- A Kallitype print taken at Faver Dykes State Park after a recent fire.
- Faver Dykes State Park
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Another Kallitype of an image from Bulow State Park.
Bulow State Park has an enormous variety of very old trees, Oaks, Hickory Nut and Maple. I took this image with a Mamiya 645 Medium Format camera with Ilford FP 4 film. The negative was processed in my darkroom.. For this Kallitype I needed an 8×10 negative. So I scanned the negative and converted it to a digital 8×10 negative. Then contact printing this onto sensitized watercolor paper by UV light. The processing is basically the same as a silver gelatin print just different chemicals. The Kallitype process is an antique process patented in the late 1800’s.
Bulow Oak Tree
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Kallitype- Bulow Cabbage Palm
A Kallitype Print- A process patented by W.W.J. Nichol in 1889. An iron/silver process. A sheet of watercolor paper is coated with a silver nitrate and ferric oxalate solution. It is allowed to dry. The print is made under sunlight or other UV light by contact print a full sized negative.I use a 8 x 10 digital negative that I make. After exposure the print is developed in sodium citrate, then cleared in EDTA, next a gold toner is used, after toning the print is fixed in sodium thiosulfate, then washed and allowed to dry. Kallitypes are know for their wonderful warm tones. When properly developed and toned they are sometimes indistinguishable from Platinum prints.
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Kallitype Print
Eastern grey squirrels are inquisitive opportunists who can smell a feeder from miles away. They then invite all their family and long lost cousins over for a regular smorgasbord of feasting. I did start out trying to prevent them from feeding but that turned out to be a losing battle. Eventually I settled on more feeders in the hopes that they couldn’t occupy all at once. Of course you know that also didn’t really work. What does seem to work is that the squirrels appear to be on a different time schedules when it comes to feeding and that gives the birds a look in when they’re not around. It’s funny to watch them and they provide constant amusement with their antics. They also have a “pecking” order when it comes to who gets to eat first. The males tend to occupy the feeders first and will eat till they’re full. Once they’re out of the way the females will venture in for their feeding.
This has always been my favorite pose. Those little hands of theirs busy putting sunflower seeds in their mouths and the tail poised over their back in a lovely arch. Empty sunflower shells surround him.
Happy hour at the birdbath. This is a female Eastern grey squirrel who I nicknamed “Shirley”. She had obviously given birth to young not too long ago as her teats were still swollen and if you look carefully at her side you can see this.
This is Sammy squirrel. Definitely a male, very cheeky and not shy at all. He’s also a bit of a guts when it comes to eating as you can see ~ definitely not malnourished. I recognise him by his markings. It’s amazing to me to be able to distinguish one from another.
Another one of my favorites this time a baby squirrel still wet from the recent rain. Usually the babies are more cautious than the adults and will run off as soon as they hear of detect any unusual noise or movement. This one however was waiting for the food bowl to be filled and happily stayed around for me to snap this cute shot.
The backyard is a great place for both common wildlife and birds. More to follow later. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our Florida “tree rats”….OK so cute squirrels does sound better!!! Thanks for viewing and remember to comment. Let me know what you think.
While Marks has been busy in the darkroom with his Kallitype process I’ve turned to our own backyard for some of the wonderful wildlife that visits regularly. I started out with just one feeder, which soon became two, then three and now I’m up to five. This pretty much ensures that the brown squirrels, who I believe have some type of internet messaging system whereby they invite all their near and distant relatives over, don’t hog all the food. Believe me when I say they try. Having a lot of feeders up means that the birds get a look in as well. It’s been a fabulous eye opening experiment where I’ve been able to get a lot of really nice close up shots of both the squirrels and the many birds that visit on a regular basis.
The first images I’m going to share with you are the red-bellied woodpeckers. I just love these birds. They are noisy, sassy and have great personalities. They are also very territorial as I found out when a strange juvenile ventured in where he shouldn’t have been. The red-bellied woodpecker is a medium sized woodpecker in the Picidae family. The common name is somewhat misleading as the prominent red plumage is actually on their heads. They know what type of food they like, peanuts being their favorite.
Above is the female red-bellied woodpecker. She can be distinguished by the white plumage on her head as opposed to the male whose head plumage is brilliant red. She’s seen here feasting on some cracked corn.
The male red-bellied woodpecker totally loves raw peanuts in their shell. Here you can see the difference in the head plumage.
Another shot of the male. Their coloring is vibrant and the pattern on their wings is just a beautiful tapestry that only nature can produce.
Stay tuned as I post some more wonderful wildlife images in a few days. Happy weekend and thanks for visiting 🙂 Comments are always welcome.
Joey took this photo of an Amaryllis several months ago. I tried carbon printing it several times to no success. Thought one more time might be the charm. So today I was going to try a Kallitype print of it.
I coated a sheet of Arches Platine 310 gsm Water Color paper with a Silver/Iron sensitizer. After two test prints an exposure time was selected. The print was exposed to bright sunlight for 1 min 15 sec. I developed the print in sodium citrate for 5 min, cleared it with EDTA, toned it in gold toner, fixed and washed the print.
Now comes the toe tapping time. There is a change in tones when it dries. But I hit this one the first time.
Thanks for taking time to look and any comments are greatly appreciated. Marks
Kallitype of Bulow Swamp. This what the early explorers would find when exploring Bulow Creek. Not a very hospitable place. However it was inhabited by the Timacuan Indians. Later the area became sugar cane plantations which were all eventually burned out by the Seminole Indians
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