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
- Spring Open Access Day 2026
Sunday, June 14, Sun and Silver Photo will be doing tintypes at Pleasant View Studio in Germantown. This modeling event requires paid admission – you can see more information on the event’s FaceBook Page. Tintypes are free for participating models. Of course, we gladly accept donations to help with the material and shipping cost for the finished plates. Here is Our Venmo. Here are some thoughts and notes, in no particular order: I will update the schedule here as people sign up. Please feel free to message me on FaceBook… Read more: Spring Open Access Day 2026 - Portraits Between Tintypes
It is much slower taking a tintype portrait than most other forms of photography. This is because each image is hand made – and that takes some time! If we are making a tintype we must first clean the plate, then coat it with collodion and then place it in a silver bath to sensitize. It takes 3 to 5 minutes to properly sensitize a tintype in the silver nitrate solution. Then the excess silver is removed and the plate put into the holder for the camera. Finally we are… Read more: Portraits Between Tintypes - Vintage Amber Wisconsin Model
Just fooling around between tintype portraits. The joy of tintype portraits is the relaxed pace due to the preparation and finishing time. So we often use that time to have some digital photo fun. Here are just some fun portraits with Wisconsin model Amber. Check out her FaceBook for more pics and booking information AM Model Following are more awesome photo sessions with Amber Back to our Blog - Classic Portraits – Classic Lens
The love of Victorian photography is, in part, a love of the character and rendering of classic lenses. We have a variety of vintage (antique) lenses that we use. This set of portraits was taken with our Voigtlander Nokton 40mm lens. The Nokton is an interesting lens in that it is manufactured right now but uses the vintage formula and glass. It is fully manual aperture and focus and mounts directly on our Canon R5 modern mirrorless camera. Wisconsin model KD Jae came to our Menasha studio for a set… Read more: Classic Portraits – Classic Lens - 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
