Last week I visited my Parents in West Wales for a couple of days. I’d taken along the wet plate gear just in case.
I’m continually surprised at the lack of parking spaces as you drive along the countryside. You see something you would like to make a plate of and then not find a parking space for a couple of miles. No use for wet plate. Any convenient spot is usually a farm gate, someones drive or a precarious spot with fast moving traffic alongside.
So I opted for Llanina, not far from my Parents and with ample quiet parking.
I’d taken a variety of chems but ended up using Lea LAndscape No.7 for the negatives, with Iodine and Pyro Redevelopment.
I didnt shoot that many plates as was quite happy with this one.
This week, now I’ve had chance, I’ve contact printed a couple of Cyanotypes and Van Dyke Browns.
Heres a cyano at the Hydrogen Peroxide stage. I’m still using the traditional recipe but its taking way too long to print. These were 45 minutes. I’ll move onto Mike Wares new formula soon.
Toned in wine tannin for 10 minutes.
… and wine tannin for 36 hours! ( I left it soaking as I wasn’t due back to the studio till then). I love the colour its gone but the paper is way to to toned for my liking. Cropped in a mount it will look great, just in hand it looks grubby.
VDB pre fix
Fixed and in the wash…
They dried a little too warm/dark for me so a quick dip in the selenium toner cools them down and lightens the highlights just enough.
I’ll salt print the neg next week to see if theres enough density but I don’t think so. I also need to mix up some new albumen solution.
After playing around with digital negs, the week before last, I must say actual wet plate negatives are way more fun. No computer needed! Well up till blogging it I suppose.