Roarie Yum

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What can I say, Roarie Yum is one of the most unique models I've had the pleasure to work with.  She has such passion for what she does and an ability to speak using just her form.  Graceful and soft in one breath, powerful and strong in the next.  It was a wonderful experience.  She travels around the world making beautiful art for a living,  making many a photographers life more interesting.  What better way to see the world is there? :)  Thank you for giving me an evening of your time, Roarie.  It was truly a pleasure.

All wardrobe designs provided by Adrina Dietra Graham

We started off the night shooting a few Tintypes and Ambrotypes.  

This is a photo of the ground glass as I'm focusing.  The image you see here is flipped vertically and horizontally as the light enters the lens.

8"x10" on Black Aluminum

We had enough time for one more plate...a more classic nude.

Photo by Rico Elvina

Photo by Rico Elvina

8"x10" on Black Aluminum

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As Wet Plate takes a lot of time, and Roarie only had a limited amount of time that night, we moved on to shoot the figure studies and a few of Adrina's beautiful pieces. 

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A fun shot of us at the end of the day. :)

Many thanks to Rico Elvina for helping out with the wet plate images and taking the behind the scenes photos. 

Absurde Magazine - May 2013

I’m very excited to have been included in Absurde Magazine’s May issue with so many talented artists.

Click the link below to see the magazine.http://issuu.com/davidh_psycho/docs/absurde-magazine-may-2013#download Photographer: James WeberStylist/Creative Director: Fredo MontesHair and Makeup: Chuck JensenPhoto Assistant: Rico ElvinaVideo: James SullivanCopyright 2013 James Weber Click on the images to see them larger.

Giant Wet Plate Camera II

Well after a long time of dreaming, thought, planning, and dedication, I've finally got the Giant Wet Plate built and ready for use.   It's been a lot of fun trying to make this project work out.  It all started when I got the first piece of the project...the 6.3 20in. Air Ministry Aerial lens and thought of the possibilities it created. HUGE thanks to Larry Baglio for helping me through the build and working out the details with me.  It took us about an hour and a half to get it built the first time, but now that we've done it once, It might only take 15 minutes to set it up again.

See the beginnings of the idea here:  http://jamesweberstudio.com/blog/?p=1665

I knew the lens had  a huge light spread, so then it was just finding the enclosure that would work the best and go from there.

Christophe from New York Models was kind enough to send Vince(pictured below) over to the studio to make this test a good one. :)

Funny enough, the enclosure that worked the best turned out to be a "Grow Room" for weed....lol.  The fun secondary benefits included some very nice openings that were meant for ventilation and lighting, but ended up working out as a great place to put the lens and the light.  It's truly a light tight room and perfect for the shell of the Giant Wet Plate Camera.

Here's a shot of the inside with the lens and light.  You can see the P-50 reflector in the shot above.  The great thing about the placement of the light is that it's so close to the lens.  This allows me to light up my subject with my Profoto Bi-Tube and 2 7a 2400 packs.  It's 4800 watt seconds of power per shot.  You can actually feel the air off of the strobe when it fires.  It's pretty crazy the amount of light that it puts out.  Collodion needs a lot of light to work, so this, plus a little extra time after the flash is enough to get a great image. The ISO is around .25 to 1.

The inside of the camera is also the darkroom.  Because the plates are so big, they have to be tray sensitized(silver nitrate), developed, fixed, and washed.

The Siver Nitrate and development is done within the camera turned darkroom.

So strangely enough, the focusing and shooting of the camera are done INSIDE the camera. :)  The backplate moves back and forth manually inside the camera to focus.  You see exactly what you get right in front of you.

When zipped up, it's completely light tight.

Here's the start of the process, where you pour collodion on the plate...

pour from James Weber on Vimeo.

After you shoot the photo and have it developed, you have to then fix it.  Here's the first big plate that I shot with the camera.

Wet-Plate-James-Weber from James Weber on Vimeo.

I'm very excited about the possibilities the camera creates.  I'm planning to continue my portrait series and eventually, take it on the road to do some big landscape Ambrotypes, Glass Negatives, and large Aluminum plates.  The possibilities are endless...

Portrait of Vince Dickson.  © James Weber, 2013

Until next time...

