Topic: Leap Day Sun solargraph

[astrobeck]

documented the day with a Leap Day long solargraph.

day long exposure in a homemade pinhole made from an old Newman's Own mint box (same size as Altoids but with cooler graphics) shown below.  

[gary m]

Thats great!

[Roger Thoms]

Wow, that's totally cool, is that on paper or film?

Roger

[astrobeck]

paper, some old expired paper.
Expired paper is perfect for this!

[Roger Thoms]

Figured it was paper, so what do you do, expose the paper, then scan right away? Is there anyway to fix the image or make it permanent? 

Roger

[Heather]

That is pretty cool. I wish we didn't have such overcast days.... or does it still work alright then?

[LT]

perfecto.

[Andrea.]

Lovely.

I recently had a visit from The Artist - formerly known as Jon- who is dead keen on doing a load of these around the island then printing then as polygraveure. I got so excited about the project I set up two solargraph cans [30m film cans] on my fence - and have not seen the sun since!

[Alan]

Very surreal - well done!

[Jeff Warden]

Amazing, Becky, and the prefect day for it, too.  Bravo!

I saw a video on the internet a while back of a guy making solargraphs with a huge homemade camera - it was at least six feet long, on wheels, etc - and it had a big lens.  He was using paper like you are.  The camera had to have computer cooling fans installed because of the heat and smoke!  The sun literally burned an arc into the paper.  I'll try to find the video for you.

Cheers,

Jeff

[astrobeck]

I scan the paper right out of the camera without doing anything to it.
I have my scanner pre-set before I unload the camera so it is ready to go as soon as I place the paper neg on the flatbed.
I scan it as an RGB  negative even though the paper is black and white.
The paper kind of solarizes and picks up some weird color by being exposed for so long.  The longer the better, so the one day long one like I did for Leap Day is not so colorful, but it's still cool.
Usually I just put the scanned pieces of paper negatives in a lightproof box until I accumulate a bunch and then fix them later.
The fixer bleaches the image a bit, so that's why I like to scan the paper right out of the camera.

Even if the Sun is vaguely visible through a heavy cloud deck, it will leave a track.  Just not a very good one nor a thin line like the Sun in a clear sky leaves.

Andrea- I can't wait to see your solargraphs, seeing the track the Sun makes in different parts of the world with cool foregrounds is so cool.

[Roger Thoms]

Becky, thanks for the info, sounds pretty simple. Got tons of old paper, some of it is fogged a bit, guess that's not a big deal. This has got me thinking. Btw if you need old paper let me know, I'll drop some in the mail.

Roger

[astrobeck]

Hey Roger,
I don't know how well fogged paper will work, but I'd certainly give it a spin before tossing it out.

Do some test shots with it, even if it's just for a day or a week to check out how it performs.
I'd love to know!

Becky

[Roger Thoms]

I haven't tested all of the paper, but what I have tested is only slightly fogged. I would think that it would work fine. Remember that the fog doesn't show up till after the paper has been developed. I'll do some testing too, and let you know.

Roger

[Jeff Warden]

Hi Becky,

The artist was Chris McCaw, found on ArtBabble:    http://www.artbabble.org/channel/Photography

Enjoy!

Jeff

[Windy]

Wonderful Becky 

Lovely.

I recently had a visit from The Artist - formerly known as Jon- who is dead keen on doing a load of these around the island then printing then as polygraveure. I got so excited about the project I set up two solargraph cans [30m film cans] on my fence - and have not seen the sun since!

You must live in a different part of the Island to me then - had some good weather last 2 days.

[astrobeck]

I love that interview!  He failed to mention that he had overslept because he consumed a lot of alcohol the night before.  You gotta love happy accidents!

Hi Becky,

The artist was Chris McCaw, found on ArtBabble:    http://www.artbabble.org/channel/Photography

Enjoy!

Jeff