Wildlife on Salted-paper

[fgorga]

Salted paper prints from digital negatives...

Marmot

Shorebird

Dragonfly

 

[removed account4]

Frank
these are beautiful !
what a fantastic mini series
I hope you continue with this work.

John

 

[gone]

Read the title expecting to see some recipes for salted wildlife.

These are so cool. Love the dragonfly. Or is it a Mosquito Hawk? We called them different things in the South when I was growing up, and I can't remember the difference between them. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing these.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Well done, Frank!

 

[fgorga]

@jnantz
Thanks!
I am planning more... deciding what images will work well as salted-paper prints is a skill that I am still developing!

I've spent part of this afternoon looking for more dragonfly images that might work well as salted-paper prints. Hopefully I'll get a few more prints made in the next week or so.


@momus
Thanks!

Yup, dragonflies have all sorts of regional folk names, I'm sure that "mosquito hawk" is one of them. An apt name too, mosquitoes are a major source of food for dragonflies.

Here in New England some folks call dragonflies "darning needles" and warned kids to watch out lest they sew up your lips!!!


@Andrew O'Neill
Thanks!

 

[fgorga]

Hi folks,

Here is another batch of salted-paper prints with wildlife subjects. All made from digital negatives. The first three are 4x5 inch images and the last two are 6x7.5 inch images. All on Hahn. Platinum Rag paper.

Bluebird

Mockingbird with Prey

Western Chipmunk

American Avocet

Willet Feeding

 

[removed account4]

Frank
Thanks for sharing more from this series, this are fantastic!
John

 

[Craig75]

Some excellent work here.

That's a nice colour from your paper.

The tricky world of animal photography + the tricky world of salt printing is no mean feat.

 

[mooseontheloose]

These are great! Very inspiring - I've always wanted to try salt printing but getting the right chemicals is problematic here in Japan.

 

[bhaning]

These are great! I'm going read up on the process.

 

[fgorga]

@jnantz , @Craig75, @mooseontheloose and @bhaning

Thank you all for the nice comments.

@bhaning there is lot of good information out there, but I found Chris Anderson's book most helpful and inspiring.

Here is a link to it...

https://www.routledge.com/Salted-Pa...mporary-Artists/Anderson/p/book/9781138280229

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Good job!

I'm going to dive into this end of the pool shortly...how long have you been doing salt prints?

Have you done hand coated UV exposed prints before?

Pretty cool linking 21st century photography all the way back to the 1830's, eh?

 

[bhaning]

Frank, thanks for the link to the book. I appreciate your help.
Ben

 

[fgorga]

Good job!

I'm going to dive into this end of the pool shortly...how long have you been doing salt prints?

Have you done hand coated UV exposed prints before?

Pretty cool linking 21st century photography all the way back to the 1830's, eh?

Murray,

I say... GO FOR IT!!!

I am having a wonderful time with salted-paper.

Since you asked, here is my history in alt processes...

I dabbled in cyanotype and single color gum printing for a few years back in the first decade of the current century. Then life got in the way.

In April 2020, now retired, and with a bit of extra time available because of "the virus", I decided to try my hand at cyanotype again. The goal was to relearn cyanotype and the "mechanics" of al process before moving on to a silver-based process and then on again to a platinum/palladium-based process.

I chose salted-paper because of its "purity" and its place in history. Also considered Van Dyke Brown. I made my salted-paper prints in February 2021. I may, eventually, get to the Pt/Pd-based process, but right now salted-paper is keeping me entertained... or as my wife likes to say "off the streets and mostly out of trouble"! All of my salted-paper prints to date have been untoned but I just bought small amount of gold chloride. Thus, there is the whole "rabbit hole" of toning salted-paper prints to explore before moving on!!!

As for your comment about connecting the old with the new... yes that is, most definitely, part of the fun in making art this way. In some of my work, I go back even further in history.

One of my favorite photographic tools over the past few years has been a camera obscura. I have set things up so that I can photograph the ground glass of camera obscura with a small digital camera. Thus I can link early 16th century technology (DaVinci described the camera obscura in 1502, but it was around before that) to mid-19th century technology using our 21st century technology as the link!

Here is an example:

The rest of this short series can be found here: http://gorga.org/blog/?p=5045

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Hi Frank,

We are leading somewhat parallel lives, or maybe it's just that a good percentage of recent retirees take up salt printing.

I retired last November and have to finish the darkroom, make my first digitally enlarged negative, and cobble together the alt process equipment & materials needed. Don't think I'll be meeting your 11 months after retirement for making my first salt print!

Using the camera obscura definitely dips one toe further back than the 1830's.

Pt/Pd toned kallitype's are whispering as well, but think I'll cut my teeth on salt prints. Maybe they will be the answer I've been looking for...only one way to find out!