Wet Plate Collodion Update

  It's been a while since I posted an update and some people began to wonder if I forgot how to work a keyboard.  To quell those worries here is a little something for all to enjoy.

  Since coming back to San Diego I have been knee-deep in mastering the art and craft of wet plate collodion imagery.  Some of you probably know that this is the technique used to create Ambrotypes (on clear or black glass) and Tintypes (on metal - mostly aluminum is used today).  The process was invented in 1850s and provides a uniquely beautiful photographic experience to both the artist and the model.  Each image is created from scratch using some basic alchemy and work must me carried out at a rather rapid pace as the collodion must not dry out between coating and subsequent exposure and development.   Even with all the care in the world, no two images will be alike and in that lays the crux of my attraction to this process.

  I am eternally grateful to the people who have endured a sitting with me.  Not having an assistant I am left to let them sit patiently by the camera while I am making the plate in the darkroom of The Photo Palace Bus.  It takes about 4 minutes from the time that he subject is posed to the moment when I emerge from the bus and then I have to dive back into the darkroom within a minute.  Now I understand very clearly why historically there was a need for a 'poser' - someone to situate the model and to keep them company while the photographer is 'in the dark'.  Here are some of the images that I have recently created.

4x5 Tintype - Laurel and Flower

5x7 Tintype - Margo and Laurel

5x7 Ambrotype - Margo

 4x5 Ambrotype - Jozlynn

 5x7 Tintype - Jozlynn

  Some of you may know that I am a big fan of vintage cameras.  My collection is growing and I decided to immortalize some of the best and most classic examples by creating a tintype series of camera portraits.  Here is the beginning of that series.

 4x5 Tintype - Hassleblad 500CM

  4x5 Tintype -Jumelle Belliene 

  4x5 Tintype -Retina IIIc

  4x5 Tintype -Rolleiflex Wide

  4x5 Tintype -Polaroid SX-70

  4x5 Tintype - Voigtlander Bessa

 4x5 Tintype - Zeiss Ikon

  It's 1am and I should really get to bed.  Today at 3pm I will be in West Hollywood doing a Magic Lantern Show.  There is a big Russian expat community and I hope for a big turnout.  Huge thanks to the City of West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs office for sponsoring this event.

  

  Monday I will be shooting more wet plate images in hopes of expanding my portfolio with some quality shots.  Once I gain enough confidence in my skills I will offer portraits and then The Photo Palace Bus will become a true old-fashioned Photo Saloon (as they used to call traveling wet plate studios during 19th century).

Anton Orlov

Last Leg of West Coast Tour and Summary Post

  Back in San Diego I now would like to catch up my faithful readers on what has transpired during the last part of the West Coast Tour.

  As I recall the last update was posted from my friends place in Chico.  It was a pleasant visit and I look forward to seeing Ricardo again someday and hopefully sooner rather than later.  Ricardo did let me know abut the existence of a bus graveyard just off I-5 in the town of Williams, which was right on my way west.  He said there were a lot of old buses there and I was keen to see it for myself.  The place is located right by the freeway on the north-east side of Husted Rd. exit.  There are at least two dozen really old cool buses there all in various states of decomposition and even an old fire engine in the middle of all that chaos.  I decided to make some exposures there and pulled out my Rolleiflex 3.5F, loaded it with Verichrome Pan film and went exploring.  Those negatives are now drying in the darkroom and some of the frames came out pretty neat.   Among all the buses I did not see any Gilligs, which made me think that they either don't break down at all or that people really cherish them and restore them when they do break.  I was there for about an hour and did not see a single living being save for a cat or two.  From there I was on my way to Cloverdale CA to present a Magic Lantern Show. 
  
  There are very few roads that lead from I-5 to the 101 north of San Francisco and I was forced to take highway 20 to the 29.  Once you get to 29 there is indeed a sign warning that vehicles over 39ft are not allowed on that road - Gilli is 35ft, so I thought I'd be all right... Little did I anticipate the amount of twists and turns that lay ahead.  I swear I am never taking that road again unless I'm in a sports car, in which case it would be very fun and one would have time to enjoy the mountain terrain and the scenery.  As it was, Gilli barely made the turns and on one of the particularly cruel right curves a pickup truck appeared from around the corner and was heading straight for me (at that point Gilli's nose was completely in the oncoming traffic lane).  I swerved to avoid a head-on collision and, though I succeeded in killing the poor chap in the pickup, I did touch the guard rail with the right side of the bus - the damage was minimal, but there is a new mark on my baby and I feel terrible about it.  Someday, hopefully soon, I'll get enough money to give Gilli a new paint job - I'll be sad to see it in a color other than yellow, but I think it would be great to put something definitively photographic on her.

