Sunny days

I have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather that we have been having here in the City. Sunny, and warm, but without the horrid humidity that will be here soon enough.

As you may know from previous dispatches the wet plate process requires UV light, and Winter images are certainly possible, but the high amount of UV rays in late Spring, through Summer make for faster exposure times.

The early morning light is my favorite, and it allows me to get in a few shots before my regular work schedule. I have turned a small space at home into a darkroom, and this enables me to set up my camera in my “yard” as it were. Freed from the cart, it allows me to work standing upright.

I am fortunate to have photo worthy subjects close at hand, and find it much easier to do a series of test plates to help calibrate my UV meter. The meter only registers the spectrum of light needed for the collodion process. The task at hand is to establish a base reference point. With the aperture of the camera set at f16 I will do a run of plates, and see what dosage of UV light gives me the best results. Then it should just be a matter of adjusting the dosage to the other f-stop settings

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One tintype of braided dockline, and two platinum/palladium prints. These, by the way, can be found in my store too.