Saturday, July 2, 2016

First - "Oh! Alberta!"?????

A major project like "Oh! Canada!" needs to start out with baby steps. Testing the waters, learning technique, seeing what is feasible and what is not. Been thinking to start out doing 4x5 and 8x10 tin types in Alberta before possibly eventually moving up to 24x24 ambrotypes (wet plates on glass) with larger Canada wide subject matter.

So what to shoot first in my province of Alberta?
- Oil sands
- Forest fire damage around Fort McMurray
- Rocky Mountains
- Waterton park in Southern Alberta
- Calgary
- Edmonton
- Major rivers across the province
- Forested areas across the province
- Farms, new and old
- Abstracts of trees, roads, industrial areas
- Writing-On-Stone Park
- Alberta Badlands (where the dinosaur roamed)

There would also be the people, a subject I love most.
- Portraits of people in all their diversity across the province

There are so many possible subjects it is impossible to list them all in this blog entry. This seems a smart idea. I could start out doing "Oh! Alberta!" and see how that proceeds before proceeding.

So much to learn first thou. I need to become proficient at doing the plates. I need to learn how to make all the chemistry from scratch. I would have to eventually buy and convert a cargo trailer into a wet plate darkroom (have a sink that will work already). I would have to buy a 24x24 wet plate camera to go along with my 16x20 "May Lee". Also would need multiple lens and tripods along with other gear. Might also need to get a 11x14 adaptor wet plate system (you can do that with the Chamonix) allowing for slightly smaller and easier (cheaper) to produce portrait format.

So so much to do and think about. Will it happen? Probably not, but it's so fun to dream photography.