  Cloverdale is a nice little town, which I have already mentioned in a previous post.  There I stayed with the director of the History Center, which houses the Historical Society that invited me for a show.  I enjoyed the stay very much and the show went well - there were about 25 people in attendance and I got a lead on an arc-light Lantern with a set of lantern slides that may depict slaves picking cotton.  All that is left is to go back there again and help a guy dig through one of his 8(!) storage units...  Sounds like fun!

  From there is was a short drive to Fort Ross where I had a show scheduled the following day.  On the way I once again stayed with Barbara Hoffman, the woman responsible for turning me into a Traveling Lanternist.  Too bad the visit was rather short as I always enjoy the company of her and her husband Gary.  Fort Ross was awaiting and I knew it was going to be a short, but grueling drive.  The Fort is an old Russian encampment and was occupied by them in the 19th century, so there is a lot of history there and I was glad to have a chance to do a presentation at such a prominent location.  Fort Ross is also located directly on the coast of California, right on the side of highway 1 - quite possibly one of the most beautiful drives in the world.  Aside from being a gorgeous piece of civil engineering, highway 1 is an intensely windy road with quite a few hairpin switchbacks, blind turns, steep ups and downs and all the rest that makes driving a joy for sports car owners, but hell for buses.  I only had to go about 20 miles each way on it and took it extremely slowly and cautiously, managing to neither fall off a cliff into the ocean nor damage the bus or any other cars that were met along the way.

 Looking out the door - a pretty straight 300ft drop to the ocean

Gilli on highway 1 - she looks so happy to have a break...

 Gilli at Fort Ross - that would be a great place to come back for some wet plate action

The presentation room was absolutely perfect with high ceilings,

plenty of soft chairs and a giant screen.

  After Fort Ross I headed back to the Bay Area and spend one night back at Kirill Krylov's place in Pacifica.  As I mentioned before, Kirill is an excellent photographer and it was my joy to hear that  my previous visit has given him the motivation to finish outfitting his basement as a darkroom.  It is now functional and ready to go! 

  After that is was another short drive to the house of Lee Kalem - Ryan Kalem's father and the man whose electrical skills and wonderful wood shop came in so handy during the initial construction of The Photo Palace Bus just about a year ago.  Lee was kind enough to help me fix the last non-functioning light in the presentation area of the bus - turns out that a wire came loose and was shorting out the system, which burned out one of the transformers in it.  Lee performed a beautiful soldering operation right on board of the bus and now all the lights are working as they should and we are ready for some night-time presentations.

  Ryan got home soon after my arrival and we went to check out his new darkroom.  He is quite a craftsman and spared no expense when it came to building his darkroom from scratch.  I hope he and his girlfriend Kat will make excellent use of it.

 Ryan's enormous UV exposure unit for alternative printing.

 The darkroom space is fit for king-size prints.

 

Old but trusty Beseler 45 enlarger is soon to be

accompanied by a Saunders 4500.

  The appearance at Cabrillo College in Aptos was next on the agenda.  I was invited there by the Arts Guild and the event was organized by Carmina Eliason, who has been following the development of The Photo Palace from the start.   Gilli was prominently parked right by the arts building and we got a lot of visitors all through the day.  A beautiful late Victorian room in the Sesnon House, build at the turn of last century, was used for the Lantern Slide presentation.  Quite a crowd showed up because Carmina and the Arts Guild did a fair share of advertizement, 75 chairs were all filled up and there were plenty of people standing and sitting on the floor too.

 The beautiful room in Sesnon House.

 

Gilli on campus of Cabrillo College, image courtesy of Carmina Eliason.

  The next day I had to be at Evergreen Valley college for the last of the scheduled events.  There I parked a bit away from hustle and bustle of campus in a large parking lot, so there were fewer visitors that stopped by through the day.  Along with a Magic Lantern Show and bus visits I also presented a few lucky and adventurous individuals a chance to try their hand at making tintypes.  It was NOT a workshop, because with my amount of experience I am not qualified yet to call myself a teacher in that area, but it was more of a 'wet plate experience'.  All in all I think it went OK - only 3 people out of 5 that sent their RSVP showed up and that was good because it took all the 1.5 hours allotted for that activity for each one to make a plate of their own.

  I am beginning to really like the wet plate process and am looking forward to practicing it more now that I am back in San Diego.  Gilli is going to make a perfect Wet Plate Saloon - the amount of water that she carries may be considered minimal required for gelatin silver printing on location, but wet plate requires much less washing, so I'm good for 6 sessions or more.

