Pleasant View Halloween TFP 2026

Blog / Portrait / Wet Plate Collodion

In preparation for the Halloween TFP I offer these tidbits of information. The goal is to help us plan and to ensure we have a great session together! We'll have time to make maybe 3 good images so its we'll chat about what we want to do so we can use our short time together well. You will receive both digital copies of the image and the glass or metal plates we create. The exception would be if we create something that might sell for big bucks then we'll try and sell it and you will get a commission. My…

True Love Tat2 Tintype Popup

Blog / Popup / Tintype

We had an amazing, although rainy, Saturday at True Love Tat2, Madison Wisconsin. It is always a fun creating tintype portraits, telling stories and making new friends. Here are our wet plate images from the popup. Many thanks to the entire group at True Love for all the help and welcoming us to their shop! You can follow them on Instagram @truelovetat2 or on their website Truelovetat2.com sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026129Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026140Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026139Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026138Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026137Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026136Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026135Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026133Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026141Download sunandsilver-True_Love_Tat2-Tintype-Aug-2026134Download Looking for a tintype portrait or popup? Then fill out my contact form and I will notify you before our next adventure! To…

Making Tintypes at a Pop-up

Blog / Popup / Video

Our recent Pop-up at Madison's True Love Tat2 shop was a wonderful time! We had lots of fun despite the all day rain and dreary skies. What is a "Pop-up" you ask? It is when we pack up our darkroom and equipment and set up to do tintype portraits at some location. Like a pop-up shower the comes and goes. We appear, do our Victorian thing and steel away before the FBI or Men in Black can arrive! Here is a little video showing the developing and varnishing of our group shot tintype. We'll post Pictures of the finished plates…

Making Tintypes at an Historical Village

Blog / Video / Wet Plate Collodion

We spent the day at Pinecrest Historical Village, the Manitowoc County Historical Society Museum. Pinecrest is a huge site with so many historic buildings and is a wet plate collodion delight. The morning was foggy all the way to Manitowoc but the mist burned off as we were setting up our mobile darkroom trailer. We'll post a gallery of the tintypes we've made there in the future. In the mean time, here is a creation video for one of our favorite tintypes made that day! Back to our Blog Do you like our little video? You can see more adventures…

What is an Alchemist?

Blog / Video / Wet Plate Collodion

In popular thinking an Alchemist is someone who believes they can turn lead into silver or gold. Yes, there were Alchemists in the olden days who tried to transmute metals. But a more fundamental concept of Alchemy involves the conversion of simple elemental forms in nature to more complex, and more valuable, forms; an Alchemist is one who converts elementals into higher forms. So what does this have to do with the wet plate process? At its most basic wet plate converts random bits of silver into organized, recognizable and beautiful (we hope) images. An Alchemist takes a fleeting moment…

Tiny Little Tintype Memories

Blog / Tintype / Video

Part of the fun of creating wet plate images is you can play around with just about any size and format you like. This year I have been making a lot of really small tintypes. They run 2-3 inches on a side. The small plates are a real challenge, especially pouring the collodion without drenching your hand! Here is a little video of some of my favorite little tintype memories so far this year, Enjoy! If you enjoyed seeing my tiny tintypes why not have your own made? Contact Me for availability and pricing for a wet plate collodion portrait…

Raindrop on a Blade of Grass

Blog / Portrait / Tintype / Wet Plate Collodion

Like a raindrop on a blade of grassShe appears,Reflecting the world around her, Not just the present, butThe Future, andThe Past. Like a raindrop on a blade of grassHere for a moment, and thenDisappears.Where did she come from andWhere did she go?Out of thin air and back again..And like the rain,Just a matter of time, andShe will be back again. A 6in x 8in wet plate collodion photograph on aluminum. Featuring Claire Voyant. Clare Voyant is a published alt model and model coach. She is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Check out her FaceBook Clarevoyantcreative for more information and booking. Check…

Spring Open Access Day 2026

Blog

In preparation for Open Access Day here are a few semi-interesting tidbits: We are doing tintypes for several reasons including the joy of working with so many talented and creative models! We will also use the images for our social and portfolio to help attract customers. Select images could be published or offered for sale. My associate Brittany will be helping with the sessions and will try and capture some digital images BTS etc. We will be doing 6x8 inch photos on aluminum all day. If I have time I will try and make some glass plates too! It take…

First Tintype with New Cooke Lens

Blog / Video / Vintage Lens

"New" lenses in the wet plate collodion world always mean "new to me" and not new new! I recently found a lens that was recovered from a barn. It is a Cooke 8in Anastigmat lens. I pulled it apart and did a good cleaning. It had a little fungus inside but the glass had not gotten pitted yet. I 3D printed a lens board and tried it out on my Primer 12x12 camera. I made a video of the fixing step of the first tintype... Here is a still image of that plate. It turned out really nice! Just for…

3D Printing a Round Wet Plate Holder

Blog

Large format cameras for wet plate collodion are all handmade and custom. Typically a wet plate photographer will have a camera that can be fitted with various backs to create different sizes of photographs. For example, we use a Primer camera that has a maximum size of 12x12 inches. We have made various "inserts" that allow us to make smaller wet plate images - 8x10, 10x12, 5x6 and 4x5 are our most used. We recently 3D printed a holder for 6 inch round images. We will cut glass to 6 inch circles - at least that is the plan! Here…

Awesome Little Immortalized Memory

Blog / Portrait / Tintype

The life of a Victorian style photographer is not always easy. Each image requires so much gear and chemicals and preparation and time that you often wonder is it worth the trouble? With almost no effort I could just take a cell phone picture... But then a client comment reinforces everything you are doing and the world feels like Spring again. Last Fall we had the joy of creating Halloween tintypes with a group of models in Germantown / Milwaukee. The irrepressible Claire posed for the 8x10 plate below. It was near the end of the day and the sun…

Portraits Between Tintypes

Blog / Portrait

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 ready to actually expose the portrait. Then we have to…