

Tim needed to verify his Fatfish tent, chemistry and new wet plate back for his Deardorff before our photo shoot next week; so we decided to head out to Riverside, CA and shoot The Mission Inn.

I think he has nothing to worry about.

Photo by Tim Scott

The video (avi)  The Mission Inn

Merced River View

From Will Dunniway’s Yosemite 2012 Workshop

5×7 CGA

El Capitan

From Will Dunniway’s Yosemite 2012 Workshop

5×7 CGA

Scored a Darlot Portrait Lens last month at the Camera Show. It was a bargain considering these brassies have gone up considerably with the resurgence of wet plate collodion and the petzval mongers. It’s an 8×10 lens size 4-4 with a back focus of 10.5″; it looks it could be used on an 11×14 format in portrait distance. I found some details on this lens from an 1890 catalog, of course nothing beats an actual image from it which I plan on making this weekend. I made a leather lens cap for it.

A Real Darlot

Darlot Portrait Lens 1890 Catalog

The lens cost $32 in 1890, in today’s dollar it would be about $800 – about the price I would ask for.

“No name” 8×10 W.A. Portable Symmetrical, f/22 exposed at 15 seconds
8×10 black aluminum
B&S OWH
KCN

240mm at f/16 exposed at 1.75 minutes
8×10 black aluminum
B&S OWH
KCN

Mike took the Ansel Adam method and applied it at JT’s Geology Tour Road with my Cherokee. The cargo rack was surprisingly supportive, though it needs a slab of plywood to prevent the metal grates from sagging.

We found some interesting rocks – I’ll post those later after I make some more developer.

My first daguerreotype, under Dan Carrillo’s supervision.

Dan was kind enough to spend a couple of days with me, despite being busy with a new born, to show his Dag process.

My name is George.

“Just what I always wanted! My own little bunny rabbit ‘studio camera’. I will name him George and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him…”

Muah, ha, ha, ha, ha,… I finally got my dream camera! An Ansco 8×10 Studio camera.

It’s an amazing piece of 1940′s furniture. The stand is rock solid and the camera has THREE standards and TWO bellows! I love the rise and tilt gears; the bellows extend beyond anything I can put on this. The lens board is a whopping 9 inches of real estate and will take on any known studio lens. I mounted my Ross No. 3 and it didn’t even flinch.

The seller mentioned Walt Disney used to own it but has no documentation to prove it. However, the stand and camera has a matching serial number – if I have time I’ll look into it’s provenance.

I can’t wait to use George!

Early January morning at Zabriskie. I wasn’t blessed with dramatic clouds at Manly Beacon but I was gifted with this instead. Death Valley is a fantastic place.

I’ve been meaning to take pictures of a cala lily (aka. “Z. elliottiana”) and Home Depot was on my way home from an errand; I was fortunate to find the yellow variety.

It gave me an opportunity to try the CSX green sensitive X-ray film rated at ISO 80. These were taken using the Zone VI 8×10 camera and Kodak CE 300mm, strobed with the 580EX II camera left at full power. I believe the shutter was set to 1/150 and the aperture was F16. I also shot it in 4×5 format with AEU100 film for silver gelatin enlargements.

Both images were film scanned but I intend to print a few of these in carbon and platinum-palladium once I find a few I like.

Hand-coating printing is becoming an obsession for me. Today I made my first cyanotype print, a process formulated in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, though it was first applied to photography by the English botanist Anna Atkins.

This print was made using Bostick-Sullivan’s kit and since I do not have a UV light box it’s officially a sun print – 10 minutes under the sun and a 15 minute dunk in tap water. I kinda’ enjoy UV printing with cyanotype since no dark room is needed, cheap emulsion, permanent, and very little chemicals to deal with. Incidentally, this is also my first contact print from my new “old” 1922 Korona 5×7 camera.

Flickr has a group dedicated to this process and if you want to learn more check out the process at Alternative Photography website.