Sun and Silver Photo – We do Vintage Portrait and Wedding Photography
Tintypes * Ambrotypes * Silver Collodion Prints
Award winning photographer based in Neenah Wisconsin
We make real images for real people – no AI, filters or digital trickery! We use the original photography techniques from the 1800’s Victorian Era. Hand made using silver and glass, wood and metal, and a lot of natural sunlight. Our mobile darkroom allows us to travel around Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.
News soon on our January Popup – Contact Me to get on the notification list
We’re done counting down our favorite portraits of 2025. Check out the post Here
What ‘cha been doing? Well, here are some of my favorite recent portraits..
Sun and Silver.photo had a booth at the 65th Annual Art at The Park, in Appleton (July 26-27). We were judged “Best of Photography” at the show! This was such an unexpected honor and we are so thankful to the Trout Museum of Art for recognizing our work and craft!
New in 2025 – Wedding Tintype Portraits! Create an heirloom handmade photograph on your special day – see more at Weddings
Check out my Portfolio to see some of my favorite images
Learn more about the Wet Plate Collodion Process, Salt Printing, and the Cyanotype Process
I also produce a limited number of fine art photographs and handcrafted prints and offer them for sale at Sunandsilver.art
Adventures in Silver – Recent Blog Posts
- Mobile Darkroom Build – Part 1
One of the many challenges to Victorian Photography methods is you need a nearby darkroom to do wet plate images. The term “wet plate” is descriptive in that the plate has to be exposed and developed before the collodion coating dries. This requires a darkroom because the plate is light sensitive. In the 1800’s photographers carried around a dark box on their carts for work away from their studios. The dark box is still used by many today. I decided to build a darkroom on a trailer. I use it… Read more: Mobile Darkroom Build – Part 1 - Silver Collodion Fix
The magical moment for wet plate photography has to be the fixing step! Fixing is the final step in the developing process and is where the unreacted silver is removed from the collodion. As the silver washed out the final image is revealed. This video shows the fix of a silver collodion print (which is basically a tintype copy of an existing photo or negative). We speeded up the middle part just a little bit. You can see more of our videos on our YouTube channel @sunandsilverphoto Back to our… Read more: Silver Collodion Fix - Victorian Inspirational Portraits
None of our work is original. Maybe a better phrase is none of our work is completely original. We stand on the shoulders of the many who went before us and their work provides the inspiration for our work. So here we present a gallery of historic and historic style portraits with a vibe that we admire. We do not wish to copy any of these but rather use them as starting point. We hope that with this inspiration the creative Muse will inspire us to make our own images… Read more: Victorian Inspirational Portraits - 3D Printing for Wet Plate Collodion
Wet plate collodion photography is a very do-it-yourself endeavor. We are very much like the original roving photographers of the 1800’s because there are no, or limited, commercial sources for much of our suppliers and equipment. Thankfully we don’t have to make our own lenses but are limited to lenses made around a century ago. This is because the small number of large format lenses still made incorporate glass and coatings which block the blue and UV light essential for collodion photography. But old lenses often have parts like lens… Read more: 3D Printing for Wet Plate Collodion - Favorite Victorian Portraits of 2025
2025 is over! It was an amazing year at Sun and Silver Photo with so many wonderful clients and creative muses. Here, in no particular order, are our favorite Victorian portraits of 2025. What makes a portrait a “favorite”? Some might say it is all about the image, the subject, lighting and pose. But we here at Sun and Silver Photo are all about creating memories. So our favorite portraits are not just the final image but they are about the experience of creating the portrait. The portrait is about… Read more: Favorite Victorian Portraits of 2025 - Tintype Varnishing TutorialWet plate collodion photography has a significant learning curve! The process is rather complicated and requires not just technical knowledge but a degree of tactile skill. The most difficult part to learn is varnishing the plates. It has been almost 2 years since my first image and I have so much to learn. Here is a video showing my current process for achieving a reasonably good varnish. Enjoy! Back to my Blog Page
