Shooting ambrotypes in Boulder, CO

Recently I have been working with ambrotypes: wet-plate collodion photographs shot on glass.

In the past, most of my images were done on aluminum coated with a black enamel paint. I buy the aluminum cut to size; I only have to peel the protective layer of plastic and it's ready to roll. This made my life easy and I liked it!

But I also enjoy challenges - as you might have noticed when I decided to pull a trailer carrying 80 lbs of equipment and chemicals with my bike, on a rugged trail... So here I am cutting glass, cleaning it with alcohol, cleaning it in my dishwasher, cleaning it with whiting... When the glass plates are finally cleaned, I sub the edges with albumen (a mixture of egg white and water). This helps the collodion adhere to the plates and avoid the lifting of the emulsion during processing.

On Monday, a friend, Larry, stopped by to witness the production of a wet-plate collodion photograph. After shooting a small alumitype successfully, I did my first 8x10 ambrotype:

Larry.

And today, I headed toward Boulder, parked my car near Lee High street and shot a couple ambrotypes of the Foothills. They came out really nice.

Today was a good day!