I’ve been really happy with how this image turned out, so I made a silver-gelatin print from the negative. I like the print even better than the ambrotype version.

Here’s the other ambrotype I’ve scanned (so far) as a negative.

One of my first nearly-successful ambrotypes. It’s fogged and has various problems. But this is really more the aesthetic that I’m going for. So the goal for the summer is to be able to get a really solid ambrotype so I can get back to this.

Also, Happy Birthday, Stacy!

UPDATE: I’ve given this a write-up over at CrazyWalker for those of you interested in my views on the future of photography and the wet darkroom.

This is “my” first wet-plate image. But of course, the incredible Mark Osterman was the one doing the shooting. And while I poured the plate and developed it and so on, France Scully Osterman was the one who managed to make sure I didn’t screw it all up. Both of them were phenomenal, and if you have any interest in this process, you should take one of their workshops at the very least.

I’ve been wanting to learn this process for, I guess, 3 years now. So the fact that they came to the Ransom Center in Austin was perfect. It probably would’ve been at least another 3 years before I could’ve made it up to Rochester otherwise. I’ll try to post images from the workshop soon, but no promises.=)