Planet Randy

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.