Another beautiful Hermagis lens

By now the most of you know that I have a weakness for Hermagis lenses.

Not just because of the optic quality, but also because of the beautiful finish of these lenses.
Just have a look at the beautiful engravings…

A few months ago I was able to buy this very rare large  Hermagis
“demi-grand-angles avec rotateurs”.

This is an extremely nice piece off engineering.
By turning the lens hood you can change the aparture which is build inside the lens.
This mechanism is made of 2 brass tubes slided into each other.
They have a fitting which makes it impossible to put even a human hair between them.

Can you imagine? This lens was handmade at about 1872!
Just have a look at the lens design. perfectly round and polished by hand

Additional info

I contacted Geoffry Berliner about this lens,

Geoffry is director off Center for Alternative Photography in New York..

He's also a collector of ancient lenses.

You really should have a look at their webiste.
http://capworkshops.org/
I want such a daylight studio......
It's on my wish list to visit once.

He has send me the following information about this Hermagis:

"It is a Schnitzer / Harrison Globe formula from the 1862 patent.
This formula was licensed out to European manufactures of the period as it was
too expensive to export due to tariffs and import fees.
The Emil Busch Pantoscop is in the same category as your Hermagis.
A great find of a very rare and beautiful lens."

 

update on Collodion Weekend

Things are going really fast.
Until now I have received 23 reservations from all over Europe for participating

through PM and Mail.
I will have to stop at 40 participants.
So if you are interested in coming over and work with your own camera, don't wait too long.
There is NO need to make a reservation if you want to come over as a visitor!

Second European Collodion Weekend

During the weekend of the 4th and 5th of May 2013 I wil organize the:

Second European Collodion Weekend.

This year no master classes or workshops but a gathering of experienced wet platers
coming from all over Europe (world).

My goal is to get together with about 30-40 wetplaters.
All bringing their own camera, chemicals, darkrooms etc.
Just to share our knowledge and making some nice plates during these two days.

One nice thing is that May 4th is also world wet plate day 2013!

I also want to make a collodion group photo with all the participating wet platers (world record?)

I have rented a large log cabin which is situated in a large lawn with pine trees.
There is room for about 30 people setting up their own tent/boot but there are also several
hotels within 5km from the place if you don't want to camp.

There is no access for campers, caravans and cars. They have to be parked outside the fence.

There is no electrical power available for the boots and tents.

Toilets, showers and kitchen are inside the log cabin.

At Saturday evening I want to organize a large barbeque for the participants.

For those who want to participate during these 2 days, bring their own gear
and want to camp I am asking a fee of 50, = a person.
That's included the barbeque at Saturday night.

I don't want to make any profit on this. It's just for covering the expenses.
Any donations are more than welcome....

Everybody is responsible for his/ her equipment.
As we are expecting a lot of interested people I want to ask everybody
not to mess with chemicals, using a jerry can to catch the waste water,
and keep trays with hazardous chemicals closed.
For those who want to participate during these 2 days I want you to ask to
sent me a reservation and pay the fee in advance.

 

If anyone wants to rent a boot, just let me know and i will see what i can arrange

For other visitors the entrance of these two days is for free.

If you have any questions, remark so r suggestions, just drop me an E-mail.

All we need now is just two days of good weather....

 

Alex Timmermans

collodion-art@onsmail.nl

 

International Airports

International Airport Eindhoven (only 10 minutes driving to Veldhoven)

http://www.eindhovenairport.com/en/

 

International Airport Düsseldorf (about 1 hour driving to Veldhoven)

http://www.duesseldorf-international.de/dus_en/

Hotels in the area:

Hotel Koningshof  http://www.hotels.nl/nl/veldhoven/nh/?gclid=CN-CqZiy_7QCFQ7LtAodfTUAlA

Hotel vd Valk  http://www.hotels.nl/nl/eindhoven/valk/

Novotel (nearby Airport) http://www.hotels.nl/nl/eindhoven/novotel/

Hotel Campanile http://www.campanile-eindhoven.nl/nl/index.aspx

all situated with about 6 km from the ECW

 

Collodion poster designed by Jan Dijkshoorn

http://www.burogram.nl/

Collodion process used for a Romanian wine label

A few months i was contacted by a branding company.

They were representing a famous Romanian wine house named Domeniul Coroanei.

Domeniul Coroanei was interested in using one of my plates for the label of one of there new wines.

Mine was used for "Honor".

It might be the firt time ever the collodion proces has been used for making a wine label.

Here is the brochure, bottle and original plate.

Picture made bij Brandient.com

 Picture made bij Brandient.com

Recent shoot with Olga Kaminska

Recently I had a shoot with Olga Kaminska from Poland.

Olga was the covergirl of The Playboy from January 2011.

She's a fantastic friendly model and also extremely patient which is a "must" with this slow process

This shoot was arranged by Marc Vreenegoor , the owner of a very nice studio called Mijnstudio.

This studio is located at Ter Aar.

He arranged that we had a privat shoot with Olga and we were able to make some very nice plates.

I want to thank Marc for hosting this and Olga for het kindness.

Marc organizes nude photography shoots/workshops on a regular base.

I can highly recommend Marc and his studio if you want to learn more about nude photography.

Just have a look at http://www.mijnstudio.nu/index1.html

Some results:

27x27 cm

Exposure time 3 seconds
Dallmeyer 3b 270mm 3.0 wide open

27x27cm
Exposure time 6 seconds

 Hermagis Petzval 350mm 4.5 wide open

18x24cm

Exposure time 3 secs

Dallmeyer 3b 270mm 3.0 wide open

Behind the scenes

 

Modifying a normal 4x5" film holder into a wet plate holder

I have done this before with a 8x10"holder, but this time I tried modifying a 4x5" holder.

It is as easy to do. The only thing is that you need some little tools.

This timeI have used a Dremel with a small cutting blade.

The whole process didn't took me more than half an hour.

So if you are a bit handy it is really a piece of cake.

First you tape the inside which makes you able to mark the actual needed size.
You can go up to 8.4 mm x 11,4mm

BE AWARE !
There are several 4x5"plateholders available.
Make sure you use the more luxury versions.
They have a massive alluminium plate inside it instead of 2 thin plates.
The cheaper versions with those 2 thin plates just don't work and will cause
a lot of trouble, like contamination, when used with wet plate.
This used Fidelity Elite is the good version.

I have used a Dremel with a cutting blade for metal.

As you can't reach the corners with a round blade you will have to use 

a normal saw blade suitable for metal to cut out the last pieces 

Use a file to smoothen the cutted pieces and drill little holes in each corner.
The drill measures 1.5 mm

Use 99,9 pure silver wire for the corners and glue them with a rapid glue.
The glue is needed to make sure the silver wire is much more solid and
to be sure it doesn't wiggle anymore.

Don't forget to protect the cutted alluminium with a strong paint.
 I have used nail varnish which is also available in black. It's very solid and dries fast.

Et Voila, you have made yourself a perfect usable wet plate holder!