Its about that time again! The Tintype of the month is upon us. I feel like this month I have barely had the opportunity to take any tintypes due to life and obstacles.  But this was a really fun session. I have worked with James before and helped take portraits of him along with Fernando and Dave.  But I choose this one as tintype of the month because I'm in love with the setting that I asked James to sit in on. The wood longs and the nature background makes it a beautiful bokeh affect. 
One of the many talents of James is that he knows how to play the banjo! And he is also in a band called The Palominos, which you guys should go check out their stuff! 

One of the things that went wrong (or at least in my opinion( was the fact that I got some silver nitrate on my feet. Which was not fun. Or fun looking. Had to be hosed off towards the end of the shoot. 

Tintype of the Month! For May!
This tintype I took at the Salton Sea form memorial day weekend. This is the only tintype that came out from this trip in 100 degree weather. Ironically, the building I photographed (but didn't show up in the tintype) had the words spray painted on it : Sorry.
Now, If you know me in life, "Sorry" is my main motto. Very fitting the title is.

Earlier this month while I was at Old Poway Park  I decided to get artsy and play around with my surroundings. My best friend Fernando was photographing this woman and her companion, after he got the shot I asked her If she would model her light blue eyes for me, and she said yes! Unfortunately I do not remember her name, but I'm so thankful that she did this for me. It turned out great! THANK YOU MYSTERIOUS WOMAN!

That whole day we were having problems with our plates fogging up and sometimes after fixing a plate, the plate would turn black all the way through. 

To see a high quality version of this tintype, please click HERE

To see more tintypes from that session please click the button below!

For those who don't know, every month I volunteer at Old Town San Diego. once a month doing tintypes. I always come back home with beautiful plates and do do scans and post them all at once. Lately I have been giving more thought on what else I can do beside posting them.  So I came up with the idea of a Tintype of the month! This plate is for the month of March. 

If you have seen previous posts before or know me in life, this man right here is my mentor, Dave Smith. He is also alive. Whenever I'm in Old Town doing tintypes I normally stick in one area of the park and never really taken my camera far. In this case we were going to photograph the Blacksmiths at their workshop. I went over there with my friend Fernando to assist him and hold reflector, but when I turned around I noticed there were two wooden coffins in the back of the lot behind rope bars. I asked one of the black smiths if there was any possible way we could get that down and use it for photos. It was possible. I asked Dave if he would model for me and luckliy he said yes! 

I know now that this would have been hard for some people to squeeze into a coffin. Not a lot of people see death as a positive thing. Especially as we get older. Dave was such a champ! The reason I choose this as my favorite tintype was do to do subject matter and the contrast of the plate. Earlier that day I was experiencing fog in my plates and not good separation. The lighting and the time of the day was perfect.

3x4 Tintype. F/stop unknown
4 seconds.  


"To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
-J.K. Rowling