Photographs by Frank

13 July 2022

Wednesday’s Work

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Anthotype,Hand-Coloring,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , — Frank @ 11:33 PM

This morning dawned bright and clear. After breakfast, I took a stroll about the yard, with scissors in hand, hunting for objects with which to make anthotypes. While the anthotypes were exposing, I worked on hand-coloring another print.

All of these images are small, made on 5×7 inch or smaller paper. The anthotypes are each made on a different paper. #3 is on Strathmore Vision drawing paper (fairly bright white). #4 is on the warm-toned Strathmore Series 400 drawing paper. #5 is on Unica Ivory, also warm but somewhere between the other two papers in tone. I am definitely liking warm-toned paper for paprika anthotypes.

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After lunch, with the skies partly to mostly sunny and the temperature right around 80 deg. F (i.e perfect weather for photographing odes) I headed out to do just that! My goal was the Ashuelot River in Surrey. This is a fast moving, rocky-bottomed smallish river; different from the usual ode habitats I frequent.

I spent just under two hours along the river upstream of the bridge (at the farthest upstream Army Corps of Engineers access site) and was amazed at the paucity of odes. I saw exactly six ebony jewelwings. I did not observe a single dragonfly!

On the way home I made two additional stops along the river on the road between Surrey and Gilsum with similar results… one additional ebony jewelwing.

My luck was only slightly better when I got back to Antrim. I stopped at the field adjacent to the Stone Church on Clinton Road and saw a couple of female Eastern Forktails and, finally two dragonflies. The dragonflies were both out over the small pond in this field and I did not get a good enough view of either to identify them. One of these individuals was making rapid circuits around the circumference of the pond. The other individual was ovipositing; i.e. repeatedly dipping the end of her abdomen into the water.

The lack of odes was quite surprising. Early yesterday evening a line of thunderstorms crossed the region; an inch of rain fell in well less than an hour accompanied by high winds. My guess is that odes do not survive well under these conditions. However, I do not have (and with a quick Google search did not find mention of) any evidence to support this idea.

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12 July 2022

Paprika, Red Cabbage & Turmeric Anthotypes

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Anthotype — Frank @ 3:30 PM

About a year ago, I made a series of anthotypes* using an extract of turmeric (see: post 1, post 2, and post 3).

Turmeric is a commonly used material for making anthtotypes. However, in anticipation of the inaugural World Anthotype Day I have spent the past week or so experimenting with making anthotypes with less commonly used materials as the source of pigment. Specifically, I made images with both a water-based extract of red cabbage and an organic solvent-based extract of paprika.

With the red cabbage I am able to make both blue and pink (think of the colors associated with newborn babies) images. However, these images (not shown) are of low contrast as the starting colors are fairly pale.

Additionally, the exposures required are long… think multiple days in the sun. Having long stretches of bright sunny days is not typical New Hampshire weather even in July. So I am not sure how practical this process would be. Furthermore, I am not a particularly patient soul. Lastly, baby blue and baby pink are just not colors that I am particularly fond of.

Thus, I don’t think that I will be pursuing red cabbage anthotypes much further.

However, I have been getting very nice results using an orange-yellow pigment extracted from paprika with an organic solvent. For my first attempts I used rubbing alcohol (iso-propanol) which is the solvent of choice for making turmeric anthotypes. I was able to make images with very short (for anthotypes) exposures (e.g. an hour or less). The images were fairly low contrast as the initial extract was not particularly dark. The chemist in me thought that using a less polar solvent might give better results and thus I tried making an extract of paprika using mineral spirits**. This worked like a charm. The details of my procedure and the results of my experiments can be found in this pdf file.

Shown below are two successful paprika anthotypes (exposure time 45-60 min in full July sun) and two new turmeric anthotypes (exposure time 5-6 hours).

The first image is on a nice warm Strathmore Series 400 drawing paper. The remaining three images are on Strathmore Vision drawing paper.

The turmeric images were sprayed with 5% sodium carbonate (washing soda) in order to stabilize them and to increase the contrast. The paprika images were sprayed with an acrylic fixative in order to stabilize them.

