So I've been working through my stash of already-poured plates (e.g., some 5x7 plates that might be as much as two years old) and left-over emulsion (don't remember exactly what it was -- the labels fell off the crocks in the fridge) that I can't bear to throw away (have you seen the price of silver nitrate these days?!) to just shoot.
Herein some examples. Nothing amazing yet, but I'm happy with how things are going, and am hoping that it will cause me to keep working for a while. I'm feeling a bit more inspired, anyhow.
First up, another crack at a scene I've shot any number of times, mostly because my attempts mostly ****. To be fair, it's a challenging scene for this process: black and white subject, dim room, backlit by a bright window. This one came out better than most of my previous attempts. The 5x7 plate is a bit fogged around the edges (old), but I'm still fairly happy with it.
Next up, the results of a quick (two day) jaunt I took with a friend out to Western Massachusetts. I had poured some 4x5 plates with one of my emulsions from the spring I'd made while working on slightly faster speeds. Not sure what this one was, but seems to be in the ISO 12 range, maybe a bit faster in good light. I loaded up three holders (six plates) and stashed another six in an old film box and packed a changing bag in case I managed to shoot all of the first six.
So my friend and I got on the road Thursday morning and headed west. We stopped at three or four different scenic spots, including a small gorge and a waterfall. The first spot, Cooks Canyon in Barre, didn't lend itself to shooting with this process -- there was an interesting old stone dam with water spilling over it, but the rocks were black and the whole thing was in deep shade. Would have taken forever (and maybe a miracle) to get a good shot, and I didn't want to bore my friend too much, patient as she was prepared to be.
The second one (Chesterfield Gorge) was beautiful but a mix of direct bright sun, deep shadows, and warm autumn colors. Tricky! My shot of the gorge would be better taken at a different time of day (or year, or, ideally "cloudy bright") but it's still a bit interesting. I did manage to screw up my first plate, forgetting, as I sometimes do, to stop the lens back down to my chosen shooting aperture after focusing. I realized it of course right after I made the shot -- very overexposed, of course (metered at f/22, shot at f/5.6...oops!). But I regrouped and was more careful the rest of the trip.
The shot of the line of marble boulders going across the river bottom was better, as it had less wide variation in scene brightness, and of course I didn't make the obvious mistake again.
The Gorge:
The marble boulders across the Westfield River beneath the gorge:
After the gorge, we wandered over to a (relatively) nearby site, Glendale Falls. By this time, it was getting late in the day, after 4pm, and the falls themselves were in a valley, of course. So I had to hike down to the area beneath the falls and try to find locations where I could actually plant a tripod, and get an appropriate distance away from the falls themselves so as to get a decent angle on them. If it hadn't been so late in the day, which was driving some anxiety about the light dropping quickly (it was) I might have poked around a bit longer in the jumble of rocks at the base of the falls to find a more ideal spot. As it was, I just picked the best place I could, set up, and shot a couple quick plates -- one of the falls, one of the pool at their base. I was pleased with both, but particularly the pool, as the uniformity of the scene made it a bit easier to manage the exposure.
Glendale Falls:
The pool at their base:
My friend took a snapshot of me after I made the shot of the pool. My back was slowly recovering from having had to contort myself to do the composing and focusing (not to mention the initial challenge of finding a spot for the tripod legs in the jumble of rocks sitting in the river, then leveling it.) Not apparent from the shot: the rocks beneath and around me were all in the water of the pool, so anything that dropped or slid was going in the drink. Had to be pretty careful.
The next morning, we stopped at a wildlife sanctuary in Northampton, which was beautiful, but it was raining heavily on and off, so I elected not to get out the LF rig. So I headed home, got back Friday around 3, and took a nap. Waited until Saturday morning to develop the plates (didn't want to screw them up from sheer tiredness), let them dry overnight, and here we are. Used my trusty D-23 1:1 and they did fine.
Already thinking about finding a place to stay out there next year, maybe in the spring, and spending a week just wandering around the countryside making plates. I can even take some chemistry and some red LED lights I have and do the processing there for faster turnaround (and to see if my plates turned out OK while still in the area so I can reshoot if necessary). Looking forward to it.
Also pondering a local project over the winter -- recreating some shots I have access to from 8x10 gelatin dry plates shot in and around my local town. They're part of the collection of the local historical society, with which I'm affiliated, and I was thinking some "Then and Now" type juxtapositions might be amusing for people, and it will certainly be an interesting job to try to determine the shooting locations (already mostly managed that) along with the lens selections/field of view.
It's nice to finally be doing something productive, rather than just "testing"...
Robert