  Speaking of wet plate - on this trip I have picked up a couple of absolutely awesome brass lenses from late 1800s.  One of them was purchased on my way back from that same antique shop in LA where I found the French WWI negatives still hiding in a stereoscopic camera.  It is a beautiful Rapid Euryscop series 7 with a Benster pneumatic leaf shutter mechanism and I can't wait to figure out a way to fit that giant retaining ring onto some sort of a board that would fit on my 8x10 Kodak 2D.  The lens having a 24in focal length should make it perfect for some close-up portraits - Large Heads as they called them back in the day.  The other lens, a gorgeous 10in Darlot with an astonishing F-stop of 3.6, was traded along with another Kodak 2D for three Majestic tripods.  So now I again find myself with more than 1 Kodak 2D - in 2002 I actually somehow got up to owning 4 of those monsters...  So if anyone reading this wants to buy the extra one from me, do drop me a line through email and I can send you pictures of it.

 

Here is the Darlot mounted on the 2D.

Pictures of the Voigtlander to come later.

  The way back to San Diego was uneventful except for one happy occurrence.  I like driving in LA (when there's no traffic, which is actually pretty rare) because almost every time I go there I see old Crown buses that are still kept up and on the road by some upper class school districts.  Being true classics like my Gilli and they really do look great barreling down the highway.  This time I was happy to see one passing me by going north and then another one that caught up to me from behind, passed me by for a little bit, but they fell back again and followed us for about 10 miles.  Here are a couple of pictures of the meeting of the giants.  I bet we looked pretty cool - like we were going to some vintage bus show.

 What's that in my rear view mirror?

Gillig was always the underdog of Crown, Blue Bird and International buses, 

but I think they made a classier bus.  I did have a look at the dashboard of this one

and I must admit that Gilli's dash puts that Crown to shame.  

Still these Crowns are really nice and I'm glad to see them running.

  To summarize - I was on the road for exactly 4 weeks.  During that time 7 Magic Lantern Shows were given, 3 college campuses were visited, one wet plate photography workshop was taken by me in Portland, I caught up with two dear friends whom I have not seen in years and many people all across California and Oregon got to see Gilli and our history of photography display, which has been augmented with a carbon and gum bichromate prints.  Important to note is that this second trip (short as it may have been) actually succeeded in paying for itself - I made no profit, but at least I didn't have to spend all my savings (of which there is really none left after last year's construction and trial run to Maine).  Now I am going to start planning the second cross-country trip with hopes of it also financing itself by Lantern Shows, print sales, presentations and workshops.  I am hoping to depart in May and am probably going to take the northern route to Washington (a state that I have been promising to visit since last summer) and then eastward to Maine before heading south to Florida and coming back to beautiful California sometime in autumn.  I think that route will give me more time on the road without having to worry about hitting foul weather while making it across the Rocky Mountains.

  I would like to thank each and every person who has contributed to this journey in any way from financing it through Indiegogo (those funds will now go toward the cross-country trek) to helping me set up events and hosting me at their houses.  I could not have done this without you and I am deeply grateful for all your help!  Thank YOU!

Anton Orlov

Gilli Visits Home & More

  OK, I think it's time to finish up the update about Portland before I forget all that has happened there.  Plus a lot has happened since then as well and here it all is in reverse order.

  Right now I'm in Chico CA, at my friend Ricardo's place.  We graduated at about the same time from San Jose State University and he was the original initiator of The Photo Guild, which I carried on after his departure.  I find it very nice to reconnect with him and after having not seen Ricardo for about 5 years it's really good to him not only happily married, but also carrying on with art and music.  His experimental website is like a slow-motion movie, where you chose your own path. 

  Earlier this afternoon we went out to a local orchard and took a few wet plate portraits and here is Ricardo in all his stoic glory.

  Chico happens to be very close to the place that Gilli-the-Gillig had spent the first part of her peaceful existence while working as a school bus for Durham Unified School District.  Today Ricardo and I visited the garage where she lived for 30+ years and had a reunion with the other buses and some of the people who worked with her.  Durham is a small town and their bus numbers still only go up to 10, while in 1978 Gilli was assigned #3. Everyone was stunned to know that their bus went all the way to Maine last year.  Here are some images from this memorable visit.

 

Gilli, or #3 as she was known here, was happy to see all her old pals #6 and 7

 

According to the mechanics, this was the very bay where Gilli resided for over a

 decade until she was sold in 2011.  Now #8 occupies the spot and barely fits in because it's 5 ft longer.

This is Kay.  Mechanics at the garage said that #3 was always her favorite and she did seem happy to see it again.  Kay said drove this bus until 2000 and here she is back in her old chair.

  To get to California I had to take a pretty gruesome little mountain pass on I-5 between Ashland and Yreka.  The climb to 4300ft was slow and cold. 

