Ned's photos with the keyword: 7x11

Salted paper print of a calotype . Printed 28 January 2018 7x11 inch image on 9x13 Strathmore 500 drawing paper, plate finish Started exposure facing East away from the sun with a paper diffuser, my daughter and I went to the beach and when we got home the sun was setting. I finished it with 5 minutes under BLB but it didn't print deeply enough to tone well. Toned in gold thiocyanate for over an hour, it did not shift the color much but it did increase contrast and brighten the water a bit. It has a kind of soft light look that reminds me of that morning. I thought I was going to need to re-print it, but I like it just the way it is.

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.

Inverted digi-snap of calotype negative. Mouse over note to view calotype. This calotype had lots of problems, starting with curl that I didn't control when sensitizing, which caused the damaged areas in the sky -- it was my last piece of iodized paper, or I would have started over. Then I thought it was overexposed ( it wasn't ) and I developed it too slowly. After about 50 minutes developing, I realized what was happening and could have fixed it, but put an eyedropper of sulfamic acid into the tray by mistake instead of silver.. and that was the end of developing it! The negative is very red and it is underdeveloped. Anyway, I enjoyed making the photograph and met some nice German visitors while making it. We had a laugh when he held his compact digital camera next to my big view camera. The seagull landed on the rock about 30 seconds into the exposure and posed there the rest of the time :) Even though the photo didn't come out well, it was a lovely day at the coast and I enjoyed the attempt. LV 15 water, 14 sand, 13 rock. 5m30s f/22. As noted above, due to a mix-up with some notes, I thought it was overexposed, and developed it for 50 minutes adding scant eyedroppers of aceto-nitrate of silver several times along the way, wondering why it was coming up so slowly :) I think it still could have been developed correctly if I'd added more silver, but no great loss since it was already damaged and I'm not going to print it. I iodized a new batch of paper today, so will be ready to continue soon!

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.