Well it’s been a long while since I’ve written on this blog and we now find ourselves in interesting times. Passing time during this lockdown has been interesting as a photographer. While I still have the daily exercise of dog walking, I find myself getting bored of photographing the same plants on the same walks. Probably need to try some different walks!
Still, there are photos to be made and I will find them. Here are a few, taken recently.
The next thing to say is that my darkroom is out of order. Lots of the blackout material had gone mouldy. Irritating job, at the worst of times, but I stripped it back and hundreds of woodlice fell on my units. Not so good. The wood behind the blackout material had gone a bit soggy too, so that needs treating. I’ll get around to it eventually, but for now, no lith printing.
Anyway, I decided to take on a few photographic projects to pass the time. One thing I’ve been interested in for a while is cyanotypes (which is where the term blueprint comes from). I decided to get some Part A and Part B, as well as the book “Blueprint to cyanotypes: Exploring a historical alternative photographic process”. The video that inspired me to do this, and which made me want to try wet cyanotypes is this one on youtube and I think it’s an interesting starting place to see how the process works.
I also ordered some pre-coated paper from silverprint, but have yet to use it, as I found the wet processes so intriguing. It’s a bit “trying to run before you can walk”! I would highly recommend trying cyanotypes, with the pre-coated or wet method. It’s fun and quite cool to see the colour change, both when exposing it in the sun and in the wash. Then as you look at it over several days, it dries down to an even richer blue.
These are my three cyanotypes, so far:
So. That’s one project. The other is the Lomomod no 1, make your own camera kit from lomography. Now I’ll be honest. I thought this would be a quick project. Snap a few things together and you’ve got a camera. Nope!
I’ve so far made the back of the camera. It took about an hour and a half. It was very much a Zen like process and as they describe in the accompanying booklets, it’s based on joints rather than using glue or whatever. Very interesting. Assembling the back taught me several things. One, double check the images, because I put one of the main parts on upside down. Two, believe it when they suggest using a little sandpaper when joints don’t just click in. I broke a piece, which thankfully had a spare… which I also broke. But it’s OK, the spare had a spare too!
So yeah, lots to keep me occupied! Hope all who read this can find ways of keeping their creative juices flowing during this strange time. I’ll finish on a photo of our lad, just because 🙂 Taken with a Lensbaby Composer Pro II and Edge 35 Optic.
Up Close And Personal 