This was the first time that I saw The Photo Palace Bus surrounded with snow.

  

Cloaked in clouds, Mt. Shasta looked rather majestic and reminded me a bit of Nepal.

  Prior to that I stayed for a day in Eugene with Ryan, a friend from Palomar College whom I have seen in 12 or 13 years.  He was instrumental in the conception process of the idea for The Photo Palace Bus back in 1997.  Back then he and his girlfriend Melinda took me on a long journey along the West Coast and that is when I saw the bus that inspired the construction of Gilli in 2012.  It was incredibly nice to see him and his family.  Ryan is quite a talented artist and I only wish he had a website for me to share with you.  Majority of his best detailed mandala-like works would alas be too detailed for web and should better be experienced live.  

  An amazing moment took place when I saw that Oso - the dog that Ryan got as a puppy in 1997 while on that memorable and life-changing trip.  He was a tiny 2 month old puppy and fit in Ryan's hand, then I visited Ryan in California a couple of years later and remember a giant god that was full of life jumping on me with all his might.  Now Oso is 16 and a proud senior citizen.  

  And now to go back all the way to my Portland visit.  After I took the wet plate workshop with Ray Bidegain he called up a few friends who work in the medium and live in Portland and we all met up in a little tavern for a beer.  All of a sudden I found myself surrounded by 5 people who have been working with collodion for a while and I felt like a complete newbie.  Along with Ray Himslef there was Jody Ake - the famous wet plate photographer and a maker of plate holders of highest quality.  You can find them on his website http://incameraindustries.com/.  Also there were three of Ray's past students. Brandon Fernandez, a superb artistic and commercial shooter.  Clarke Galusha, who learned the process not too long ago, but has already completed a great series of portraits and held a very successful show with it.   And of course Ted Mishima, who connected me to Ray in the first place.  
Here is the whole gang by The Photo Palace Bus.

Ray, Clarke, Ted, Brandon and Jody.

  Brandon was very kind in offering me a place to stay for the night and I readily accepted that offer.  I met his lovely wife and we had dinner and met up again with Ted in a great little neighborhood of Portland.  That city which is growing on me more and more every time I visit.  If only it wasn't so rainy there...

  In the morning I headed to see Clarke and his garage-studio.  Clarke, like some of the others here, mostly uses strobe lighting for his tintypes and so I got a chance to fire off a portrait of him and he he one of me.  I can sit through 4800 watts put through an umbrella and a soft box all day long as long I don't have to go under that 40.000 watt bare bulb monster setup for daguerreotypes ever again.
  I am starting on a series of tintype portraits of my favorite cameras.  Here is a Rolleiflex posing for the Tachihara.

 

  That was Monday and in the evening I had also had a Magic Lantern Show scheduled in Newspace for Photography.  Newspace is a great place for photographers of Portland - with classes on both digital and analog photography, a great rental studio and rental darkrooms it reminded me of Rayko in San Francisco, just a tad smaller.  Do stop by if you are ever in Portland area and want to develop a few rolls or want to see some great prints hanging in the gallery in the front.

  The show went great and the attendance was about 30 people.  No slides were inserted upside down, so now I think I have finally got the hang of working the projector, keeping the slides in order and talking at the same time. 

  That about catches up the storyline of the past few days.  Tomorrow morning I am off, back to Sonoma County.   Next Lantern Slide show is in Cloverdale on Saturday, then Fort Ross on Sunday and next week there are two more, but I think I'll write an update before that time, so I'll leave those announcements for later.  With 3 minutes till midnight I am going to finally publish this post and wish everyone a good night.

Anton Orlov

 

Corvallis OSU, Magic Lantern Show and Portland

  A lot has happened in the past few days and I don't know if I'll be able to describe it in as much detail as I would really like to right now because of how tired I am.  All I know is that today (technically yesterday as I'm writing this after midnight) I made a tintype picture all on my own using the darkroom in The Photo Palace Bus!

 

4x5 tintype of Kodak 2D 8x10 camera with Darlot lens

  More about that later, let's take it one step at a time...

  On Wednesday I arrived to Corvallis and stayed in a lovely company of Julia Bradshaw and her husband John.  I met Julia at San Jose State University, where she was getting her Masters degree in Photography while I was a lowly undergrad.  Now she teaches at Oregon State University and has invited The Photo Palace Bus to visit their campus in the role of a visiting artist.  I was happy to have that opportunity and to reconnect with Julia.  She is a wonderful artist and I admire that she works a lot with analog photographic means.  Once, as a performance piece at a gallery, she even constructed a cardboard photo booth, hid herself in the and was processing images during the show!  First off that project is not for claustrophobic people and it also shows dome serious dedication and love for gelatin silver prints.  I highly recommend checking out her website and seeing the amazing amount of work completed over the years.  Aside from being a prolific artist she is also a great host and her husband was a delight to meet as well.  They are both originally from England and it was a relief to speak with someone who not only enjoys soccer, but also calls it by its proper name - football!

