Calotype and Salt Prints 7x11

Salt print from calotype. Calotype had a few spots touched up on back w/ soft pencil. Lana Aquarelle, 2% alaea salt, 0.5% CA, 0.8% gelatine. Sensitized with 12% AgNO3, 6% CA. Bright overcast at start, partly sunny after first 1/2 hour. 1h 25m toward N sky with paper diffusor. 10m facing E away from sun, no diffusor. 2m direct 4PM sun. Toning: 2ml 0.2% gold chloride + 2ml 2% ammonium thiocyanate in about 80ml DH2O. 12 minutes. Followed by: 0.2g borax + 1ml 0.2% gold chloride in about 80ml water, 10 minutes Hard to get the tone right on this digi-snap. It is a little more neutral, but also a tiny bit more toward dark purple in the water. It also looks sharper with more "pop". Printed 27 February 2016

Duncan's Landing on the Sonoma Coast in California. The rock point in the distance is locally known as "Death Rock" because large waves occasionally wash over it and many fishermen have been swept off. Now the cliffs are fenced off with warning signs, but fishermen still occasionally take the risk until the park ranger chases them off. Greenlaw's process. 7x11 Eastman View No. 2, un-cataloged Wollensak lens. LV 15, but it is hard to judge UV at the coast. I treated it as LV 16: F/45 12 minutes. Developed in 1.4g gallic in 200 ml DH2O No image visible at start. Added 2 eyedroppers of aceto-nitrate of silver ( ~0.75ml each ) Image appeared more slowly than usual. At 38 minutes, added another 1/2 eyedropper, which did speed things up but not too much and still under good control. Done at 50 minutes. Dried for 3 days under a heavy book between several changes of blotter paper. I think the calotype was slightly underexposed, but it looks fine and I hope it will print well. If I like the way it comes out, it may start a series of seaside calotypes. This is a poor reproduction. I had to put it into a printfile sleeve because it was curling. The trees on the clifftop are perfectly crisp and full of detail. But you can get an idea what it looks like. After making this, I read Dr. Mansell's The calotype on the sea-shore with great interest. Perhaps I will try to follow his instructions while making my own "calotype on the sea-shore" series.

Gold toned salt print made from a calotype. Printed 7 February 2016 This "fairy ring" of redwood trees is probably on the same ground a prehistoric giant once stood upon. At Riverfront Regional Park near the Russian River in Sonoma County, California.

This "fairy ring" of redwood trees is probably on the same ground a prehistoric giant once stood upon. At Riverfront Regional Park near the Russian River in Sonoma County, California. Greenlaw's process. 7x11 Eastman No. 2, un-cataloged Wollensak lens. My first successful calotype with this camera! LV ~12, heavy fog. 25m @ f/16 Developed in 1.4g gallic acid in 200ml DH2O. No visible image at start. No image after 5 minutes in gallic. Added 2 eyedroppers aceto-nitrate of silver, developed 45 more minutes, until shadow detail apparent and could not see shadow of fingers moving behind the sky. Hope to make a print tomorrow.

Met up with a nice fellow from APUG yesterday and tried out a new tripod for my camera at Spring Lake, near Santa Rosa, California. This is a paper negative exposed for salt printing... I made a salt print from it today but it had an odd defect I've never seen before, so I'll try again another day. Meanwhile here's an inverted scan.

Valley oak at Crane Creek regional park in Sonoma County, California. Paper negative. Sometimes I like the negative better than the positive...

Valley Oak at Crane Creek regional park in Sonoma County California. The mid-afternoon light was flat, and I think I will come back and photograph this tree from the other side. Something I never noticed before, but makes sense if you think about it: as I walked around the park, I noticed that for every tree, if I stood where you could see the trunk and branches then I was looking into the sun. Of course the leaves grow and spread out more on the side of the tree that faces the afternoon sun!

I've got a new toy. It's an Eastman No. 2 view camera for 7x11. I really like this format. I've been using a lot of 7x11 paper, and now I've got real film holders for that size! Using a well made holder is such a luxury compared to my homemade contraptions! Today I made this first photograph with it, a paper negative. The negative was a bit overexposed, but I had fun using the camera and I think it's going to be great for making paper negatives and calotypes for salt printing. The camera was made sometime between about 1914 and 1921. Lens is an 11" Wollensak velostigmat that I've been using for some time.

Gold-toned salt print made from a calotype. Printed 5 July 2015.