Oh Boy, its been awhile hasn't it?
The last time I checked in on this blog was in February and my goal of this year was to at LEAST post once a month and I have not been following through. 

my bad.

To make up for lost time, here is a recent digital photography adventure that I had. 
My friend, Daniel, is leaving to live in China to learn Mandarin and will be gone for a good part of a year! We have both been interested in getting better when it came to astrophotography and we both have never been to Anza Borrego which is located 2 hours outside of San Diego. So we picked out a day where there was a New Moon and made our way out.
Anza Borrego is a true Dark Sky community, so I was very excited to see how bright the stars were. Its also a hot spot for viewing these giant metal sculptures by Ricardo Breceda , a local southern California artist. From giant Sea Serpents (stretching to 15 feet long and across a road) to turtles and grasshoppers, there is a sculpture for everyone. Back when I was in college I would alway see other students photographs of this place - so now years later I finally got to go! Daniel and I did research on which sculptures we wanted to find and made a plan to arrive a little before sunset. This article by Jim DeLillo was a big help for me on what to expect going out to a rural area and photographing the stars. 

Arriving in the desert right before dinner time worked out perfectly, we drove around and picked out some easy sculptures to get to once everything was dark. We ate at a local food place and went to our first location. The photo on the left was taken by Daniel (Thanks again!)

I do have to say, I was very thankful to think to bring camping chairs and a flashlight and good company (and apparently a good book) 

As the night went on we moved on to other sculptures. We didn't plan on camping out there in the heat so we had limited time before we became too tired to drive home. 
I was really enthusiastic to see the Scorpion and the Grasshopper! 
(entomology is cool!)
One part of this trip I enjoyed was seeing other photographers out there doing the same thing that Daniel and I were after. It was interesting to see everyone else set up and making small talk and hearing how far people have come to see this place. 

Of course, we could leave the area without seeing the Sea Serpent. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay long and I only got one photograph that I really liked from that spot. I blame the faint howling of coyotes for scaring us away. Makes for a great story and memory! Who knew a pack of coyotes sounds like people laughing (in the distance)....we didn't. 
Daniel bought these foam light up wands and he let me use one to try and spell out my initials.

Hoping to return again next year when the weather is better and pick out some more sculptures to go to. I'm even interested in trying to do Wet Plate out there. 

​You can check out Daniels work HERE 

I have finally bitten the bullet and went for it! I willow be selling original prints from my first solo show, Collodion Obscura, on Etsy.
As much as I love these prints, they deserve a good home.
Click the button below to find my shop.

Here below art my first two prints for sale. 

Back in August I had the pleasure of meeting Denis Pellerin at 3D Con, and couple of months later the asked if I wanted to be apart of The London Stereoscopic Companies online 3D Gallery. Of course I couldn't pass on the opportunity and said YES.
I wanted to do something that I have yet to explore when it comes to setero-tintypes.
I wanted to create a short story.
My dad and I and my friend Dave, came up with the idea of someone discovering stereographs for the first time. I personally haven't seen this done on old stereographs (if any collectors read this, have you?) and thought it would be a fun one.
Thanks to Dave and Vince for modeling.
To view these, you can use an OWL viewer or a Loreo Viewer or a viewer you have gotten if you gotten a stereo-tintype done by me.
​Happy Viewing!

Hello! Now that I have made my blog post about my 3D-Con experience and introducing stereo-tintypes to my art and business, doing a picture blog post about my camera only seems fit. 
After doing some research on the camera, I have speculated that its an E&H Anthony Champion Field Camera, which was produced 1890-1895. Is originally was used to for 4x5 or 5x7 dry plates, but my friend Dave modified the back for wet plate.
​

We have another set of lenses for the stereo camera and they are also Darlot lenses but they are a rapid rectilinear lenses.

Each of the lenses came with their original brass lens caps. After a few test tries we realized that taking off each individual lens cap kept shaking the camera and each side of the picture had not close enough exposure time. My dad and I did some research and found different ways photographers made shutters for their cameras. We decided to do a simple flap shutter with knobs on each end for easy turning .Picture demonstration of the flap shutter my dad and I built.
As you have probably notice, we have our waterhouse stops in front of the glass of the lens. The Darlot lenses are too early to have slots for apertures! On its own is was an f/3 and we had a hard time getting really anything in focus, so we decided to make an f/5.6 waterhouse stop out of the same materials as the plates we use. It does cause some vignetting, but personally I like it. Also most of it gets cut out when we assemble a portrait into our mattes

Last but not least, we had to make a darkcloth special for this camera. When I received my first wet plate camera many years ago it came with an antique darkcloth with a hole cut out towards the end of the drape for the lens to stick through. I took this idea and got some black non see through cloth and cotton fabric to go on top and had an oblong shape cut in the fabric. Its really useful when wind is blowing and you don't have to hassle with clips! 
If you enjoyed these types of blog posts, let me know! 

Last year I was gifted a stereo-camera from my good friend Dave, along with a pair of Darlot (don't know that year unfortunately, no serial number is engraved in the lens) portrait lenses. I knew from the start that this was something I wanted to incorporate into my art and my small business. So my dad and I came up with a way to display the tintypes and how to cut plates on site. 
Next was to figure out our scene. I knew I wanted to keep a historical look. I found the perfect backdrop and next came the furniture, luckily I was able to borrow and settee and a traditional posing table (Thanks Dave!). 
The stereo-tintypes pictured below feature my friend, Zoe, who on a day to day basis dresses like she's from 1860-1920's. It was recommended to me by the head of the Trade Fair for 3D-Con, David Richardson, that I take examples of my set up to display what I would be bringing to the con, so everyone that attended would get an idea of what the set up would be for portraits.

I can truly say, that 3D-Con was the busiest two days of my photography career thus far. 
Between the dates of August 12&13 my dad and I created 34 stereo-tintypes. A new record for us. Also a new record for how much I can tolerate the smell of ether!
I have met some really wonderful people and so happy that everyone was patient when it came to change of lighting or just over-run by people wanting to see how the wet plate process worked. 
Saturday was the best day out of the two, the early morning was nice and overcast, so I had no need to use of the pop up canopy.......up until maybe  around 12:30 the sun started to pop out and had to use the canopy for shade. 
Luckily I was able to take some pictures on phone of some of the good results. 

While my dad and I were outside with the darkroom, my mum was inside the Trade Fair handling our small display table with examples and a history about the Wet Plate process.  Thank you Mum!

Photos above  by Denis Pellerin  , you can also find these on his instagram!

All in all, I'm very happy that I was able to make it to 3D-Con. The past couple of months and especially August, I haven't been doing well from a complication from my chronic-illness, and the same week as 3D-Con I ended up having a medical procedure done and then hopped back to work. Although this site is dedicated to my art and work, I feel like its important to talk about how some artists out there have chronic illnesses (like me) and how it can stand in the way of creating art (will have to dive into this topic another day) I want to thank everyone that had been around me that weekend, I hope to keep in contact with the many people I have met. 
Until next time!