  When I got to OSU on Thursday morning I had a full agenda ahead of me.  There were 4 classes that were scheduled to visit the bus and see the history of photography exhibit and I knew that I also would get a lot of people wandering into the bus because of its prominent location - right in front of the Art building.  As I expected, I barely had a moment of rest.  The classes were full of eager students and a big yellow bus did in fact pull in quite a few other pedestrians.  Her is a shot of one of the students figuring out the working of a stereographic viewer.

  Among other memorable moments that happened during the roughly 6.5 hours at OSU, all of which I can not describe now as it is past midnight and I have a full day tomorrow, was my chance to meet Steve Anchell - the man whose book 'The Darkroom Cookbook' I have been using as reference for many years.  Steve was very personable and down to earth kinda guy and even took me out to lunch.  He did give me a very useful tip on how to cut down on the washing time for fiber based gelatin silver prints by using alkaline fixer and I believe I will do that as soon as I get my hands on that particular fixer.  Steve is not only extremely well-versed in photo chemistry, but he puts that  knowledge to use in making some great photographs.  You can see those and a lot more information about Steve and his work on his site here.  At the end of the day Steve's second class came in for a visit and he was kind enough to present me with a signed copy of the third edition of his famous Cookbook. 

  During the course of the day a small team of two student journalists were sent from the OSU media department - one recorded an interview with yours truly for the radio and the other one took some great shots.  As I don't have too many quality images of Gilli and me I did ask him to send some over my way and here is one of my favorites.

  After OSU was a Magic Lantern Show sponsored by Williamette Valley Photo Guild.  I think it went well and I only hope to be able to post some images from that event on here soon - Mitchel (the OSU photographer) did make it to the show and I can't wait to see his photos.  The room inside of an old brick building was very much in tune to the event and I think that added to the show's atmosphere.  About 25-30 people attended and among them there was once again a member of the Rahill family.  The grand-niece Faith Rahill lives in the area and blessed us with her presence.  Her grandfather was John Rahill's brother and it was really cool to reconnect Faith with a part of her own family history.
  I think the show went pretty well, there were many remarks and questions from the audience and I'm always happy to have an engaged crowd.  I did my best to get the show to fit in under 1.5 hours' time and I think I barely succeeded in that goal.  Also fewer slides were inserted backwards or upside down, so that's a step in the positive direction.

  After yet another night in the comforts of Julia's couch I was off to Portland.  There I met with another college friend of mine Perry.  He graduated from SJSU just a semester earlier than me and the least time I saw him was in 2007, when he attended my little 'farewell USA'  event during which I burned a large shark made from 100 paper plates before moving to Japan for a year.  Perry is now in the middle of getting his MFA from Portland State University and he took me on a little tour of the little darkroom that is still in existence there.  There are only 6 enlargers there and I don't know how a class can really work with that... Here is the man himself and about 2/3 of the darkroom all in one shot.

  One thing I have been looking forward to on this trip was taking a wet plate collodion workshop with Ray Bidegain.  I met Ray on Facebook through another wet plate shooter by the name of Ted Mishima.  Ted shoots tintypes using a Rolleiflex TLR camera and posts some of them in the Rolleiflex users group.  Seeing that he lives in Portland I asked him if he was able to show me the technique when I'm in the area, but he referred me to his mentor Ray.   Ray is a platinum printer as well and offers workshops, which I very much recommend.  You can find the info about them on Ray's website.

I could not wait to try my hand in that historic and beautiful process and when Saturday came around I was at Ray's door at 10am.  After a little bit of shuffling some cars out of the way of Gilli, I entered Ray's basement where a very efficient darkroom and photo storage area have been set up.  Here are a couple of quick shots to give you an idea of what a darkroom of someone heavily invested in alternative photography looks like.

 

This is the actual 'dark' part - in the sink you can see the slanted

silvering tank that is used to sensitize plates. 

The room right next to it has a large assortment of chemistry for

both of the processes, in the right bottom corner you can see a 

well built UV exposure unit for platinum prints.

  Wet plate process is by far easier to do than daguerreotype, which is why most photographers switched to it quickly after it was introduced in 1853.  That said, it is still a VERY demanding process and it takes quite a bit of attention and skill to get a 'perfect plate'. 

