Laura Boston Thek Imagery » ambrotype

Wet Plate Sunday’s Sitting

lthek — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 19:52:59 +0000

We had a great day of shooting today….spent the morning in the fields racing against the weather. I am happy to report that we are able to now set up and get to work in under 15 minutes using the Landy mobile darkroom.

In the afternoon one of my husbands co-workers came by for a sitting. We shot both medium format Rolleiflex Black and Whites and also Collodion Wet Plate. My husband was having such great results with the Ambrotypes that I just sat back, styled the shoots and watched the magic.

I can’t wait to share some of his portraits with you. Mitchell our model was over joyed to have some amazing photos to send his Dad for Father’s day.

Happy Father’s Day to all those amazing Dad’s out there…like mine. He always believed I could do anything. Thank you Dad.

Ambrotype Portrait…Back in Uniform

lthek — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:38:32 +0000

Yesterday a good friend of ours came in on a short break from serving in Afghanistan and it was incredibly kind of him to get back in his uniform to sit for me.

This is the second Ambrotype portrait I have done and with each I learn a bit more. Not only about the process but about what to expect from my models. It certainly is not easy to hold a position or an expression for many long seconds or to have to wait while the photographer prepares the plates and exposes many until finding success.

So far I have been lucky with patient people…now I have to learn an ounce or two more. My husband’s evil plan of slowing down this Jersey girl by tempting her deeper into these Alternative process….I HOPE, will be a success.

Herman Came-a-Hangin’

lthek — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:13:04 +0000

Last weekend we had the pleasure of photographing Herman Vandecauter, Classical Musician. While setting up the shoot I was inspired by the abundantly blooming Cherry trees in my back garden and proposed to Herman that he sit with his Ukulele in the tree for an Ambrotype portrait.

Due to time constraints, my husband and I shot in tandem, while I was developing a shot or preparing a late he was exposing a plate and visa versa. This process seemed to work well and we were able to, with a very patient model, to produce 4 plates in 2 hours. A very happy Herman was able to leave for Belgium with a varnished plate in hand.

He and his lovely wife did a small slideshow presentation of us at work and well….Herman just hanging around.

http://picasaweb.google.fr/h.riachuelo/AmbrotypePhotography#slideshow/5459213582537943090

I hope you enjoy it…and while I have your attention, make sure to check out some of Herman’s amazing work on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogWIAszSF78

This is Starting to Become a Habit

lthek — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:02:49 +0000

Yesterday we had to do a bit of shopping and boy were we shocked when we got the bill. The problem I believe was we were seeing everything in a new way. The way of the Wet Plate Process. It was like we were speaking a secret language, I even noticed a man trying to figure out what the heck we were talking about. I would hold something up and look at my husband with a quizzical look and just say…” Collodion?“ He would either nod, shrug or give me a flat out look of ARE YOU CRAZY WOMAN. I have to admit that was usually the look that would get me to put the item into my cart.

So today, we are back in the studio shooting and justifying our indulgent purchases by making them into Art…or at least attempting to. Seems you do a lot more cleaning of glass than actually capturing images on it but all good things take time. BUT, my ratio of cleaning to keeping is definitely getting better.

Here is the result of my visit to the vegetable isle yesterday. I have to admit, this darkroom stuff is really starting to become a habit! I think Fruit will follow Fungus today…

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

lthek — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:24:01 +0000

“If you want to be a really skilled photographer you have to shoot every day and continuously challenge yourself with new skills”. I recently heard this great piece of advice and it is something I have always believed in and put into action in my life daily.

In the past few months we have added a new skill to the Boston Thek Imagery bag O tricks, Wet Plate Alternative Process. It has become a bit of an obsession with us here in the studio. Each evening we spend many hours racing between the studio with it’s still life set up and the darkroom.

CollodionWet Plate might be a timeless process, but there is definitely and finite amount of time for each shot. Once you have a prepared plate for the Ambrotype, you have to get it into the camera and exposed before you loose everything in the ether from which it came.

In my experience, you learn to clean glass very well in the process of learning, well…this historic process. There are many small factors that can go wrong when pouring and preparing a plate. Sagging Collodion to hot finger marks from handling, dust and improperly cleaned glass to not letting the Collodion dry long enough thus causing the image to peel from the plate.

Then there are no guarantees once you’ve taken the shot. Will the image be properly exposed? Will you miss a spot with the developer? The fearful questions are endless but so is the excitement of producing a perfect plate.

This process is an enigma, it certainly has a mind of it’s own….

With all that said…here is my best result to date. A still life of snowdrops I plucked along my way through the thawing fields around my town.

We will continue to keep adding to our photographic bag of tricks.