Toning.

First experiments.

Yesterday I fiddled with toning cyanotype. First experiments were fairly positive, with two, maybe three out of eight working out.

I used green tea.

Wet the print, then a bath in a tray with 2L water mixed with a spoonful of washing soda. The bleaching was quick and noticeable.

Then in a tray with green tea for about three minutes.

Then into a tray with water/H202 mix, really just a rinse.

Agitate at each step.

There was still a lot of blue showing, so I dunked and agitated it in the washing soda again and then back in the tea and it started to turn brown.

Last, a clear water rinse in the utility sink in our garage, then the print was hung to dry.

I tried a few different variations of the above, using prints from the past that didn’t make the cut. I have a whole folder of them. Success with cyanotype has not come easy.

The toning saved a few of those rejects.

Cool.

Something new(ish).

Blue boy.

Back in February I attended a Cyanotype workshop at a local art center and by May I’d assembled the chemicals and miscellaneous tools and materials needed to get started.

I’ve made cyanos using bits of nature, cyanos of original geometric designs, and cyanos using digital negatives created from photos – old and new – picked from the archives.

These are the latest four photo-cyanos…

B’s reel
6″ x 6″ on 9″ x 12″ Canson Bristol board
Original image

Ol’ Glory
6″ x 6″ on 9″ x 12″ Canson Bristol board
Original image

ARS
6″ x 6″ on 9″ x 12″ Canson Bristol board
Original image

Whirlwind
6″ x 6″ on 9″ x 12″ Canson Bristol board
Original image

Every once in a great while.

Not often, but…

Every once in a while an image I’ve made gets a little attention.

One of my pinhole images was published in SHOTS Magazine, Fall 2019 Issue No. 145 “The Journey.”

It’s 35/45, the picture I made with the Zero Image 6×9 and an expired roll of Fuji Acros 100. The story of this pinhole adventure/experiment is well documented in an earlier post.

I pointed to the same same post when I uploaded the image to Flickr.

To my delight, the picture in that post ended up on Flickr’s Explore, which is something that hasn’t happened for my work in a really long time.

I noticed it earlier this month. Any comments on Flickr are rare these days and the notification made me check it out. At the time there were 58 faves. Crazy. The comments indicated the picture made Explore.

I went there, scrolled through until I found the image. Verification! Pretty cool!

As of today “35/45. a little experiment” has 9,121 views, 75 faves, and 4 comments.

Amazing.

I make images to satisfy a personal need, but it certainly is nice to have this kind of reaction to my work. And I appreciate it.

Taking a shot, revisited.

In print, once again.

My photo “Mushroom” was published in the Spring 2019 issue of Shots Magazine – Ordinary Magic / no. 143

I’m very happy about that.