  First an aluminum or glass plate has to be coated with a viscous substance called 'collodion'.  That step is tricky in that the action has to be smooth and flawless and there are certain movements and motions that have to happen rather precisely in order for the final result to be of any significant quality.  After about 10-15 seconds during which one must keep swinging the plate in a vertical position to break up streaks the colldion sets (not dries, but becomes more viscous).  It is then submerged into the tank containing silver nitrate for 3 minutes.  That sensitizes the plate and so the red lights are switched on before it is taken out, wiped off to get the residual silver off and placed in the holder.  You don't have much time at that point as the image must be captured and processed before that collodion dried out.  In order for that to happen you must have your view camera set up and the model patiently waiting.  At first I was using the 4x5 camera and training my skills on the large, but beautiful model that is Gilli-the-bus, so there were no problems with the model getting impatient.  After the plate is exposed in the camera it must be taken back into the red-lit room and flooded with developing solution - again a motion that will likely take me a few more tries to got good at.  Developer acts quickly and you must judge the process by eye and only after 15 seconds or so, just as you see the milkiness of the shadow areas start to yield detail, rinse the developer off with water.  Then the plate is placed in ordinary thiosulfate fixing bath and there the image is finally revealed in its positive form.  Here is one of the very first plates from the workshop at the half-way point of clearing by fixer.

 Luckily Ted Mishima showed up right as I was starting to work with a larger camera and he was willing to guard the camera and even posed for a couple of pictures.  Here is Ted leaning up against Gilli for support and my Kodak 2D with a 5x7 back on it.

  After a full day of work I succeeded in getting a few relatively good plates and here they are in the  drying rack.

 

  Ray helped me mix my chemistry kit, sold me a few plates to keep me going through this trip and helped me fill up Gilli's water tank for the next day, so I can practice what I just learned.

  In the morning I woke up to a rather rainy skies, but that sis not deter me from trying my hand at this new-to-me process on my own.  I set the Kodak 2D up on the table in the bus, pointed a 4x5 camera at it and went on to make 4 exposures in the course of about 1.5 hours (3.5 if you count this newbie setting up and breaking down all the needed equipment).  Exposures with this process, which has an emulsion with ISO rating of approximately 1, were 3 minutes long - partly due to the fact that I was parked next to a wall and the light from an-already grey sky had to bounce off that wall to enter the bus window and possibly partly due to the fact that wet collodion works better in warmer temperatures and it was 48°F in the darkroom while I was working.  

  I love all that is involved in making tintypes and can not wait to get better at it.  For now you can see one of the better frames that I arrived at today at the top of this post.

  Now it is time for me to seep and I will finish the rest of the story of Portland, it's wet plate community and yet another Magic Lantern Show that I will give at Newspace for Photography this evening (in about 16 hours) some other time.

Anton Orlov

Vaughn Hutchins and Other News

  Last week I arrived to Arcata CA and parked Gilli securely in the back of a quiet alley for a couple of nights.  Arcata has a special place in my heart.  It was the first stop on a vagabond hitchhiking trip I embarked upon back in 1997, which opened up my eyes to the fact that I really don't want to be a bio-chemist and made me switch my major in college to photography.  It was also during that trip that I saw a glass-blowing bus and was infected with the idea of someday building a darkroom bus.  It did take me a while to get all my ducks in a row and make that dream a reality and finally pulling into Arcata in The Photo Palace Bus was a very sweet feeling.

  While there I met with Don Anton - a photography professor at Humboldt State University and we discussed The Bus visiting that fine institution during the fall semester. Don was pretty excited about my mission and the visit was brief but pleasant.  I think I can swing by HSU on my way back from the East Coast sometime in September or October, hopefully it won't be as cold then as it was last week...

  I also had a great pleasure of meeting Vaughn Hutchins - a respected carbon printer and a very nice fellow indeed.  He contributed greatly to the historic print collection by donating a beautiful carbon print from an original 4x5in negative on 8x10 gelatin photo paper. 

  It appears that Vaughn got the idea of printing in carbon back in 1990 after he read an article on it in Black and White magazine, but it was 2 years later that he actually started on that path.  Carbon is a pretty demanding technique and he said that it took him a while to get prints of consistent quality that he was satisfied with.  In vented in 1855 by Alphonse Poitevin this method of printing relies on gelatin becoming insoluble when mixed this potassium dichromate and exposed to light.  It is a transfer process that uses pigments, which could be of any color and could be combined through CMYK separations to create full color images.  Because of the use of pigment it is a highly archival process and due to it being a transfer process it presents the image reversed left to right unless a second transfer is performed.  It seems that the quality of carbon prints that first attracted me is the same one that caught Vaughn's eye as well.  You see, due to the image being composed of minute layers of gelatin with pigment mixed into it and those layers sitting on top of the support paper each value can actually be seen as a miniature plateau raised above the white of the supporting surface.  That gives photographs printed in carbon a very unique look reminiscent of 3D.  Vaughn also pointed out that carbon can hold a tremendous range of light - 13+ stops!  He said that it was the only technique that can adequately relate the range of lighting found in a redwood forest, where even on an overcast day the shadows are far below the slivers of sky that one may catch through the giant overhanging branches.

