A more easier to make lens cap?

 

Already a few years ago I wrote a blog about making your own lens cap for your precious lenses.
http://collodion-art.blogspot.nl/2010/08/making-your-own-lenscap-isnt-that.html

Recently i visited a friend of mine, Henk Peters,  and he showed me his made lens cap

for his "new" Hermagis petzval.
This cap is even  easier to make.

 

But at the same time I realized I had a lens holding a similar cap.

It is one of my first large format lenses I ever bought, a Voigtlander Heliar Universal.

On that lens there still is it's original lens cap which works exactly the same way.

 

 

How to measure the focal lenght of a lens

I recently made a short video which demonstrates how to measure
the focal lenght and f-stop of a lens.
Of course you could mount it on a camera.
In that case it's quite easy to determine the focal lenght.
But without a camera it's also quite easy to measure it.
On important thing. If you want a accurate measurement be sure you
always focus at infinity!

Here you can find the video: https://vimeo.com/164965108

Lens owned by Jacob Wothly

I Just recently discovered that a lens I own was previously owned by Jacob Wothly.

Jacob Wothly was a German photographer. His real name was Jacob Woodtlj.
Don't know why he has changed his name but it sounds nice.

 

Jacob invented the Wothlytype back in 1860 which was patented in England in 1864
and in Paris in 1865.

Don't know how it worked but he was using some radioactiv material
combined with collodion which made it able to produce positive pictures.

Here you can find some more information about Jacob Wothly ( sorry it's in German):
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wothly

The lens itself is exactly the same as the famous Jamin/Datlot cone lenses.
But this one has a tube like end instead of the typical cone.

 

Is anyone actually using this old process?

Would love to know more about it.

 

 

European Collodion weekend 2016

Starting May 13, this year’s European Collodion Weekend takes place.
Over 40 collodion photographers from all over the Europe are going to show their skills, creativity and passion.
This all based on Fredrick Scott Archers technique, from 1851.
Antique wooden camera’s and 150 years old lenses as well as
modern 35 mm and up to 50x50 cm glass plates are going to be used.

International renowned collodion artists will join us and will also show their work.
Collodion artists coming from: Norway, Germany, France, Belgium, Tjechie, The UK, Holland,Poland, Sweden and many other countries will gather during that weekend.

There are only a very few free spots left.
So when interested please drop me an e-mail.

Interested in this wonderful  ancient photographic process and its craftsmen?
Don’t hesitate and take the opportunity to visit us on Sunday the 15th of May.
Free admittance!

 

           The location:              
Camping ‘De Volmolen’
Volmolen 1
5561 VH  Riethoven
The Netherlands

Further information:  
Alex Timmermanscollodion-art@onsmail.nl
www.collodion-art.blogspot.nl

 

 

Marcel Wanders

Recently I had the opportunity to "shoot" Marcel Wanders.

Marcel Wanders is a famous Dutch designer,
well known for his awesome products, all over the world .

 

Just have a look at his beautiful website: Marcel Wanders

 

I was able to use his own studio which is located just in the middle of Amsterdam at the third floor.
We were extremely lucky finding a parking place just in front of the building.
As you already might know my car is fully loaded will stuff which I need
to make just a single picture. So it took us some time to lug everything up....
That's the only downside of wet plate photography.

Setting up everything always takes me about 1 hour (including making a test plate).

Normally with these kind of shoots we are very limited in time but Marcel loved the process
and he was very willing to pose and was in no hurry.
 

We were able to make 3 plates and as always the last one was the best... :)

26,5 x 26.5 cm Tintype
Exposure time 6 seconds

Dallmeyer 3a at f4

 

Digital pictures made by Ferry v.d. Vliet

The making of.....

Wow, just noticed I wrote my last blog more than half a year ago....
sorry for that. I promise you, you will see some more blogs very soon!

A lot of things happened in the meantime. Like an exhibition during Photo Shanghai, several publications in magazines, some new pictures made for the storytelling series, new BIG studio and a lot more. So I have been quite busy in the past half year.

For now I want to share the making of a picture (actually two pictures).
I had this picture in my mind for already a long time and wanted to include it in the storytelling series. click here for the series
But I was asked to make an exhibition picture for a very talented Dutch photographer who uses tulips for making his art. just have a look at his work: www.basmeeuws.com
So this time we used the same setting for making 2 almost identical pictures.
One for the exhibition of Bas Meeus and one for my storytelling series.

It always fascinates me how colours do change while using the wet plate process.
The umbrella was black, and the Tulips did have all kinds of colours.

Many thanks to Bas Meeuws for posing (and sorry for the wet clothes.... :) )
To Oogenlust for hosting their garden again.
To Paul Jongerius for helping me with the Tulips.
And to Ferry vd Vliet for being the model in this picture and the digital picture he made during the shoot