Art 4997 - Alternative Photographic Processes

So far, my final projects going pretty well. I finally have all my materials and my transparencies printed so I can really get things rolling. I'm starting off with a spinach emulsion for my anthotypes because this emulsion was most successful for me (and others in our class) last time. As you'll see, I have some exposing in my apartment window (which will take longer) and I also came to my house so that I could expose quite a few of them in direct harsh sunlight at a much quicker pace. I also have some exposing in the window  of my car which I really wish I would have thought of last time. Basically, I'm hoping that I can expose prints much faster so that I can at least have something to show unlike last time. I am also going to try blueberry emulsion to achieve different tones. I am still debating on this, but I may also use some of the smaller pieces of paper I have from last time to make some smaller images as part of the series. I think that the size of the paper can t...

  I was very excited initially, but this process is definitely proving to be way more difficult and time consuming than I expected. I initially tried making a test print with the green paper to see how long it would take, thinking it would be two-three day max. Well, after the third day of leaving it to sit there next to my window I still saw not even the slightest hint of an image forming. I think I have an idea of why this is happening, but its still very frustrating as I don't have much of a solution. I live on campus in an apartment building and my only option is to let it sit by my open window and get as much sunlight as I can. The problem is the sun only directly hits the prints for a few specific hours each day. I know that I could get more sun exposure by simply going outside to find more direct sunlight, but this isn't exactly feasible when I need to be in my apartment attending zoom meetings or going to work pretty much everyday. I can't just take my prints outsid...

  So far, my Anthotype project is going really well. I was so excited about the process of making your own colored paper from organic materials and immediately knew that I wanted to try several different colors. I think that each print will be a different color and that I will try to match the mood of the color to the picture itself. I started out with flowers, marigolds and gerberas to be exact. The marigolds actually produced the vibrant, orange color that I was going for which was very exciting. I will say that I only had a bullet blender to use and I do think it was a bit of a challenge to actually get the flowers to blend well without adding way too much liquid. I initially only ran it through my fine mesh food strainer and I quickly figured out that this was not good enough as my paper clearly had chunks of solid material on it. I ended up having these little mesh gift bags from the dollar tree which worked amazing at fully straining the emulsion. After that, I tried the gerb...

  I find that I am still really enjoying the lumens process so far. So far, it is actually my favorite. I think it is because it is so foolproof. I've been experimenting a lot, and honestly the most difficult part has been deciding what techniques I like the best for my final photos. While I started off using real plants and flowers, I then started experimenting with fake ones too, even flower stickers. The results have been so interesting. I honestly think I like the look of the stickers the best. I think that if I had access to any real flower that I wanted, I would enjoy using those, but I like the variety I can get with the fake ones. I have noticed that a lot of my compositions are really central, so I should probably experiment a little more with that. But besides that, I have also experimented with using water on the paper and I really like the variation it gives to the color. I think I am definitely going to keep using that and try to be more intentional about that so I can...

  So far, I can say that I am really enjoying the lumens process much more than the pinhole project. Since there is much less room for "error'" I feel more comfortable and excited for the process. Today, I gathered various organic materials while walking around campus for the day. I was really surprised at the variety of material I could find just in a relatively small area. I actually looked around carefully and tried to find specific things that I thought would look pretty for my prints. I find that this part of the process specifically is actually pretty enjoyable. I can't wait to venture off campus and try to find other things. I also still plan on finding some fabric and/or cutting out shapes of paper to add to my prints. But so far, I was only able to make one print. I honestly think it turned out nice. Though this was definitely my first try and therefore more of an experiment, so I will be much more careful about my compositions going forward. I think I alread...

  So, this project was a long and somewhat disappointing one. I was truly excited at first, and I thought it was so cool that I would be making my first pinhole camera. I thought it was even cooler that you can get actual images from this process. It was going to be a piece of cake, right? Well, from the very start I was running into issues, mainly with the construction of my pinhole camera. For me, it was always the actual pinhole where something went wrong. At first, I discovered that my first few pinhole images didn't come out because a piece of the tape was actually obstructing the hole from the inside. I genuinely couldn't tell from looking at it through the outside so that was a rude awakening. And then, after I redid the entire hole part, I discovered that as I was taking my last few, the tape that I used to cover the pinhole between images had actually started tearing and messing up the hole.... yet again. I missed the second drop off date so of course I had no idea tha...