Wet Plate - Men's Day 1

Continuing on with the Wet Plate Portrait Project, "Faces". I had two great guys come over from Fusion Models.

This is Caleb from Fusion Models.  I looked at Caleb's book.  I saw the potential for him to be stronger, more visceral in his images.  I told him I wanted to project strength.  That he did!  I wouldn't want to run across this guy at night. :)  He did an amazing job.

8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype

8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype

We did all of these 5x7's to get the lighting just right and ended with the 8x10's above.

5"x7" on Black Aluminum

5"x7" on Black Aluminum

5"x7" on Black Aluminum

5"x7" on Black Aluminum

This is Marc @ Fusion Models.  I had shot him a few years ago, so it was nice to see how he had grown in experience.

5"x7" on Black Aluminum

These last two were my favorites.  He's got such a great direct connection with the camera in the first, and the second reminds me of one of the gangsters in the movie, "Far and Away" .

8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype

8"x10" Black Glass Ambrotype

It was a fantastic day all around.  The chemistry wasn't giving me any trouble and the guys were awesome.  I'm looking forward to some more shoots that go this well.

Fashion in Wet Plate Collodion

Hey there everyone,These images are the first in my attempt to shoot a fashion editorial in one day using the wet plate collodion process. The stylist(Fredo) and I got together and decided on a few things. We wanted to do a story that had a Josephine Baker influence to it. We also wanted to give it a period feel, but using designers of today.  For instance, the corset on her is made by THE BLONDS. Their works are usually seen on stars such as Christina Aguilera and other celebrities. In person, this piece is bright, silvery blue...not very period. It photographed in collodion wonderful though.  Another of my influences in photography in general has been Paolo Roversi. His photography always has a timeless feel to it. I wanted to channel some of that, if you will. :)

In the end, we got much of what we wanted in the final look and feel of the images. The closeup image in particular is striking because of the collodion mistakes/artifacts in it.  Sometimes the process reaches out and decides to change something.  Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not.  

We shot about 25 plates in a day, which is a LOT for wet plate, but it's still way under what one would normally shoot.  That's not even a traditional roll of film at 36 exposures...

I have to thank my friend, Jesse Mata as well, who helped pour the collodion and develop as well so we could keep it moving quickly.  Without him, this shoot would not have happened.

8x10 Ruby Glass Ambrotype

Technically, it was a success as I was able to use strobes for the first time with repeatable results.   In previous testing, I found that one to three strobes at full power just wasn't enough light.  I ended up using 4 Profoto 7a packs tied to 2 profoto bi-tubes, generating 4800 watt seconds of power per head for a total of 9600 watt seconds of power per flash(only one needed). That, mixed with a little time exposure of 5 seconds or so to add in some of the ambient light(2000k Arri), and there you have it. As this was my first test in this kind of shooting, I believe it was a successful one. I'm looking forward to planning another one and taking the next one of few steps forward...possibly on location next time to give it more atmosphere. I have to thank Jesse Mata profusely as he assisted me during the shoot, helping pour plates and develop so that we could get more shot in the day.  The only thing I'd like to change next time is doing it with fresh chemistry.  I'll have more latitude in my exposure times and power needed.

8x10 Clear Glass Negative

8x10 Ruby Glass Ambrotype

8x10 Black Glass Ambrotype 

8x10 Ruby Glass Ambrotype

Photography by James Weber

Styling and Art Direction by Fredo

Hair and Makeup by Chuck Jensen

Model:  Gift  @ 1.1management

Wet Plate Assistance:  Jesse Mata

Video:  James Sullivan

It's quite a process getting ready for wet plate shooting.  There's setting up the Dark Box, getting all of the chemistry together, setting up the fixing/washing area, getting the plates ready, etc...but there's no other style of shooting that is like it.

Here's some photos from the set:

I'm shooting with an Anthony Imperial Climax 8"x10" Camera.  Behind me is the dark box that I built as a DIY project.  It's where I sensitize the plates with silver nitrate and develop the plates as well.  It's a mini-dark room.

Here's some of the plates that we shot throughout the day.  It's a mix of Black Glass and Ruby Glass Ambrotypes and Clear Glass negatives.

That's all for now...on to plan the next one...

James