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* Anthotypes are images made using plant-derived pigments. One makes an extract of some colored plant part (often petals from a flower) and coats paper with the extract. When the paper is dry, one places objects (or, less commonly, a positive transparency) on the paper and then places a piece of glass atop the objects. This “sandwich” is the placed in a sunny spot and left for a period of time… certainly hours and often days. The sunlight fades the pigment and one is left which an image formed by the shadow of the objects you placed on the paper.

** Mineral spirits are easily available at the hardware store as they are used for thinning and cleaning up when using oil-based paints.

10 July 2022

Hand-colored Photos (Monhegan I. Series)

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Hand-Coloring — Frank @ 11:45 AM

I haven’t made any new exposures in the two weeks since we got back from Monhegan. However, I have been busy photographically speaking.

In anticipation of World Anthotype Day, I have been experimenting with making anthotypes again. I have made a couple of nice photograms using turmeric. Additionally, I am experimenting with other pigments for anthotype. Currently, I am exposing prints using an extract from red cabbage. I am also testing an extract from paprika. All except the turmeric are very experimental. I’ll report here if I have any success.

Additionally, I have been using watercolor paints to hand color a few of the photos from Monhegan.

While on Monhegan, I met Corlis Carroll, an artist who specializes in hand painted photographs. Corlis does not have a website, but here is an article about her. My previous hand-coloring work used colored pencils blended with a mixture of turpentine and vegetable oil. Inspired by Corlis, I have been experimenting with watercolor.

The first two images shown below are inkjet prints on Hahnemuhle Biblio paper*. They are about as large as I make for hand-coloring (6×7.5 inches and 6.5 inches square, respectively; both on an 8×10 inch sheet). The third print is on Strathmore Hot Press watercolor paper and is 4×5 inches on a 5×7 inch sheet.

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* I really like hand-coloring prints made on Biblio, which has a wonderful ‘feel’ about it. However, I am getting a bit of buckling (which is evident in the scans) of the paper with watercolors. Biblio is a thin-ish printmaking paper so it is not intended to ‘see’ much water. I am hoping that the buckles can be removed/minimized by pressing the prints for awhile.

23 May 2022

Keeping Cool

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Salted-paper Prints — Frank @ 2:00 PM

I spent the last two days keeping cool* in my basement dim room making salted-paper prints and experimenting with gold toning.

In addition to the five new images (shown below), I made larger finished versions (6×7.5 inch image on 8×10 paper) of another five images that I worked on in the recent past.

All of the images shown here are scans from 4×5 inch images on small sheets of Hahnemühle Platinum Rag paper. For the last two images, I show the entire sheet of paper thus revealing the ‘raw’ edges of each image. All of the others are similar but I have cropped them down to show only the image area.

Each image is shown in an un-toned version and a version toned with gold in sodium bicarbonate. It the past I had experimented with a gold-borax toner but I have trouble keeping the borax in solution in my cool work space. Thus, I decided to test out gold-bicarbonate this time.

The difference between the toned and un-toned prints is subtle but significant. Toning cools down the warm tone of the native salted-paper print and increases the contrast slightly.

All of the original exposures were made in either December 2021 or January 2022.

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* The high both days was near ninety deg. F

15 May 2022

New Salted-paper Prints / Old Photos

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Salted-paper Prints — Frank @ 6:45 PM

A few days ago, I decided that I wanted to get back to salted-paper printing. My specific aim was to make myself a print of the photo titled “Harvest Still Life”. I printed this image back at the end of March during a lecture/demo I did for the Tuttle library. However, I did not end up with a final print for myself.

While I was at it, I looked through my archives for a few other photos that might look good as salted-paper prints and prepared some additional negatives for test printing.

Then, I spent most of yesterday afternoon, when the outside temperature was a very unseasonable 85 degrees F, in the pleasant cool of my basement dim room.

Harvest Still Life is about 6 by 7 1/2 inches on an 8 by10 inch sheet*. The other two prints are about 4 by 5 inches on 6 1/2 by 7 inch sheets**. The paper is Hahnemuhle Platinum Rag paper for all.

The first and last prints were gold/bicarbonate toned***. This treatment cools down the warm brown of an un-toned print resulting in an almost neutral tone. I left the middle print is un-toned, as I thought the natural warmth of a salted paper print suited the image well.

I printed three other negatives as well, but none of these are ‘ready for prime time’. They will all need a bit of tweaking before I print them again… stay tuned!

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* This has evolved to be my standard-size for alternative process prints.

