Student Wet Plates

So I dragged all my gear and chemistry into the school on Friday and did wet plates with my students. I have 12 Photo 2 students. Here is the result of a 6 hour class:

Here is my demo plate:



The following plate was poured and processed by Marissa (person on the left). The "antlers" showed up as a result of an incomplete collodion pour. I can't remember anymore who shot it. Thea, the person on the right says she thinks she looks like a coal miner.



The plate below was made by me and Sonja.



I can't remember who shot this plate, but that is Sonja on the left and my nose on the right.



Here are some mistake-plates. Thea made the one on the below, then Marissa rubbed her mouth off trying to remove something from the surface:



Ray made this one of Daniel, but I couldn't even see Daniel's face until I got home and buffed the surface a little with my sleeve:



I shot the image below of Kaylin. The image of Kaylin is a "mistake" plate because after it was finished, somebody drooled some heinous stuff onto the surface and tried to scratch it off...



I have never taught this before, and didn't realize how much there was to learn and remember. A number of exposures were made with plate holder in backwards, someone fixed before developing, someone else managed to get the plate holder sopping wet and the plates turned out a mess from that point forward. I don't think it is a process that works well in a group situation. 3 students is probably the most I can handle, considering the many steps involved, and the fact that they must also deal with the operation of an unfamiliar camera.

I like what this person wrote at the Photo-eye blog.

old negs

Off and on I purchase vintage negatives in bulk from Ebay. I then spend time looking through them, sometimes I used them to make new images that are then displayed in my Fragments gallery.

But sometimes I come across negatives that are just delicious, that I would never change because they are perfect just like they are. This is one of them:

yin yang

This image didn't make the cut for the website, but I still like it a lot. It's from the Marissa & Natasha shoot.

new image

"serpentine"

sometimes i make images, and there they are -outside of me- like perfect things that seem too beautiful to have been made by me. other times? well, i guess i make images that are pleasing enough, but that don't strike me as "perfect things".

this is one of those images. pretty...but not perfect. and yet i'm not quite sure that anything is really missing.