j alan

Pop Up – Heritage Makers Market

Blog / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

As the weather finally turns colder my time opens up and I can catch up on posting. There were hundreds of traveling tintype photographers back in the Victorian era. They would travel around the country and would "pop up" at events like Fairs and Festivals. That tradition is still alive, although now there are maybe only a dozen or two tintype photographers actively traveling and doing tintype pop ups or events. I love doing tintype pop ups because I get the chance to meet and create images with so many people in a short time. Tons of work and hectic…

Vintage or Modern Lens for Wet Plate?

Blog / Tutorial / Wet Plate Collodion

One of the advantages of doing historic Victorian photography is there are so many great lenses around to choose from. I can choose a vintage or modern lens for wet plate photographs. By "vintage" I mean something 100 years old or older - a lens that could have been used for wet plate photography when it was new. "Modern" means something from the early to mid 1900's (so only 50 to around 100 years old). The choice of a vintage or modern lens for wet plate is for me more of an artistic choice than a technical one. Although there…

Tuesday in The Park

Blog / Portrait / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

It was Tintype Tuesday in the Park. The weather, and the light, was variable. Cloudy to sunny to partly sunny and back to clouds! Rain all morning but we managed to get a window of dryness. They say "the show must go on" so we worked through the continuously variable light. Smith Park, Menasha, was the location and Victorian era costumes were the order of the day - a perfect fit with Victorian era photography! After the more formal portraits we switched it up. You know the party is starting when the bag of stuffed Paddington Bears is opened up!…

Waterfall Tintype Adventure Portraits

Blog

Waterfall adventure tintype portraits featuring the lovely AM Model. Life is an adventure and all too short. So why not have as many fun adventures as you can. Here are a few 8x10 tintypes from our session at a waterfall north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Our first plate (an 8x10in) turned out almost exactly as planned. It was very dark in the little gorge of the waterfall so we had to use a almost 20 seconds of exposure time. That is a long time to hold still, especially with the wind and damp coming from the falling water. But AM…

January Tintype Portrait Session

Blog

Rachel (@racheljulianxo) and I met in Neenah for a January tintype portrait session. January is not usually the best time to capture outdoor tintypes. I don’t know that very many people enjoy standing outside in the cold and holding still for a wet plate collodion portrait. I think shivering will definitely blur your portrait. The cold is hard on collodion chemicals too. Everything slows down, light sensitivity drops and development takes longer. Below freezing the collodion will freeze and not work at all. But after a very cold two weeks the Wisconsin weather shifted to warm (at least not so…

Riverside with Nataly

Riverside Tintypes with Nataly

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

Wonderful session Riverside tintypes with Nataly. The 1st of February and almost 50 degrees temperature is an excellent opportunity for making some tintypes. We met at Riverside Park in Neenah and had fun around the fountain and by the river. The fountain is “Playing in The Rain” by Dallas J. Anderson. And is fun and whimsical. Someone dresses the children in knit hats for the Winter! Nataly came in a stunning red dress and had a lot of fun with the children in the fountain – almost as if Summer is just around the corner. Our first pose in the…

Classic Tintype Portrait on a Winter Day

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

Some times it is fun to capture some classic tintype portraits on a Winter day. Cameron and I met by the Fox River in Neenah for some cold weather tintypes. It was a day that started with heavy fog, giving way to sunshine and finally dark clouds. But, we also saw temperatures in the 40’s which is really nice for February in Wisconsin. Wet plate collodion can be a difficult process because of the way it reacts to changing light. Light meters work really well for film and digital photography but not for collodion. So the alchemist has to guess…

Victorian Photo Safari

Blog / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Out on safari in Fond du Lac yesterday. Making 8x10 tintypes and having the time of my life. The mobile darkroom is working well and close to being set up the way I want. It is so nice to have a good work space that I can take around wherever my travels take me. Check out more on my Mobile Darkroom So, you might ask, why do I use the terms "Victorian" and "safari"? Well Victorian is pretty easy. It refers to the Victorian Era the years 1837 to 1901 during Queen Victoria's reign. These years correspond well with the…

Is it live or is it…

Blog / Wet Plate Collodion

There was a series of commercials from back when my age was a single digital. They were for Memorex cassette tape and my favorite featured Ella Fitzgerald breaking a wine glass with her voice. They showed Ella doing the glass break live and then they broke another glass with a tape recording of her voice. So the message was you don't need Ella Fitzgerald, all you need is a tape recording of Ella Fitzgerald. Fast forward to today and we see computers making pictures using algorithms deceptively called "AI". The implication is you don't need real photographs because you can…

BTS Tintype Session with Nataly

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

Time to go BTS on a tintype session with Nataly Divine. The warm February 1st gave us an opportunity for some outdoor Tintype portrait. We also grabbed a few digital pictures during our tintype session for a bit of BTS (Behind The Scenes). Nataly wore a beautiful red dress in a 1920's style. Here are a few close ups of her in both monotone / black and white and color. The color picture captures the overcast skies at the end of our time together. Of course, where would a BTS post be without showing the camera? Here is two beautiful…

How Changing Light Impacts Wet Plate Collodion

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

One of the most difficult aspects of 19th century photography is how changing light impacts wet plate collodion. The light sensitive silver in a wet plate "sees" light much differently than our eyes. Yellow and blue become white and shades of orange become black. Tattoos can completely disappear and eye glasses can look like sun glasses in the portrait. More modern cameras come equipped with sophisticated light meters. The light in the scene is measured when you take the photograph and the camera will adjust the exposure to get it right every time. But there is no exposure meter that…

Behind The Scenes of Wet Plate Collodion Photography

Ambrotype / Blog / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Why does a wet plate cost so much? A question I sometimes get, although not too often. Part of the cost is the part my clients see - the actual image capture. But the session is actually the smallest part of making historic tintypes and Ambrotypes. So let's go behind the scenes of wet plate collodion photography and see some of the work that goes into making your historic image. Chemical Preparation The foundation of the process is chemistry. Before anything else happens there are a bunch of chemicals that have to be purchased and mixed. Collodion has to be…