I have been in love with the collodion wet plate work of Mathew Brady and others since I was young. Untill recently I had never had the opportunity to learn this very complicated process. For those that don’t know much about the process here is a little from wikipedia. There are very few people world wide using this process. I would say there are less than a dozen here in colorado that even know how to do it.
“The first recorded photography on glass was by Janez Puhar, a Slovene priest, in 1842. In 1851, Frederick Scott Archer introduced a wet plate process, sometimes referred to as the collodion process after the carrier material used. The process is very simple in concept: bromide, iodide or chloride salts were dissolved in collodion, which is a solution of pyroxylin in alcohol and ether. This mixture was poured onto a cleaned glass plate, and allowed to sit for a few seconds. The plate was then placed into a solution of silver nitrate and water, which would convert the iodide, bromide or chloride salts to silver iodide, bromide or chloride, respectively. Once this reaction was complete, the plate was removed from the silver nitrate solution, and exposed in a camera while still wet. It was developed with a solution of iron sulfate, acetic acid and alcohol in water.”
I wanted to share the first 3 plates that I poured, exposed, and varnished myself. We will be using this technique very soon for our wedding clients for both portraits in the studio and for bridal sessions. Stay tuned and please inquire if you are interested.
When on a a clear glass plate it can be used as a negative. The image shows up when put against anything black as positive image. We will be shooting on tin as well as blue and red glass.
The two pictures in the front are the same process but put on tin. They are called tintypes and you may have a few of these from your own family.
This is going to be my new camera but it is going to be bigger and will accommodate plates as large as 8×10. I have chosen a period lense it was made in 1912 and is a petzval design. (information for all those photographers out there)
We are super excited about this process and glad we could share it.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Posted in misc
Andy & I have had some amazing opportunities the last few years in our photography career and we have discovered how much we love to teach! One of the things we find very important to ourselves and the growth of our business is constant learning. I’m a strong believer that you can learn from almost anyone anywhere if you are open to it. Through our passion to learn we discovered our passion to teach; to share some of the valuable things we have learned ourselves and how we have grown our business into what it is today. Starting at a local level we spent about 2 years teaching at a local community college here in Denver about photography and digital cameras. Last year we spoke at WPPI in Las Vegas and in the trade show there for WHCC (white house custom color). Because of these amazing experiences we have developed our own teaching style and have put together some awesome workshops.
So, we are announcing our first workshop here in Colorado! It will be 3 days, there will be several models and it will be somewhere you will never expect! We are so excited because this will be unlike any other workshop! Have I intruged you????? Well stay posted because details are coming soon!
We are so excited about the Colorado workshop but we also have some very exciting things planned for the other states! We have spoken to a few of you about a workshop in your city, but are open to anywhere! If you are interested in helping us with a workshop in your city send us an email and we’ll talk!!!!!
Kids… well you have to love them. Andy and I love to take pictures of them at weddings and have acquired a lot of really cute pictures over the years. We haven’t really shown them off as much on the blog. They can be challenging and very rewarding. I am going through the archives and will show some more in the next few weeks. Isn’t she adorable.
David & Kipling were married in the fall in North Denver at Stonebrook Manor. They had a day wedding which was perfect because we drove around with them in their limo afterwards to take more pictures! Because they had a fall wedding they used a lot of reds for their colors. The bridesmaids wore red dresses each with a style they picked out and their flowers included big red stargazer lilies. Kipling even had red in her dress and in her veil. We had a lot of fun driving around in the limo taking pictures in Denver! Here are some of our favorites to share!
by andy
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