  Having practiced carbon printing now for over 20 years, Vaughn teaches new printers how to use this beautiful technique in workshops all over the country.  He does also occasionally prints in platinum.  He uses original in-camera negatives ranging from 4x5in to 11x14in and perhaps on my way back south I may have a pleasure to seeing an 11x14 carbon print.  For now here is a link to his website where you can see some of his work, read the blog, see the impressive list of exhibits and contact Vaughn to inquire about his upcoming workshops.

Vaughn Hutchins Photography

  On a sadder note Arcata was the final stop on the journey of Kenneth Moilanen, on a sudden and premature departure of I reported a few months back.  Kenneth was a good friend of mine, always full of life, cheer and ideas and strife for making the world a better place for all of us.  He died in a car accident late at night on a desolate industrial street on the outskirts of Arcata and left all who knew him with a feeling of deep loss.  On my way out of town I visited the place where Ken's tracks upon this planet ended and made a little memorial offering upon the spot where his Volvo met a large stored part of a steel bridge.  Rest in Peace Kenneth.

  Now, a couple of announcements as far as the nearest future of The Photo palace Bus and Magic Lantern Show that is offered by it.

  I am now in Corvallis OR, where tomorrow I will be present on campus of Oregon State University giving photography students here a chance to view the print collection from 10am to 4pm.  Then at 7pm there will be a Magic Lantern Show sponsored by the local Photo Guild.  The show is located at 800 SW Jefferson ave.

 Next stop is Portland where I look forward to finally getting my hands-on experience with wet plate photography with Ray Bidegain.  There I will also hold a Magic Lantern Show on Monday March 4th at Newspace for Photography (again at 7pm).

 Then it's back south for Gilli and me - we have Lantern Shows scheduled for March 9th and 10th in Sonoma County.  They will be held in Cloverdale and Fort Ross respectively and I will update my readers with exact details on the next post.

  For now I would like to invite all who live around Corvallis and Portland to keep tomorrow night and March 4th open and come and enjoy the shows!

Anton Orlov

Lantern Slide Show and Cloverdale Historical Society

  Well, another milestone passed and that deserves an update.

  I arrived to Sonoma county on Thursday and stayed at the lovely home of Barbara Hoffman.  The house is located between the towns of Sebastopol and Occidental and it's so quiet and peaceful that I could have stayed there forever.  Plus Barbara and her husband Gary were very hospitable, which made the stay just heavenly.  The reason I came there was to conduct my first full-size Magic Lantern Slide Show and I wanted to do it with Barbara present because she is the granddaughter of John Rahill and it was from her that I purchased the slides in 2011.  She has never seen them projected and I thought that to hold the first viewing with her present would be a terrific start to the Lantern Show run.
  Barbara arranged for the show to be held in a nearby recording studio that belongs to her ex-husband Joe.  The room was cozy with estimated maximum capacity of about 25 people.  A local newspaper called 'Bohemian' did a little write-up on this upcoming event and Barbara was inundated with calls and had to turn quite a few people away for lack of space.  I hope those who couldn't make it will be able to come to the next show in the area on which I will elaborate further down in this post.

  The audience started arriving at about 6pm and I gave everyone who expressed interest a tour of The Photo Palace Bus and showed them what it's all about.  Here is a quick shot of one of the groups and me in front of the print collection.

 

  At about 7pm we were ready to start the show with all but a few folks having arrived.  I must admit I was a bit nervous as I have not really done much public speaking in the past, but I think the fact that it was dark and the audience was facing away from me while looking at the screen helped the situation and I felt rather comfortable.  

  The first part of my show was devoted to familiarizing the audience with the various uses of Magic Lantern throughout the centuries.  I have about a dozen mechanical slides, some of which are humorous in nature.  Those evoked a pretty lively response from the viewers.  Then I showed a few of dozen slides of various subjects ranging from cartoon depictions of signing of the Declaration of Independence to a lovely little story of "Tiger and the Tub", concluding with a short projection of a Mickey Mouse slides that were made in England under the license from Walt Disney.

