Tim Zowada has inspired me

**SmoovD** · 08-10-2012, 11:03 AM

I am in, too. Very interesting and appealing work.

**AllenG** · 08-12-2012, 07:32 PM

Getting closer.

**joshua1970** · 08-15-2012, 01:21 AM

Originally Posted by AllenG

Getting closer.

wow, what texture!

**73mountaineer** · 08-15-2012, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by TnutsShave

I have no idea what is going on here, but I know that I like it. Subscribed.

Originally Posted by professorchaos

+1.

+ another.

Fascinating process & incredibly cool.

**AllenG** · 08-15-2012, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by 73mountaineer

+ another.

Fascinating process & incredibly cool.

A boring and technical explanation of my photography:

Traditional photographs are created when a metal salt is put into solution and coated on to a piece of paper.
When the salted paper is exposed to light, the light reduces the salt and leaves the elemental metal laid on the paper. Where the light does not strike the sensitizer (under the dark parts of the negative) it is washed away, leaving no (or less) metal behind. So when one is looking at a traditional black and white photograph the black parts of the photograph are composed of tarnished silver and the white parts are the underlying paper.

The chemistry I use is iron based. When I synthesized my sensitizer I used a meteorite as the source for the iron. The photograph above uses iron and silver salts in the sensitizer. It's made of the rust of a Campo del Cielo meteorite, the tarnish of a US Silver Eagle dollar, and was exposed with the sun.

**Argonaut** · 08-15-2012, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by AllenG

A boring and technical explanation of my photography:

Traditional photographs are created when a metal salt is put into solution and coated on to a piece of paper.
When the salted paper is exposed to light, the light reduces the salt and leaves the elemental metal laid on the paper. Where the light does not strike the sensitizer (under the dark parts of the negative) it is washed away, leaving no (or less) metal behind. So when one is looking at a traditional black and white photograph the black parts of the photograph are composed of tarnished silver and the white parts are the underlying paper.

The chemistry I use is iron based. When I synthesized my sensitizer I used a meteorite as the source for the iron. The photograph above uses iron and silver salts in the sensitizer. It's made of the rust of a Campo del Cielo meteorite, the tarnish of a US Silver Eagle dollar, and was exposed with the sun.

Seriously? Using a meteorite to develope a picture? That has to be the coolest photo- lab story I've seen!

**AllenG** · 08-15-2012, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by jmallen5

Seriously? Using a meteorite to develope a picture? That has to be the coolest photo- lab story I've seen!

Thank you.

**73mountaineer** · 08-15-2012, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by AllenG

A boring and technical explanation of my photography:

Traditional photographs are created when a metal salt is put into solution and coated on to a piece of paper.
When the salted paper is exposed to light, the light reduces the salt and leaves the elemental metal laid on the paper. Where the light does not strike the sensitizer (under the dark parts of the negative) it is washed away, leaving no (or less) metal behind. So when one is looking at a traditional black and white photograph the black parts of the photograph are composed of tarnished silver and the white parts are the underlying paper.

The chemistry I use is iron based. When I synthesized my sensitizer I used a meteorite as the source for the iron. The photograph above uses iron and silver salts in the sensitizer. It's made of the rust of a Campo del Cielo meteorite, the tarnish of a US Silver Eagle dollar, and was exposed with the sun.

I appreciate your modesty, but to folks like me, that may quite possibly be the most amazing way of capturing a photo that we have ever heard of!

**Tim Zowada** · 08-17-2012, 08:56 AM

Allen,

Are you doing contact prints with 4 x 5 negatives? I tried to guess based on the size of the clothes pins...

Tim Z.

**AllenG** · 08-17-2012, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

Allen,

Are you doing contact prints with 4 x 5 negatives? I tried to guess based on the size of the clothes pins...

Tim Z.

Yes, contact prints. However this one is an 8 1/2 x 11.
The image was captured digitally. I then used photo shop to invert it and used an ink jet to print the negative on Pictorico transparency film. So, digital capture and negative generation and analog printing.

**letterk** · 08-17-2012, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by AllenG

Yes, contact prints. However this one is an 8 1/2 x 11.
The image was captured digitally. I then used photo shop to invert it and used an ink jet to print the negative on Pictorico transparency film. So, digital capture and negative generation and analog printing.

I love the concept and process, and love it even more that you started from digital. This thread is fantastic!

**Tim Zowada** · 08-17-2012, 05:37 PM

That's cool. I never would have thought of making a negative from a digital photo. I'm busy tinkering with a Graflex 4 x 5. Then I scan my negatives... I think I've got it backwards in this modern world!

**AllenG** · 08-17-2012, 05:39 PM

I still use film. On rare occasions I'll go through the trouble of making an internegative. But it is expensive and more often than not I'll just scan it and print a contact negative with the ink jet. I shoot film about 40% of the time.

I don't really make silver gel prints (Kodak paper and the like) any longer. Last month was the first Time I've used my enlarger in ages. I've been doing nothing but alternative process prints for several years now.

**AllenG** · 08-17-2012, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

That's cool. I never would have thought of making a negative from a digital photo. I'm busy tinkering with a Graflex 4 x 5. Then I scan my negatives... I think I've got it backwards in this modern world!

I don't own a large format camera. I stopped at 2 1/4. Google alternative process pictorico and you'll find oodles of stuff on making digital negatives. Making contact prints with them on silver gel can make some beautiful prints too. Tweak it in photoshop first--no more marginal negatives to sweat over.

**Tim Zowada** · 08-20-2012, 10:11 AM

Thanks Allen. I'll take a look. My daughter is getting very interested in photography.

Medium and large format photography is fun, and I enjoy it. But it is mostly for us nerds who like to tinker. I can get all I really need out of my Nikon D7000.

I wish I had more time...

**AllenG** · 08-20-2012, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

Thanks Allen. I'll take a look. My daughter is getting very interested in photography.

Medium and large format photography is fun, and I enjoy it. But it is mostly for us nerds who like to tinker. I can get all I really need out of my Nikon D7000.

I wish I had more time...

Be careful, you have "I can make that with my own hands" syndrome, and that's what alternative process printing is all about.