I always have been fascinated by photography.
But with the introduction of the digital camera it all became too easy, too predictable …to me.
So I forced myself to go back to the roots of real analog photography.
Not just by making the photograph itself, but by controlling the entire photographic process.

This brought me back to the middle of the 19th century, to the amazing Collodion wet plate process.
And every single day I feel challenged to refine and improve myself.


For my website please visit : www.alextimmermans.com

Alex Timmermans
Holland


"You don't take a picture, it's given to you"

donderdag 30 september 2010

The Thinker

Yesterday i made this picture of a member of our Photo club LUCIFER
It took about one hour untill we were satisfied with the result.
from now on i will call him "The Thinker"

Lars, thanks for being so patient.




noname petzval
aprix 350 mm 5.6
clear glass
"poorboy" collodion
KCN fixer
exposuretime 5 sec.

zaterdag 18 september 2010

"Grand opening" of the ADVANCE education centre

Recently a friend of mine had the grand opening of his new photographic education centre at Veldhoven ( near Eindhoven). http://www.advance-cvf.nl/

Lots of visitors were expected and i had promised him to give a demonstration wet plate photography.

Fortunately my darkroom tent arrived at Friday afternoon, so that’s what they call : “just in time”.
That tent just worked great. The only thing is that you can not open the zipper from the inside, so you always have to be with two persons. That will need some modification.

On Saterday there were a lot of people who were really interested in the wet plate process and i must say, it was really fun to give a demonstration.
For those kids it was real "magic"

A brief overview of that day.
The following pictures were made by Jan Theo Mellema and Henk Peters.
Many thanks !


 
Posing
 
 

 
Flowing the plate (love that smell)
 
 
 
 
 
What is he doing ? Some magic ???
 


 
 
Exposing the plate for 5 seconds
 
 
 
 
Just a few seconds after developing the plate ( in the tent)
 
 
 
 
Fixing the plate.


"life" fixing

 

 
 
The final result.....



 

zondag 12 september 2010

Workshop with Ivo and Fokke

I recently gave a collodion workshop to 2 photographers. Fokke from Amsterdam and Ivo from Antwerp. Both very passionated photographers who would like to “taste” the wetplate process.
Underneath you will find some pictures taken during that day. They were very interested in the whole process and had some very interesting discussions about photography. And not only about wetplate !

After we went through the theoretical part of the workshop and having lunch we started making pictures. That’s always the nicest part of the workshop.

I must say, it worked out surprisingly well. Although the whole process was new for both, soon they were moving around with the studio lights and the camera making better compositions.

Thanks guys for your interest in this process. It was a real pleasure working with you two.

Alex


 
Cleaning the plates, not the nicest job to do......







"breathing" a plate
 
 
 
 
Ivo flowing the plate. pitty you can't smell this....



 

Fokke flowing his plate on black glass.





Fokke "rocking" the plate to prevent getting lines on the plate.


 
 
 
red light district..........
 
 
 

The old Narita Camera.



 
Ivo working on a picture of Fokke.
 
 
 

Preview....




 
Fixing a plate.
 
 
 
 
Fokke
 
 
 
Ivo
 
 
Pictures made by Ivo, Fokke and Alex