  The second part of the show was a bit more extensive and focused on Mr. Rahill's travels through Russia, China and Japan when he was working with the YMCA during WWI.  I have 69 original slides with me, which I carefully curated to give the most comprehensive overview of his journey and mission without having to show all 500+ slides.  Here are a couple of shots taken during this second part by a Los Angeles Times photographer who was sent to the event to cover it for an upcoming story.

  Aside from a few slides being inserted upside down I think the show went off without a hitch.  I will have to get used to speaking while operating the lantern in the dark and trying not to drop the antique glass slides, which can be rather bad.  One of the slides did fall, but luckily it was OK - it's a neat image that I imagine was shown in movie theaters before the start of the film and it alerts the ladies to take off their hats (sorta like today's 'please turn off your cell phones' announcements).  The show ran about 1.75 hours including a little break and introduction about John Rahill given in duet by Barbara and me.  After the show I had a very lively barrage of questions on various topics and I fielded those while trying my best to place the slides back in the box and keeping their order.  Keeping the order is entirely impossible and I will have to re-organize the slides before every show, which I don't mind doing.  I do envy the lecturers of the bygone days who had lanternists operating the projector while they simply concentrated on delivering the information, that way all the slides could be put back in the same order as the show progressed and no further shuffling was required.  Perhaps with more experience I will be able to do that myself and I look forward to that moment.

  After I left Barbara's place I headed to Cloverdale where a gentleman by the name of Will Layfield invited me to visit the Cloverdale Historical Society.  Will saw the story about my discovery of the French WWI negatives and wrote to me that he was a conservator in Cloverdale and had come upon a a trove of old nitrate-base negatives.  He told me that he was making silver prints from them and I was eager to see that.

  The ride from Sebastopol to Cloverdale is not long, so I arrived there around noon.  Will met me by the bus and after a customary short tour we went over to the beautiful new Historical Society building.  There, on the second floor, I was a really neatly arranged display of vintage items.

 Cameras from local owners

 Images of Sonoma County residents

 Stereoscope with views of the area

 A photo postal stamp (I have read about these, but have never seen one live)

 And from the archives a 1909 glass negative of the annual Citrus Fair with a swastika made of oranges.  Back then that symbol was still accepted as one of peace and prosperity.

And here is Will himself, counting the ways that he had to modify his enlarger in order to make prints using glass negatives and the nitrate-based ones that he had mentioned to me before.

  Will also showed me a number of Magic Lantern Slides that are in the archives and we discussed a possible Lantern show to be held during the second weekend of March in the performing arts center.  I am very hopeful that we can clear the space and get over all the needed hurdles in oreder to make this happen.  Then the residents of Sonoma county will get a second chance to view a Magic Lantern show AND we will use some of the slides from Cloverdale Historical Society to spice it up.  

  Seeing how excited I was on the topic of Magic Lanterns Will told me that he has something related to present me with and I was eager to give him a ride aboard The Photo Palace Bus to his home when he ended his shift.  There, from the back of the closet, Will pulled out a large metal box and hoisted it onto the bed.  After opening it up I saw one of the most pristine Lanterns I have ever laid my eyes on.  It was likely made in the 1940s by Charles Besseler and judging by its condition I was barely, if ever, used.  Will said that it was mine to keep and that I could probably put it to better use than he ever could.  I was vary happy because no matter how big this particular lantern is, it is still smaller than the one I used for Barbara's show and I am happy to downsize in any way I can.  Plus, from the information printed on this lantern it uses 750W bulb and that's 50% brighter than the 500W featured by my old Bausch and Lomb.  Here is the latest addition to the Magic Lantern collection of The Photo Palace Bus.  I can't wait to test it out!

 

    From Cloverdale it was a pretty long drive to Humboldt county.  I have driven that stretch numerous times in a car, but Gilli is a quite different type of a ride and it took me a goor 6 hours to cover the distance I can usually do in 4 or less.  I got to Arcata an hour after sunset, parked (after a few attempts and another ruined lawn) in the back of a friend's house not too far from Humboltd State University and took a breath of fresh redwood forest air. 

  

  This morning I met with an HSU professor Don Anton and we discussed the possibility of The Photo Palace Bus making an appearance at HSU during the fall semester.  He seemed very impressed by the darkroom and promised to start the ball rolling on funding.  Tonight I am meeting a renown carbon printer Vaughn Hutchins and I can't wait to pick his brain about that beautiful process.  Let's see if I can pull together a little interview for you all to enjoy.

  Tomorrow I will be taking off northbound once again with the goal of reaching Corvallis by Wednesday.  Thursday The Photo Palace Bus is scheduled to have an appearance at Oregon State University and in the evening there will be another Magic Lantern Show sponsored by the local Photo Guild.

  

Anton Orlov