I don’t use cyanotype for landscapes that often. Nothing wrong with the result it is just I like gold salt prints a bit better. But sometimes cyanotype really works well for a photo. Here is a Wahclella Falls cyanotype that really captures the beauty of the falls.
You might ask – where is the world is Wahclella Falls? Wahclella is one the dozens of waterfalls in the Columbia River gorge in Oregon. I think it is my favorite but it is not that well known. For starters it is a bit off the usual tourist path. Next, it is a 2+ mile hike on mostly dirt trails. Not a particularly strenuous hike but still some up and down.
But the compensations justify the hike. The river gorge is just beautiful! It is especially beautiful in the rain when a dozen or more small falls form on the sides of the gorge. Finally, the view from the bottom of the falls is absolutely stunning! I hope you enjoy my Wahclella Falls Cyanotype!
Tintype principles for a new year. I had so much fun in 2023 making 19th century photography – tintypes, Ambrotypes, salt prints and cyanotypes. I think 2024 is going to be an amazing year. Often people choose New Years Day for resolutions but I would rather talk about core beliefs or principles.
Resolutions are usually a set of “do” or “don’t do” activities. Lose weight, exercise more, make more portraits are just a few examples. So instead of a list of things to do, or things to change, in the coming year I would rather reinforce the “whys” of what I am doing. If you understand the basic drivers of what you are doing the individual activities will naturally follow.
So here are my basic principles of why I create tintypes and other visual arts…
I create to honor the Creator of everything
I want to make portraits that capture the inner “spark” we all have
I want to share images that show joy and love in a world where ugliness seems to get the most attention
I want to build relationships with my clients and models – it is not the final image that counts, but rather the moments we share together
I create to honor the Creator of everything: All of the things I have learned in my life, especially my career as a scientist, show me very clearly that everything in the universe was created by God. Our Creator took random chaos and made order and life. So when I create something, when I follow the example of my Creator, I honor my Creator.
I want to make portraits that capture the inner “spark” we all have: All people have a spark of life in them. This spark animates our bodies and our minds and is a part of the Creator. A good portrait can capture a bit of that spark for others to see.
I want to share images that show joy and love in a world where ugliness seems to get the most attention: The “news” is almost always bad! People seem to be drawn to bad news or ugly behavior. I want to show that there is love and beauty in the world. I want my images to be positive and uplifting; to tell inspiring stories.
I want to build relationships with my clients and models – it is not the final image that counts, but rather the moments we share together: I think the common thread in all of my photography is rewarding interactions. I do landscape and still life photos but enjoy people photography more than anything else. The biggest appeal of tintype, all wet plate methods, is that they are slow. You naturally take more time setting up a photo when it takes 15 minutes then when you crank out 15 frames a second. Because of this a tintype image will have more memories attached. The tintype is a reflection of the time we spent together, our conversation, our planning.
I hope to do lots more portraits and create a lot of inspiring images in 2024! If you like my principles why not contact me to start a discussion of your portrait or project?
Featured photo is “Santa Heading Home” a 5x7in tintype. You can see more of my tintypes in my Portfolio
What a year we’ve had at Sun and Silver.photo! The mobile darkroom was finished by Spring and operational all Summer. We did a lot of location shoots over the Summer. Last year I shut down for the Winter as the cold weather makes the chemistry not work as well. But this year I added a small heater to the darkroom and will be trying to keep making tintypes all through the Winter (at least when it is not too horribly cold).
I also did a lot of cyanotype and salt prints this year and sold a lot of them at art shows. The plan next year is to do tintype pop ups at shows and see make portraits.
Here is a short video of just some of the pictures I made in 2023. So many memories and I also did a lot of learning. The craft of wet plate collodion is not an easy one but so rewarding when you make a good image!
Analog or film was my first photography. I did a lot of 35mm film when I was younger and have a whole pile of negatives in my stash. Once digital cameras came around I abandoned film for the new format. Digital was faster and cheaper! But the last few years I have been moving back to analog photography – film and wet plate collodion.
