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…

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…

Busy is happy! There is an old saying in the Navy that a busy crew is a happy crew. Seems true to me that the way to be happy and creative is to be action oriented. The more over thinking the less you actually get done. Opportunities come and go and often the window to accomplish something is very small. Yesterday I had an exhausting day job day. When I got home I wanted nothing more than to chill out and relax. But then I remembered a few cyanotype experiments I wanted to do. But the studio was cold and…

Just a short video showing the final steps of my cyanotype process. I usually use sunlight to expose my cyanotypes but it was too cold and dreary outside so I used an LED UV lamp for this print. After exposure the print is taken to a dark room, removed from the printing frame, and washed with tap water. The wash process removed unreacted iron from the dark areas in the negative. This leaved behind the image in Prussian Blue dye. It also renders the image light safe. I usually do 4 rinses in the dark room followed by about 10…

I get to travel a lot in my life and have been many wonderful (and not so wonderful) places. The Pacific coast in Oregon is one of my favorites! Here is a cyanotype made from a picture I took on the beach in Oregon. It was a cloudy and rainy day and I saw the almost glowing piece of driftwood. The contrast between the white drift wood and the wet rocks was very appealing so I snapped a few frames. This is a 10in x 14in cyanotype of that scene. The process really accentuated the contrast between the dark rocks…