Saturday, November 29, 2003
Today's the first attempt of a Maryland Photgrpaher and Model get together, held strangely enough in Delta, PA. Marion's the driving force behind the scene and has done a great job of organizing and coordinating the event. I'm not sure how much shooting's going to happen in this chilly and windy weather but it will be fun to be able to put faces to all the names and e-mail addresses.
I'm dragging along the toys just in case it's warm enough to play... pinhole, infrared film, and view camera. Pics, if any, to follow soon.
Posted by coldmarble @ 09:16 AM ET [Link] [blab]
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Cool and cloudy today, so I took advantage of having the day off from work to give my old nemesis, gum bichromate, another try. My first attempts failed miserably, so I wasn't too hopeful for the results today. An experienced gum printer can take advantage of an incredible control over the process by manipulating variables such as the amount of pigment added to the gum arabic, the amount of dichromate sensitizer, exposure time, paper, sizing, development time, etc. Of course all these variables are just more things to go wrong for a beginner, so I was particularly thrilled when (after a few test strips) I was able to get a half decent image out of the process.
I'm far from ready to tackle tricolor gum prints just yet but this simple single coated image is a start.
Posted by coldmarble @ 02:49 PM ET [Link] [blab]
Monday, November 24, 2003
With a new UV light source to play with, allowing me to print my alt-process photos at any time of the day or night, I'm tempted to venture back into playing with the gum bichromate process. I didn't have much luck at all first time around and that's discouraged me from taking it up again. Looking over an article at Unblinking Eye has caused a rebirth of interest in taking up the challenge of gum printing again. If I can work out a method of making an acceptable digital negative, I'd love to give Tri-Color Gum with Cyanotype a try.
If results like those in Sam Wang's gallery are possible, it's definitely worth a bit of testing and wrestling with making color separation negatives. Definitely yummy.
Posted by coldmarble @ 01:33 PM ET [Link] [blab]
