Large Format Photography Australia

11x14 clear glass ambrotype
36 seconds @ f45, 240mm Schneider G-Claron (f9 version)



I really wanted to get the thin weeping foliage of this tree but it was tricky trying to get (most of) the tree in focus as well so I had to sacrifice that for depth of field.

Well you nailed it Alex. Great focus and DOF, and a striking composition. A real winner.

^^^^^^^^^ what he said.

I keep seeing these Alex Gard ambrotypes and I think I'm learning. From my ultra-traditional background I would not even think of sending out a photograph unless it was perfectly spotted and etched if necessary. Well, I'm sure that Alex hasn't spotted or knifed Weeping Willow, Hollow Tree Road so something else is going on. Maybe the ambrotype should be thought of as a spectacular artifact that actually bears a large camera-original photograph upon it. The virtu of it is certified by the physical creativity involved in its making and presentation. And also by our wonder in looking at it.

Thanks guys. Maris I still vividly remember your words when I visited your home in Noosa a few years ago when I was still only curious about the collodion process. You said "it's not hard, but it's hard to do WELL"

While i make no claim to be great, i still echo those same words when people ask me about it. I've held that philosophy this whole time and always strived to go beyond just creating "wet plates" for the sake of it. Without trying to stroke your ego, your philosohy and style of photography has always been a big inspiration and i still have those silver gelatin prints you sent me on the wall in my house (well, I owe you one!). My photos have always been a homage to a place in time and people like you within a bunch of my other revered photography peers.
This is far more than just using the process for an aesthetic but about using a medium with purpose, which i am feeling more purposeful with every photograph. It's becoming an ingrained psychology and so methodical.
Like many things in life this process will always throw curve balls. Just when you think you've got it right; the slightest lapse in care will rear it's head.

Every plate, piece of film, or whatever medium; is a physical artefact of a time and place. The stress and obstacles i ran into this day are shown all over this plate. I can point to all the technical flaws and explain why they happened.. because i remember and I am learning. The physical plate, far removed from the digital representation you are looking at now, is an epitaph to a couple of hours of time where i etched the reflected light in space-time into raw materials. Seeing a scene and knowing then and there that it needs to be archived. It's hard to convey but it's something that will always be the most important photography, regardless of technique. Creating time capsules of light (as you said, with he earliest uttering of photograohy; "drawing with light"). The process is irrelevant, the memory, vision and the intent are the purpose. I am very aware of the novelty of wet plate. I am trying to maintain the importance of creating meaningful images for myself, in my own way, as I have always done, even before I started using the collodion process.

We're obviously experiencing and seeing something, otherwise we wouldn't be trying to record it. I think we can all relate to that.
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Is Hollow Tree Rd in the Midlands Alex?

Correct Gary. You head out past Hayes/Hamilton/Ouse and there is a little gravel road that juts off to the North and cuts through the pastures into Bothwell.