Why are the old timey methods so appealing?
They are expensive – but that causes one to slow down and think about each shot. They take more time to see the result, but anticipation builds appreciation. They produce physical objects – negatives and plates – that are fragile and easily damaged. But, they are real, you can hold them in your hand. I think that that realness, the physicality, is the main appeal. Digital is wonderful in its own way. but it is always somewhat artificial.
Here is a video from last Winter where I recorded the capture of some medium format black and white film.
One of the problems with being a wet plate collodion tintype photographer is all the plates start to stack up! You end up with a big pile of plates waiting for mounting or display.
I started on my backlog this week and did some experimentation on mounting systems. For these plates I decided to drill a couple of tiny holes at the top and hang them with a chain. The best part is the chain slips off so the plate can be mounted in a frame. The holes won’t show or will not be noticeable. The removable chain also lets me put the plate in my paper holders to protect during shipment.
The hardest part of the exercise is how much I like all these plates! They will get hung on my wall and I will enjoy them but they are all for sale! So (hopefully) they will all go to someone else’s home in the near future and my wall will be left bare!
Of course, I just need to get out and shoot some more!
Wet Plate collodion session using my mobile darkroom. The darkroom allows me to do portrait sessions throughout Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. This session was on a state trail near Neenah. Just capturing some 8×10 inch landscape tintypes for sale on my Etsy site
Here is a nice picture of my Intrepid 8×10 inch large format camera. Intrepid is a UK based company that manufactures large format cameras and accessories. I use vintage lenses – over 100 years old. But I opted to have a new camera built for my business. Nothing wrong with an old camera but I wanted to support someone building new cameras so that there would be more cameras in the future.
The most magical moment occurs when you fix and wash the plate. Here is a plate with the image emerging in the fix bath.
Then after a good wash I rack my plates in the sun to dry. I will varnish the plates when I get them home. I use a traditional varnish made from frankincense and lavender oil. It protests the image and smells wonderful!
I also use my mobile darkroom for location portrait sessions. Want to learn more? Check out my Contact Page where you can send me a message or book a session.
She came from the west, bringing hot weather, humidity and maybe a bit of magic. We met at Asylum Point – once the site of the Northern Asylum for the Insane. A little north is the modern Winnebago Mental Health Institute. The asylum point lighthouse was built in 1937 and still provides a beacon for boaters on Lake Winnebago.
The old and strange art of wet plate collodion (Tintype) photography is also shrouded in mystery. One day the spirits align and perfect images appear as if by magic. On other days, things conspires against you and every exposure becomes a dangerous adventure.
This was a perfect opportunity to test out the impact of temperatures in the 90’s on wet plate collodion. Hot weather is not a friend of tintypes! Exposures were troublesome and developing progressed much too fast to control properly.
Of course, we seemed to be haunted by a continuous passage of amazing and wonderful “travelers” through the air above our heads… or maybe it was the sad vibrations coming from the multitude of former mental patients buried in mostly unmarked graves a few hundred yards away. Certainly, I would guess that among the descesed were a goodly number of wet plate photographers driven to insanity by their dark art (or maybe the ether fumes).
But somehow we managed to fight through the heat and salty eyes and produced some magical and wonderful images.
Thanks to Andy for protection from the dark arts!
About the Model: Denise is an artist and photographer. She specializes in fantasy photography, fairy tales, folk legends and mythology. Many thanks for helping me learn and grow as an alchemist! You can follow her work on Instagram @denisehouk
Interested in doing a themed wet plate shoot? Send me a message and we can discuss your project. I do photos all around the Fox Valley Area of Wisconsin. Email me at jeff@sunandsilver.photo
How did I get so busy? Leaving the corporate world behind and becoming a full time artist was suppose to open up all kinds of time. Time to create, time to build, time to experiment and time for my family. But somehow, the work has expanded to fill the hours until I am more busy (and more physically tired) than I have been in years.
In a way it feels like when we had our children in the house. Every day was a whirlwind of activity and it seemed like you just got up but it is actually time for bed. Then, it was time to get up when you could have used a few more hours of sleep.
