Speaking of ephemera, I found an old packet of photographic paper that expired in 1968 tucked away in my darkroom. I had purchased this material on eBay in order to try to reverse engineer Alison Rossiter's process. That little project is long since complete and I noticed there were a few sheets of the old paper left. I decided to use them to make a couple of lumen prints, as I'd never done that before. I really did not want to bust out the photographic chemicals for this little experiment, so I simply exposed the lumen by eye (about an hour) and recorded the results in subdued light using a digital camera. Due to the low sensitivity of the paper to light, it is relatively easy to work with. After the digital capture, I inverted the image in photoshop to get a positive image of the magnolia leaf. I like the results quite a bit. I've decided to store the lumen prints in an envelope in a dark drawer and will check in from time to time to gauge their stability.
I hope you have good light this weekend. If not, you could give lumen printing a go.
