Ned's photos with the keyword: Sonoma Coast

I have a film camera ( Nikon 2020 ) with markings on a zoom lens that help me visualize what might be on a 7x11" large format image... today I tried to do it with my digital camera. Thinking of going here this weekend to make a calotype...

North Wright's Beach on the Sonoma Coast in California. Really beautiful day at the coast, I was in my shirtsleeves. Some of our best days at the beach are in late fall and early winter. Calotype made with Alexander Greenlaw's process. Bright, cloudy. LV 16 brightest clouds, 15 sky, water, beach, 14 near slope. 12m @ f/32 Development, as usual, very faint image at start, 2 scant eyedroppers ANS, came up pretty fast, done after 29m. This calotype has a bunch of problems and I'll be going back to try this again. It was a lovely day but the light was a bit flat, so it wouldn't be a bad thing to try again ( like I need an excuse to go to the beach! :) I don't know what causes the marbling ( in the middle, in the water and sky ) but it happens occasionally. There are a few pinholes, some are small enough to have been caused by dust in the camera, but some are bigger white spots. A few small black spots. And that funny lighter area on the right: I've seen that before a couple times too and it's always at that end of the calotype -- I wonder if one end sometimes doesn't get sensitized enough. Also I'm going to include more of the near beach.

This is where I went on Sunday to make a calotype... after this the layer of fog sunk even lower and enveloped everything. Weather forecast was to clear by noon, but it never did. I waited around for about 4 hours, hiking around on different beaches, then headed inland to where the sun was shining and made a calotype of some oaks instead. Near sunset I could see that it was still foggy out by the ocean. Spending 4 hours on the coast is wonderful, and it was good to do something a little different... all in all it was an excellent day. There will be a calotype from this viewpoint eventually... ( yes I used a digital camera :)

On the Sonoma Coast in California. The rock out in the water on the left is called Arched Rock, the arch goes seaward, so is not visible from this side. This is a nice pocket beach where a small stream reaches the ocean. 7x11 Eastman No. 2, uncatalogued Wollensak lens. f/32 for 24m Light was a little difficult, it was sunny but with morning haze, so hard to know how much UV might be bouncing around. LV 15 water, sky; 14 sand, 13 foreground rocks. Calotype made with Alexander Greenlaw's process. Development: added 2 eyedroppers of ANS to 1.4g of gallic acid in 200ml DH2O. Image was very faintly visible at start, it came up fast and I stopped at 23 minutes. More pinholes and black spots than usual... I had just replenished my sensitizer and I wonder sometimes if it's more prone to some of these problems with fresh acid and silver in it. Dried between 3 changes of blotter for several days. ( digi-snap of reverse side by mistake.. I flipped it back in software but it's not as sharp as the front of the negative )

On the Sonoma Coast in California. In the distance are Mammoth Rocks and the uplifted marine terrace where mammoths may have once roamed. The calotype was starting to curl as I made this digi-snap, but you can get an idea what it looks like. 7x11 Eastman No. 2, uncatalogued Wollensak lens. Greenlaw's process, Canson Vidalon Vellum Calque (from pad) Unexpectedly, the paper shrunk width-wise during preparation, and I had to use a small piece of tape under the rail on one side of the holder. Bright overcast, beach & rocks LV 13, far slopes LV 14, water and sky LV 15. Clouds obscuring distant hills. F/45, 35m. Development: 1.4g gallic acid in 200ml DH2O, no image visible at start. Added 2 eyedroppers aceto-nitrate of silver. Done after 43 minutes. Dried between 2 changes of blotters over 2 days and then left under a 3rd clean blotter for 5 days while I was out of town. Back was touched up with a soft pencil for printing, and the marks are visible in this image, but not on the salt print.

This is a salted paper print made from a calotype. Printed 17 September 2016. I wish I could get the color right so that you could see it. I fussed around for quite a while but just could not get it to look like the print. The print has a slightly peachy-pink cast and a nice soft light look...nothing harsh at all. I'm afraid it this image does not even hint at the tones in the print. Lana Aquarelle paper, 2% Hawaiian alaea salt, 0.5% citric acid, 0.5% sodium citrate, 1% "superclear" pigskin gelatin. I have a batch of different papers salted with this combination, and every print before this one had some problem with fog. For this print I added more citric acid to the sensitizer and it solved the fog problem, but it did also slow down the printing a bit. It was coated with 12% AgNO3, 10% CA. 2 hours with a paper diffuser, in the shade aimed East away from midafternoon sun. 5 minutes aimed East without diffuser. 90 second blast of straight sun to lock in the darks. Toning: 0.34 g borax + 3.4 ml 0.2% gold chloride in about 80 ml of water for 20 minutes. Then added a scant 1 ml of 2% ammonium thiocyanate and agitated until the first hint of a shift in tone was apparent: 2 minutes. This shifted the tone away from red toward peach and somewhat more neutral. I think it made the highlights ever so slightly brighter too. I'm very pleased with it :) I'm going to attempt to tone a whole series this way -- but not with this salting solution, which was troublesome. I'll try to capture the color better next time.

Duncan's Landing on the Sonoma Coast in California. The rock point in the distance is locally known as "Death Rock" because large waves occasionally wash over it and many fishermen have been swept off. Now the cliffs are fenced off with warning signs, but fishermen still occasionally take the risk until the park ranger chases them off. Greenlaw's process. 7x11 Eastman View No. 2, un-cataloged Wollensak lens. LV 15, but it is hard to judge UV at the coast. I treated it as LV 16: F/45 12 minutes. Developed in 1.4g gallic in 200 ml DH2O No image visible at start. Added 2 eyedroppers of aceto-nitrate of silver ( ~0.75ml each ) Image appeared more slowly than usual. At 38 minutes, added another 1/2 eyedropper, which did speed things up but not too much and still under good control. Done at 50 minutes. Dried for 3 days under a heavy book between several changes of blotter paper. I think the calotype was slightly underexposed, but it looks fine and I hope it will print well. If I like the way it comes out, it may start a series of seaside calotypes. This is a poor reproduction. I had to put it into a printfile sleeve because it was curling. The trees on the clifftop are perfectly crisp and full of detail. But you can get an idea what it looks like. After making this, I read Dr. Mansell's The calotype on the sea-shore with great interest. Perhaps I will try to follow his instructions while making my own "calotype on the sea-shore" series.