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.
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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!

​Thats right!! C.A.S. Photography is headed to 3d Con located in Irvine, CA at the Irvine Hotel. you can come have a stereo-tintype done by us August 12&13 at their Trade Fair, which is open to the public. Message me if you have any questions!
​Hope to see you there.

To keep up with Sparks Gallery, you can visit their website HERE
​You can also visit them on Instagram @sparksgallery 

Back at it again with Modern Times Beer.  This time around, I got to go to two locations! Their tasting room and then their warehouse. The first team of the day was the Tasting room team. By far, they were the largest amount of people we have ever photographed in a tintype. We had to raise the tripod and get a stepladder for me to be able to focus the camera (short people problems).  After that was the Merch Team and the Coffee/Cafe Team. 

Their warehouse by far was my favorite location to shoot at. It was big and spacious and it had skylights! They also have barrels everywhere and two narwhal pinatas (which made an appearance. See if you can find them) .We still had need for non natural lights and it helped cut down our exposure time to 5 secs each. 

The crew looking over all the framed tintypes and signatures .Jacob (pictured right) with a framed Tintype.

The experience of working with Modern Times Beer has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you to everyone for the opportunity :)

At the end of last year, I had my first meeting with Modern Times Beer , where we talked about getting tintype portraits done of all the teams that work there. I couldn't have been more honored to do this for a local business here in San Diego ( just like me!) 
On March 1st, I was able to do five of the teams and will be going back soon to photograph more teams and hear about what they do. 

For this shoot, I rented lights for the first time! I like to think I'm a purist when it comes to the wet plate collodion process and in the first time of my four years (almost five) of doing this I caved and rented them. We used 2, 6 bank heads, of Stellar Vari Flo lights. All of our exposures have been 7 secs when using these lights. By the vats were the darkest areas. 
Another fun part about this shoot is that I got to frame. I'm having team member of the teams sign at matte to go into the frame. 

To keep up to date with my photoshoots and my work, you can visit my Facebook and Instagram page!

Also, if you are local to San Diego, please check them out! They also make their own coffees (for people the who can't have alcohol, like me <3 )

3725 Greenwood St, San Diego, CA 92110