I think the parallels are accurate. When you are raising a family you are engaging in the most demanding creative process possible. The future is riding on how well you nurture those children and on how well you develop their values and abilities. Making art is the same process, thankfully with lower stakes. Can you capture the vision in your mind? Will your pieces do good in the world; will they bring joy to others? Is your vision shared by others or will you have to go it alone?
Of course, there is also the nagging question of whether you would be better off just getting a “real” job again! So far, the answer is “no” and I’ll keep working away!
The print above is a gold chloride salt print. The negative is 35mm film and I took it a few Winters ago. Even in the deepest frosty Winter new buds are ready for a return of Spring. It is a hopeful image and will be one of the prints I have for sale at Appleton’s Art in The Park in July.
The cyanotype process can be used to make a wide variety of art objects. Here is a set of prints that my wife made into greeting cards. What I like is the different tones possible with the process. These range from lighter blue to very dark, almost black, blue. The subject matter ranges from a tiny dandelion to a massive oak tree.
These cards will be part of my Summer art show offerings. We will be at several shows this Summer around Wisconsin and I want to have a wide range of art work. This includes a wide range of pricing so that anyone can enjoy these historic processes! My first show will be in July Art in The Park in Appleton. See you there!
Sometimes cyanotypes come in waves! This set of prints was made from images of waves on the Fox River in Appleton. The rains last week plus the melting snow resulted in massive waves in the rapids. This is the first set of prints from this outing. I have 3 or 4 more images that should make excellent prints.
If you look closely you will see variations in each print. Each print is indeed unique based on the sunlight during exposure, how I coat and sensitize the paper and variations in washing/development. I also did some experiments with my chemistry for this set. My goal was to get a really deep cobalt blue color. I think I achieved that in a few of the prints and have the recipe written down for future reference.
All of these prints will be for sale at art shows this Summer. My first show will be Appleton’s Art in the Park.
I have a pretty big set of prints I am getting ready – both framed and unframed. Watch this site for more news in the weeks to come.
Time for an experiment! This is a cyanotype of a skunk cabbage flower. I used a duotone technique which produces two different colors. Cyanotypes are typically (or should I say naturally) blue. But you can modify the color by treating the print after it dries. The most common is to tone with tannin to give a brown or even black color – I use coffee or tea. You can also bleach the print with sodium carbonate. This gives a more pale color from gold to yellow.
This print was made by first separating the negative into two color layers. The first layer is blue. I did the first printing with this “blue” negative and my typical cyanotype process. I did use a longer exposure to get very dark colors. Then after development, the print was bleached in a dilute solution of sodium carbonate (washing soda) until the color was a yellow gold. The washed and dried print was then printed again using the red/green channel negative. This negative has the rest of the image and produces the blue in the print.
I really like how the image turned out! This was a first experiment so pretty lucky it turned out this well. I will be doing more of these in the future!
I have not had time to work on my darkroom. But the printing business is good. Here is one of a set of salt prints of skis for sale in an antique shop. Total run of 4 prints. The original is a 35mm film negative that I took in some antique shop a few years ago. I really love this composition. This is an 8×10 inch print, on archival 140lb paper.
This is one of four prints I made this weekend – snowing all the time so I had to do something for fun! I used a new (to me) salted albumin coating (size) and am very happy with the results. There is a very nice satin sheen on the print which doesn’t show very well on the photograph.
Also pictured is one of my new print presses. I was tired of the “stack of books” method to flatten my prints so I picked up some 3/4in birch plywood to make some presses. This press is big enough for 9×14 inch prints. I have several extras which will be going up for sale. I also made a couple of bigger presses for up to 11×17 inches. Email me if you are interested in buying a press jeff@sunandsilver.photo
Why make extras? Well, the plywood pricing for a full sheet was less than double the pricing for a quarter sheet. So effectively the wood cost was less than half if I picked up a whole sheet. I don’t have much storage so cutting the extra wood in to more presses.