** This is my usual work print size; used when I am working out the details (mostly dodging and burning) of the negative.

*** This was an experiment. Previously, I have used gold/borax toner exclusively if I toned prints. However, I have trouble keeping the necessary amount of borax in solution in my cool (OK… downright cold at times) basement dim room.

1 April 2022

Yesterday’s Lecture/Demo

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Salted-paper Prints — Frank @ 10:08 PM

Yesterday evening I gave a presentation titled “19th Century Photography” at the Tuttle Library here in Antrim. The presentation accompanied an exhibition of my cyanotypes, salted-paper and platinum/palladium prints* that are currently on display in the library.

Along with the talk/slideshow I did a demonstration of salted-paper printing; shown below is the print that resulted from the evening’s festivities. I have matted the print and will take it down to the library for their collection.

* These processes were all invented in the 19th century: salted-paper printing in 1839, cyanotype in 1842 and platinum/palladium printing in the 1880s.

27 February 2022

Hovenweep National Monument – A Folio

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Landscapes,Pt/Pd Prints,Road Trips — Frank @ 9:00 PM

Back in October 2018, during our road trip to the Southwest, Joan and I made a stop at Hovenweep National Monument. This site, located near the Utah/Colorado border in southern Utah, preserves several ancestral Puebloan villages that were inhabited by groups related to those who lived at the better-known sites in what is now known as Mesa Verde National Park.

Hovenweep is a quiet, peaceful place compared to much-visited Mesa Verde.

Back in January I selected ten of the exposures I made at the Square Tower site in Hoveweep and prepared digital negatives from these files with the intent to make platinum/palladium prints.

As is my habit these days, I initially made small (4×5 inch) negatives/prints to work out the adjustments (mainly dodging and burning) necessary to make a good print. Once I have a small print that looks good to my eye, I then print a larger negative (usually for an image that is 7.5 inches on the long side) and print that on 8×10 inch paper.

Last week, I spent roughly twelve hours (in two sessions) making the ten final prints that are shown below.

My original intent was to place the ‘bare’ prints in a folder with an appropriate title page and colophon. However, making prints that are precisely placed on the paper and that do not have any extraneous marks on the sheet has proved to be difficult. Thus, I am having second thoughts about that presentation and may end up mounting and matting all of the prints to 11×14 inches and placing them in a traditional print box.

As is often the case, the scans do not do full justice to the original prints.

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25 January 2022

More Pt/Pd Prints

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Pt/Pd Prints — Frank @ 9:00 PM

I have been ‘mining’ my archive for photos that I think will look good as platinum/palladium prints.

The first photo below, an industrial building on the shore of Lake Michigan was made in 2007 while I was on sabbatical in Milwaukee.

The botanical photo was made in 2010 according to the data the camera recorded. I have no recollection of where it was made.

The reflection photo was made on Star Island in 2017.

The photo of the Goodell Mill building is the newest of the bunch. The exposure was made in 2019 using my camera obscura.

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11 January 2022

More Pt/Pd Prints

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Pt/Pd Prints — Frank @ 8:45 PM

I have spent two more days in my dim room (i.e. the basement) making platinum/palladium (Pt/Pd) prints.

I have the wood stove cranked up so the basement is a good place to spend a couple of very cold days. It was 6 deg F below zero when I got up this morning. The high today was 6 above zero. It is -2 deg F as I write this about 8:30 in the evening. Brrrr!

All of these are small “draft” prints (4×5 inch images on 5x7ish Lenox 100 paper). I will eventually make larger prints (6×7.5 inch images on 8×10 inch paper) of all or most of these.

As with all alternative process prints, the scans are barely adequate facsimiles. One really needs to hold the actual object in ones hand to get the full effect.

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2 January 2022

First Finished Pt/Pd Prints

Filed under: Alternative Processes,Pt/Pd Prints — Frank @ 1:00 PM

Since my last post about platinum/palladium prints (one week ago), I have spent two full days and one partial day in the basement ‘perfecting’ (are things ever perfect?) my Pt/Pd process. I have learned a lot but I won’t bore you with the technical details.

Here are four finished prints. All either 4×5 inches or 4.5 inches square on 5×7 inch Lenox 100 paper. I have made larger (6×7.5 inch images on 8×10 inch paper) versions of the first two as well.

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