Bloodography
I want one of those undead hairdos Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas sport in "Interview with a Vampire"! I get carried away by movies like that... I too want to roam the earth for hundreds of years, as a bewildered predator, eternally superbeautiful, torn by becoming guilt and fear of loneliness, with very very beautiful hair. But these vampires never do any proper work, do they? Science would be a nice occupation for an undead. Science move so slowly, a 2-300 year lifespan would be adequate. As for me I have invented bloodography which could perhaps serve as my occupation were I to be turned immortal.
An introduction to Bloodography
You need: A gallon of animal or vampire blood, tightly woven cloth, a camera obscura (pinhole camera)
Blood is photosensitive, and especially that of vampires as the blood of the immortals contain a retro-virus which become very volatile under ultraviolet radiation. Soak a cloth about 12x12cm in the blood of an animal or preferrably a vampire if you can get it. Place in back of camera obscura, place camera. Only sunlight will do, you will not get an exposure using artifical light - so do outdoors scenarios in sunny areas. If you are undead you will not be able to attend the camera as the sunlight will kill you, you will then find that it is most practical to do landscape bloodography in secluded areas.
The exposure will take a long time, if you are using animal blood you need at least eight hours in bright sunlight, vampire blood can probably produce an adequate exposure in about three. This present a big problem if you yourself are undead as you will not be able to operate the camera while the sun is up and you will end up with overexposed bloodographs. You might need to make some mechanical shutter to close the camera after the exposure time has passed.
To fixate the image and stop the photosensitive process you soak the exposed, now dry cloth in vinegar. Staple or nail the cloth to a wooden board while it dries up in order to straighten it out.
A common problem is that the cloth dries up too early and the photosensitivity becomes very weak. Take care to make the camera obscura as hermetically sealed as possible. Yet DO NOT FALL FOR THE TEMPTATION OF USING A GLASS LENS! Although it will eliminate the hole in the box and allow the cloth to stay wet for longer, a lens will not let the precious ultraviolet rays through and you will end up with absolutely no exposure. I have even tried with expensive lenses from Carl Zeiss with bad results. Maybe in the future we will be able to obtain special lenses for bloodography, but for now: stick to the pinhole!