Blogging for Thor: Heat Wave

Hello Spiders! This week is another short update. I've said before the chlorophyll prints need heat as much as light, and I think today's results pretty much bear that out. It was 98F outside today, with only moderate sunlight. Despite the light situation, the three chlorophyll prints that I had exposing are showing more complete bleaching than almost any other. Certainly nothing else has exposed as fast, since these prints were only in place for about half a day (dawn-2PM). Normally I leave chlorophyll prints out for a full day or longer. These prints have also done something else: held detail. In the two prints pictured above, there is actual shading and fine detail visible. The vein structure of the leaves that were used as negatives is easy to see. It's very clear, especially in the smaller print of the mulberry leaf. That's quite surprising. I've never had such detail before and I didn't expect it, certainly not from such a short exposure. It's quite a nice surprise!

All three prints aren't necessarily all my favorite. There's very little contrast in the largest one, for example, but but the other two are great results. Eventually I may try negatives instead of just photograms, but the last time I did that, the sweated moisture from the leaf caused damage to the negative. Further, given the lack of detail in the process, it would have to be a very clear, high-contrast negative. I don't have a lot of images like that. Faces appear to work pretty well, from what I've seen in work from other artists. There are some great chlorophyll printers out there, even just in a quick Google Image Search.

With temperatures projected to continue on in the high 90s for the rest of the month (global warming sucks), this should be a great time to make more chlorophyll prints. Isn't it wonderful that my alternative process workshop falls during that insane heat? As long as it doesn't actually rain during my workshop, everything should be great!