Americana

Monty - I think Thomas is talking about the large black area above her head. Looks like some of the collodion either lifted or was rubbed off? Or maybe there was a big oyster there that was later rubbed off? ('Oyster' is collodion-speak for a whitish blob usually from some contamination that, when wiped off, usually leaves a black, unexposed area behind. Just one of the MANY sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating parts of the process.)

As for that wicked Jamin-Darlot lens, Monty now has it because it was soooo big that it broke the front standard of my "little" 14x17 camera. Plus the fact that his very sweet wife knew just how to surprise him last Christmas! How many spouses out there would buy y'all a rare lens roughly the size of 2 coffee cans as a surprise gift?? Now, THAT's romance!

Monty,
thanks for taking time, trying to teach me about this subject. Kerik is correct, though, it's the oyster or whatever you want to call it, that I was referring to. Kerik explained it to me sufficiently.
I am still trying to fathom how you go through this process with a sheet of glass that is bigger than any print I have ever made.
- Thomas

Thomas,

Kerik is 100 percent correct. The oyster was far more distracting than the rubbed out to show black spot that I tried to blend in with the surrounding trees. One of the difficult learning curves I am having with the stained glass is that is isn't uniformly flat. That causes some issues with cleaning the glass which is difficult even with flat clear glass. The stained glass has many more bumps and ridges that make getting it super clean hard. When it isn't 100 percent clean I get more oystering. Sometimes it can come off with gentle cleaning with a cotton ball but gentle and me don't always live in a copesetic world, hence the heavy hand and black blob. I'm a ways away from perfection on all of it but even more so on the big plates as all the issues are clearly exponentially multiplied. I am comitted though to learning it as I stumble along, or maybe more accurately SHOULD be comitted.

Thanks for taking the time to ask.

best,

Monty

Good to see this again. Just amazing