Ali's adventures with a camera and a passport
This post is way way overdue. Moved flat at the end of last year – so am a bit behind in photography stuff. And due to lockdown – no travel fun!
In September last year went on a day trip with a small number of my photography group http://edinburghlofi. We went to Port Seton and had a wander to Cockenzie. I took my trusty Yashica. Love sea side theme! Used colour film for a change -Fujicolor Pro 400H. Very happy with the results.
During lockdown I have been experimenting with new photography techniques. My lastest has been anthotypes – which is using the photosensitivity of plants to make photographs. I used spinch – which I blended and mixed with vodka and tumeric – which I attempted to disolve in vodka.
I then coated paper the paper, left it to dry. Then laid either a digital negtive or fern/leaf. They were left in a sunny spot in my lounge for a couple of days.
I found that spinch worked best and that a sold object – like the ferns or leaves created the clearest image.
The tumeric initally appeared to work well – but the fern image quickly faded.
The digital images worked OK – but not as striking as the fern or leaves.
The tumeric digital neg barely worked, certaintly not well enough to be scanned. My favorite of all the images is this leaf on spinch.
Next time will try to use a darker bolder colour – maybe beetroot.
My first alternative photogaphy love is cyanotype. So to expand my practice I decided to attempt to tone a set I did of the bluebells from my garden. Was all pretty low tech, using tea, coffee and vinger. Love the results – but they did not tone as much as I would have liked – I used very cheap water colour paper which was not very robust. Will try again with more substantial paper.
The first attempt was just bleaching (50ml in 1L of water) the image.
I then used a strong solution of tea – 5 tea bags in 1L of water. I left the image in the tea for about 30 min.
I kept with the beveridge theme – had a go with coffee (5 large spoons in 1L water)
I then used sodium carbonate ( a pinch in 1L of water)
I then doubled up, bleach then coffee.
I then tried to use coffee and vinger – moving between each bath after a few seconds – it was supposed to be for 10min – but the paper (cheap!!) fell apart after about 5min.
The most success and my favorite images are when I soaked the paper in tea overnight. Love the depth of colour.
Normally with my photography group I go out and about for World Pinhole Day at the end of April. In a previous post I showed some of my Pinhole images using a coffee can, which I developed with coffee. I also took some shots that day with an actual camera! I have Noon camera – medium format. Still very low key. Love the shots and can’t wait to get in the darkroom and develop them. As it was during Lockdown all the shots are from my garden.
As I could not go out and about with my photography group for Worldwide Pinhole day this year, I decided I needed a new challange. I used my old favorite coffee can camera – which uses paper not film. My new challange was using caffenol to develop the images. I had used caffenol to develop film before with great results – so what was there to lose!!
I used a recipe from caffenol.org The Delta Recipe –
-1000ml water, 24g washing soda (65g if crystalline), 20g vitamin C, 45g Instant coffee.
-I used water a stop
-The fixer was an alkaline fixer – 10g sodium carbonate, 1g sodium carbonate, 100ml distilled water.
It was a very messy process
In keeping with using a coffee can as a camera and coffee as a developer, the whole process was very low tech. My darkroom was my bathroom and I used my iphone as a safe light – which along with the density of the caffanol mix made it hard to see when the image was developed. Most worked – very pleased.
I have slight obsession with keys – so although all the shots were outside -I had to incoroprate them in some way.
I have always loved stereoscopic photography – first saw Victorian Stereoscopic images at an exhibtion of early photography. I became even more interesed after attending a symposium on Piazzi Smyth, an Edinburgh astronomer who took amazing stereoscpoic photos of trips to Tenerife in the 1880’s and in Egypt in the 1860’s. I go on my own stereoscopic viewer and have managed to get some Victorian images – one of farming in Princes, the other 2 are from Syria. Plan is to continue to acquire more images and to start making my own.
The main purpose of my trip to Belirn was to see the Bauhaus exhibition celeberating 100 years of the Bauhaus movement.
The exibtion was amazing, showed the breadth of the movements work and was very interactive.
I had not been to Berlin since 1993 – when I was inter-railing. Loads had changed, but still an amzing city. Wont leave it so long to return.
Thats the festive season over, the decorations are down, flat looks very bare. I had a great new year – went to the Edinburgh Street party. Looking forward to 2020 – lots of photography and travel plans. Plan to update my blog more regulaurly!!
I spent a week at the beginning of July in London, Slade School of Art, taking part in a Low- tech photography course. I had so much fun and produced a number of photographs. Learnt a few new techniques and consolidated some others. Here are a few of my favourites
Firstly Pinhole 
This chair was one of my favourite places to sit, was so keen on getting a pinhole image of it I had to ask a guy to move! The camera was an old coffee can
I made a couple of saltprints – this is my favourite
Played about in the darkroom with photograms
A technique completely new to me was Gum bichromate, which uses gum arabic, dichromate and watercolour pigment. Loved the technique but I need to learn to be a little more subtle with the colours!
Also used a liquid emulsion to cover objects, making them photosensitive. The group tried it on rocks and leaves – with limited success. I tried it on cardboard- worked really well
I then decided to use something that be ephemeral,like my course and time in London. I think this is my favourite image ever – made from a banana skin and the end of old keys.
Not everything I tried was a success- tried anthotype using spinach, then tried with roses made pretty coloured paper – with a very faint image.
I am in London for a Low Tech Photography course – intense but fascinating. Will up load some images later in the week. These are some Polaroid shots from a recent trip to Jupiter Artland
