Camera fair 2010 at Houten

Yesterday there was the international camera fair at Houten ( Holland)
We were invited to show some ambrotypes and to provide some background information to the visitors.
I can tell you, they were very enthusiastic.
The fair started at 09:00 and at the time of 15:00 I think Ben ( my photofriend) and me have explained the collodion process hundreds of times.
We really had a great day.

Many thanks to the organisation of the fair for inviting us.

Ben, explaning the whole proces over and over.

During the day, coffee was his fuel.....

Eddie Gunks, a wetplater from the USA also visited our table.

Eddie, Ben and me

Workshop with Mémé and Wim

Yesterday we had a workshop with Mémé and Wim.
Both very enthusiastic photographers who wanted to smell ether...
We just had a great day, made many plates and had great fun.
They both are eager to start with their own wet plates so stay tuned on there websites.
Some photos of the developing and fixing proces and the results :

Flowing the plate with developer

Almost at the end of the developing time

Fixing the plate of Mémé. Ths normally takes about 15 seconds.

"Mémé"

8 x 10 inch

Black glass

poorboy collodion mix

KN fixer

dallmeyer 3b 5 secs

weblog Mémé : http://memebartels.blogspot.com/

"Wim"

8 x10 inch

Black glass

poorboy collodion mix

KCN fixer

dallmeyer 3b 5 secs

website Wim : http://www.iconoclastica.nl/

Normal film holder for wet plate photography

Yesterday i bit the bullit and started working on a normal 8 x 10 " film holder.
I wanted to make it suitable for wet plate photography.
Alexey Alexeev showed mee some pictures of his plate holder.
To be honest, it is really very easy to do. The plate between the two slides was actually thicker than i expected. It was very stiff and about 1 1/2 mm thick.
The whole process only took about 30 minutes.

1. Put some tape to on the inside of the film holder and put on the glass which you want to use. Draw a line around the glass plate so you have the needed size
In my case it was 18 x 24 cm

For cutting i have used a small normal grinder which allows me to adjust the speed.
I have used a special thin cutting blade.

Because you can not reach the corners with the grinder i have used normal sawblade, which you use fur cutting alluminium or iron, for cutting the corners.
After that just use a small file for finishing.

For the corners i have used stainless steel wire of ,75mm thick or even better is pure silver wire.
I drilled the small holes with a small drill of 1 mm.
Make sure you cover the cuttings and holes with some transparent (nail)paint
Et voila, a plate holder suitable for wet plate photography

Workshop with Charley and Jaap

Today i had a workshop with Charley and Jaap.
Both enthousiastic photographers who wanted to learn the collodion process.
It was a long dag , but we had lots of funn
We made several nice plates with good results.
Hardly any collodion was spoiled !!

some results :

Dallmeyer 3b at 5.6

exposure time 5 sec

Clear glass

KCN fixer

Dallmeyer 3b at 5.6

exposure time 5 sec

Clear glass

KCN fixer

Dallmeyer 3b at 5.6

exposure time 5 sec

Clear glass

KCN fixer