Category: Wet Plate Collodion

Red dust on my tintypes

4/22/2021

Let's face it, staying at home brings attention to what projects you can accomplish with the time you are giving or even start that search for your dream camera. Which is exactly what I did. I have a previous blog post to 2014 when I went out to the Salton Sea with a couple of other photographers and for the first time saw a banquet camera. Specifically an 8x20 Deardorff. Seeing what such a wide format can capture enchanted me and has been in my brain up until this very day.
Ever since then, I had been saving my money and scouring eBay and online auctions until one showed up, and in that time I learned more about how rare of a size that is, and for a camera to show up in useable condition was even rarer. Thankfully I was alerted to Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers having a big auction of wooden cameras and lenses and was luckily enough to have won a bid for this beautiful Gundlach Korona 7x17"

In another post, I can go through the process of building a darkroom and tanks for this size format.

This means there is only one thing left to tell, and it's the first social distance/ road trip using this camera.
Destenation: Sedona, AZ

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Northern California Coast, 2018

10/26/2018

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2018 is THE year.
The year that I finally set forth and start building up my landscape portfolio using the Wet Plate Collodion process. Last year (2017) I attended the Photographers Rendezvous group up in King City, CA and while on this trip we took time aside to travel to Monterey. All growing up I heard a small story of how my parents met, which was at the Post Naval Graduate School located in Monterey. We drove around to the different spots they knew and I even got to see the apartments the both lived at while attending school. I also fell in love with the beauty of the area there and especially the weather! Over cast in the morning and also at the end of the day! Perfect for wet plate collodion.
I was really bummed that we didn't have the time to do some plates, so we all came up with a plan to return next year prepared and with a new portable darkroom, one that would fit in back of the car.

Fast forward to July 2018.
My family and I built a pop up darkroom that fits in the back of the car, with the idea in mind that it was a light weight and that it was one where I could set it up on my own and more space in the car. The inspiration came from an old pop up style playhouse I had as a child.
My mother is an excellent sewer! From quilts, to costumes to now even a darkroom. I found a pop up playhouse from Ikea and tore the fabric off the steel boning and kept it, while using the fabric pieces as a pattern for the yellow interior and black exterior.
I feel like I have to speak for my mother for this part, as was sewing the fabric together was easy, but putting it back onto the steel boning was the hardest part. We all struggled a bit...
Next came the shroud that went over us, my friend Daniel came up with the idea of using zippers on the outside of the darkroom going around the whole top. Kind of like in the shape of an upside down horseshoe.
In the photo to the right, you can see my red LED lanterns glowing. They are being held up by little loops that were sewn in.
And below is a photo of the "mock" darkroom set up for when on the road!

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3D-Con- Irvine, CA 2017

8/16/2017

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Before I wanted to introduced stereo-tintypes as an art form and into my small business, I knew I had to make sure that my guest left with a viewer. So my father found Berezin Stereo Photography Products online and we ordered some Lorgnettes to hand out with each portrait, when they arrived, inside the packaging was a flyer for 3D-Con
"Huh, wouldn't it be interesting to set up there?"
From there, I like to think that chaos in-sewed.

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.

Stereo-Tintype, 3 second exposure

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!

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Red dust on my tintypes

Northern California Coast, 2018

3D-Con- Irvine, CA 2017

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