Collodion du jour - 280

North of NCAR, Boulder, CO.

I am back outside, owning my skills in the great Colorado landscape. This is another view of the Foothills near NCAR in Boulder.
In my last few landscape photographs, you might have noticed that the edges were much darker than the rest of the image. Although I liked that vignetting effect, I also wanted to decide when to incorporate it. I realized that my developing technique was the cause for this: in my mobile darkroom, the safe light is a red bike light that doesn't give out that much light, so to help me while developing, I use a home-made plastic tray on which the plate and the developer sit. I think the developer pooled around the edges of the plate, causing greater developing there. For the first time I used the same technique in the field as I do at home: pouring the developer on the plate while I hold it in my hand, I can quickly drain the excess developer off the plate and achieve more even developing. The results seem to confirm my theory.