Alexander and the Somewhat Decent, Not as Depressing, Suitable for Printing and Motivated Just Enough Day

I finally got my first decent cyanotype. I discovered the wealth of images available through the Bienecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale and going on something that Joe told me, "Cyanotypes are good for graphic work," I picked out Alexander, among others.

I've also started to double coat my paper with the sensitizer and I'm getting better blacks out of it.

This is a crappy shot of the print that I took with my digital camera and had to warp it in Photoshop just to get it to look somewhat flat. When I get a flatbed scanner up & running, the images should improve a bit.

Fixing the Wollensak Raptar

The damn shutter sticks open on the slow speeds! I don't really care if the speeds are off, it's pretty easy to compensate for that, but it sure helps to have the shutter close. Being the guy that I am, I opened up the shutter housing to see what could be done. As you can see, it's not exactly a simple mechanism.

But with a little patience, observation and 3-in-1 oil it's working better than it was. I still have to set it on 1/2 sec and push the cable release twice (which unsticks the shutter) to get about a 1 second exposure, but it's workable. The other speeds aren't sticking any more and the B and T settings work perfectly. Of course, I put it back together and the cable release wasn't working so I had to take it apart again to fix that.

If anyone knows how to fix the sticking problem for good and adjust the speeds, please share.

Random Tips From Joe on Hand Coated Printing

• Get really drunk and go to work, in the morning you'll have a stack of prints.


• Glass rods (puddle pushers) are really about saving money when doing platinum & palladium printing. Foam brushes, while they absorb more, work fine.


• A dense & contrasty negative is what you want to be working with.


• The cyanotype process is great for graphic type images.


• It often takes 2-3 exposures to get a good cyanotpye. Clear the image, dry, re-coat, register your negative and re-expose. Lather, rinse, repeat.


• Van Dyke prints are a lot like cyanotypes (but they're brown, Joe, they're brown!)

Mmm...Cyanide

Joe recently told me about Bostick & Sullivan when I was talking to him about alternative printing. Kits, chemistry, articles, just about whatever you need and they'll answer all your questions. I ordered the Cyanotype & Van Dyke combo kit with FREE paper samples! I didn't like the paper at all.

From Wynn White, a company called Artcraft Chemicals has chemistry at good prices and will custom mix formulas for you. I haven't ordered anything from them yet, but they seem like a good source for this stuff.

Dreaming of Pixels

So with all this stuff rattling around in my brain I said to myself, "Self," I said, "how about shooting Polaroid, scanning it and making inkjet negatives for alternative printing?" I didn't know a damn thing about it all, but I knew it was possible. Through a lot of Googling, I got some pretty good ideas about how to go about it.

Then I thought, if I'm going to scan I might as well shoot straight film as well. I've got a Holga and a pile of 35mm cameras, I know how to process film and all I'm lacking is the equipment. Good old eBay, I shall be seeing lots of you.

The Shooting of Jacob

I brought the B&J, the sheet film back and the Polaroid film over to Anthony & Jacob's house just for the hell of it. I shot 1 frame, available light (100 ISO.)

Though it wasn't exactly a stunning image, I saw the potential immediately. I've shot plenty of Polaroid pack film in old Automatic 100s, so I'm not new to the film but this was the first time I'd shot it with manual exposure control.

I went home and spent weeks following eBay auctions on expired 4x5 instant sheet film. I have a lot of it now. I still haven't played with it enough since there's only so many shots one can do around the house and it's been too cold to lug around all the equipment and spend time setting up shots in the city. I'm thinking that Winter is a good time for portrait work.

I can't find the picture right now, but I'll post it when I do.

Joey From Brooklyn

My friend/neighbor/landlord, Joe, gave me a 4x5 Polaroid sheet film back & a box of film for it.

Now I get to use the camera & see the results right away. It's like a digital camera, only much more fun.

Though he'll hate me for saying it, Joe's a stand up guy. I'd need a new blog to list all the things Joe & Laura (Joe's wife) have done for me, given to me and put up with from me. Good people.

Hello, world.

Well, looks like it's back to blogging for me.

I became enamored with the Kallitype process while flipping through Crawford's The Keepers of Light. I hit the Kallitype section and complete with gaping mouth, just stared at the image. Though much was explained about how to utilize various alternative processes in the book, this particular one was an image and an overview. I had no idea how to make one of these images, but I knew that someday I would. That was maybe 7-8 years ago.

I'd been buying old Polaroid Automatic 100 cameras off eBay in the last month, which got me thinking about using the 4x5 that was given to me years ago by Jim Gipe, owner of Pivot Media, Inc. (Pivot Media is where I cut my teeth in commercial digital imaging.) I never got around to shooting with it, but always loved it and wanted to use it.

About 3 weeks ago I realized that the old B&J Press camera Jim gave me was an amazing machine, though it was in ratty condition complete with broken and taped ground glass. So I started going through eBay, Adorama and B&H looking at film, developing tanks, etc. That's when I stumbled on a brand of alternative printing kits including my coveted Kallitype.

4x5. Polaroid. Kallitype. Scanners. Photoshop. Inkjet printers. The gears began to turn.