I've tried about five times now to shoot away from my home and its (well-lit, fairly spacious) darkroom. The difficulties with wet plate mount, I might add, when shooting "in the field." The portable darkroom is great in concept, but in practice it is a MUCH more cramped environment in which to work, ventilation is horrible, the wind can be a real annoyance and problem, and it takes a good bit of effort to pack it all into the car, unpack/set-up, shoot, pack back into the car, then unpack back into the house. Which doesn't mean it isn't fun, just that it is a lot of work.
But sometimes it is great to get out and try shooting in new environments. With this model, we went to the local park in my town. Fortunately, this park is not well travelled during the week, and it has some very remote spots, off the beaten paths. And, my model was absolutely fine with being naked in public! She's from Italy, and is a real charmer with her accent and enchanting demeanor. Fortunately, only a couple people came within 100 yards of us over the course of the day, and we had absolutely no issues -- it worked great.
I had noticed a wall of ivy, and thought it would make a nice backdrop for some shots. I like this first shot -- it is a bit of a mash-up between Julia Margaret Cameron and Madonna. The last shot was a "mistake" for a number of reasons, including leaving it in the cyanide too long, the effect of which is that the cyanide starts to dissolve away the image, which you can see starting to happen at the lower left. But when I got home and scanned it, I liked it! Also, I'm throwing in the third shot because it shows well the effect of the "petzval" swirly lens signature. I don't get much swirl in most of my images because I usually use a backdrop that is pretty close to the model (in my small home "studio"). But with an expansive background, especially of plants, the swirl is readily apparent.
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