Jessee St. John Collodion Photographer: jessee st. john photography

Showing posts with label jessee st. john photography. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2013

Web Design Contact Information Update

For the new year I wanted to have a brand new website to reflect my work. I use the ViewBook template and it is very constricting. There is not much advanced editing one can do. I would change the server, but the price was not to bad and my contract is until 2014. I contacted several people in regards to doing design and branding, (just for fun). I am so thankful I am Illustrator savvy because they wanted thousands and thousands of dollars! Seriously I do not know how other people tolerate such high design cost. I am thankful my aesthetic is simple and does not involve FLASH.

None the less I have almost completed the re-design. I hope you enjoy!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Vail Lake Temecula December 9, 2012

Last weekend I attended the Vail Lake Civil War Re-enactment in Temecula. I was unable to make it on Saturday because I still had the flu, but Sunday made it all worth it! John fired the canons, and I ran throughout the camp photographing the re-enactors. Battery B, 4th US Artillery was kind enough to loan a uniform to John and have him fire the canons. They were also kind enough to hold still and allow me to photograph them. The picture above is of the Battery posing by the canons.

Ken

Price

Mark

Valkyrie stayed so still and allowed me to photograph her. Her owner, (pictured above), designed a custom buggy for Valkyrie so she can get around easily through camp because she has arthritis.

The woman sutlers posing. The sun was beaming right on them and I greatly appreciate their patient while waiting for the plate in the silver bath.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Interfit Lighting Kit & Extras

   After two months I finally got to shoot with my interfit lighting kit on Friday. A long story short I was sent two bad heads in the mail, plus three bad lights. Sent them back to N.Y. and they arrived back like three weeks later. Then more lights were bad and bulbs were being exchange from CA and NY. The kit was almost $600 including shipping and each bulbs runs around $22.
  I used my Sinar P with my 210mm lens and was able to get F6.3 at 7-9 seconds. The weather here is really cold and all my developing is done outside in the dark box. Everything was a success and I was very happy with the turn out. In addition, the lights do not get hot at all!
  In regards to the collodion the denatured alcohol was much to slow for the indoor lighting set up. The image on the far right is with the denatured alcohol at F6.3 at 11-12 seconds and still was not good as the middle image which was with the grain alcohol from Mexico at F6.3 at 9 seconds. I plan to mix some new collodion very soon and I think I will make just the Mexican grain alcohol.

Also bought this really cool alcohol lamp in Hemet for $10. Made in Germany is works way better than my other alcohol lamp.

Replaced the wick

Was not to bad getting the new wick in. The gears on the lamp work perfectly.

At my local hardware store I picked up some music wire for $1.50 and used it in my 4x5 plate holders.

One of the many birds that steal my dogs food. Also you can see it was just about to rain. In fact, (more on it later), my plates from Saturday withstood rain and flooding!

Lighting kit in action! I believe it has 12 bulbs in it. You see my 8x10 camera here. I wanted to use it, but the plates would fall out of the film holder. I hope to use a router and cut into the holder...

Ground glass. Using the picker upper as a way to focus before I sat down.

Trying to rig some sort of way to focus.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Chemistry Set

Here it is all laid out! Chemistry mixing 101 for me. Yesterday I mixed two batches of collodion, glass cleaning, and one bath of developer. I made everything in small quantities so they can be tested and compared. I would have liked to make a developer using the grain alcohol from TJ, but I ran out of containers. I mixed the two collodion bottles one using denatured alcohol and the other using TJ alcohol. Both smell, pour, and look very similar so when I test them later today I will know.

Here is the glass cleaner I made. I am absolutely in love with this formula! Cleans the glass perfectly! The formula called for only 10ml of denatured alcohol, but I added more because it was to thick.

Here is 16 gram of ferrous sulfate. A rather lovely color for a chemical.

Close up of the ferrous sulfate.

The developer is a light yellow/green. I know after oxidation it should turn orange.

Handy dandy scale I received as an awesome gift!

The collodion and ether I ordered from B&S. Everything was sealed tight no leaks or stench. When I was done with the collodion I mixed the ether and collodion into one bottle for later usage. I did keep some ether separate because over time the Quick Clear formula is said to thicken so for dilution purposes you add 50/50 ether and alcohol.

Ammonium iodide and the all scary cadmium bromide. Cadmium bromide is most dangerous in powder form. It is a carcinogen and do not get in your eyes or inhale! I had a respirator on the whole time accompanied by chemical goggles.

Clear and a very light yellow. No precipitate because I do not use potassium.

This denatured alcohol is from Home Depot and was around $16.00

Repainted my dark box and on the inside I have the ugliest yellow color I have ever seen, but visibility in the box is improved by like 300%. Also you can see the black box on the left laying down. That is my new 8x10 silver nitrate box. Unfortunately, this box is to small for the silver bath to work. I made the silver tank before the new mobile dark box because I can shoot in the shed by my house. I am in such hurry to get a 8x10 image under my belt. I plan to start constructing a new mobile dark box in a week.

The wood that was used for the silver tank was free, but the wood splintered horribly when it was cut to make the top. I went to Ace Hardware and purchased some wood filler for $6.00 and patched the whole thing up and smoothed it out. Took me about 3 hours to patch, sand, patch, sand, dry and finally paint. Well worth it! I also added a light tight seal to the inside of the box.

Here is the box with the first coat of patching material. Waiting to dry and be sanded.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Upgrade

So I have been working on ways to upgrade my business and branding. The way I started in photography was shooting cars and in that lifestyle culture branding is everything! Everyone knows Cadillac's emblem from Chevy's and the differences between the two. It is automatic when you see a 1956 Cadillac and a 1955 Chevy there is a different attitude, style, and marketing plan for each. Chevy was the average Joe where as the Cadillac was the supreme luxury car for the Don Draper's of the world. Long point short I want my branding and name to be "cool". I want my style of photography to stand out and be recognized easily on the low rider or hot rodder scene. So change of name and logo. A lot of updating because presentation is everything! Not everyone knows what wet plate collodion photography is, but everyone knows the old wooden cameras with the dark clothe over them and Civil War photographs. To make it simple new name: Jessee St. John. It is androgynous and easy to remember. I am working on a new website, new business cards, and a fancy new mobile dark box. Long way to go, but these upgrades and minor adjustments will pay off when meeting new potential clients.

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