I have been wanting to build my own camera for a long time. Not a pinhole camera, but a large wet plate camera. I don't want to make it in the old style and follow the beautifully designed cameras of yesteryear. I want to make my wet plate camera out of garbage.
Trash.
Detritus.
Scraps of junk.

I found a Czech photographer who has been doing this since the late 50's. Miroslav Tichy's cameras are made of cardboard tubes, wire and wooden spools. They are working works of art and look like something from Mad Max.
Somehow I don't think he has used any of the complicated mathematical equations to determine focal length, image coverage circle and f-stops...which makes for a totally un-nerdy nerd camera, just what I am wanting to build.
Now all I have to do is collect doodads, cardboard, wire, leather and go at 'er.

I also LOVE pinhole cameras made from old books.
I made one for pinhole camera day in 2007. It needed a little work as the film got all bunched up but it would work perfect for dry plate tintypes as the thin metal would be so much easier to secure than a roll of film.
Erin Paysse, a Seattle based artist makes some very stylish objects d'art that she sells on her Etsy page.

Tintypes in Gastown

We have just moved back to Vancouver, to Vancouver's famous Gastown area. Gastown is famous for its cobblestone streets, its galleries of First Nations Art, its stylish boutiques and restaurants and obtrusive film crews. One street over from the shi-shi shops is another famous part of Vancouver, also known as Canada's poorest postal code -Vancouver's Down Town East Side, or DTES. The DTES is everything you see on the news, the frequency of police activity is a combination of street monitoring and movie set security. Rich and poor side by side, makes for a very vibrant neighbourhood. I am very happy to be back in the bustle of the city and am inspired by the richness of my neighbours.

I am currently searching for studio space! If anyone knows of something coming up please let me know.
I need loads of light! I am shooting at ISO 3 after all!

the Tintype Lady strikes again

The opening for my show at the Waterfront Theatre was yesterday and I was happy to see familiar faces as well as strangers. I got to talk about my work with people, which is really nerdy and fun. I get all animated and excited. I incorporated braille into my work for the first time. It is a strange thing for people but it is fascinating to me to combine a non visual language in a visual way with a visual yet very tactile form of photography. People tend to want to touch tintypes, so I gave them something else to touch. It was a lovely evening and I want to thank everyone who was there for their interest and support.

Ok, now suck it in

I am busy packing for my upcoming trip to India and Pakistan and of course I have to decide what I want to bring for cameras...
Looks like the winners are:

Lumix digital and 3 film cameras:

Diana +f- because of its truely crappy quality and plastic-ness, and the fact that a Diana has this nack of making images look like real memories, hazy, blurry, distorted and dreamy...and I can do pinhole with it.

Olympus trip 35 - 1974 auto and manual 35mm cult camera, tested and ready to go..

Speed Graphic. ok, it is a bit overkill for a backpack, but I just can't pass up the opportunity to shoot wet plate while I am there.

So that means I have 3 sizes of film, 35mm, 120 and 4x5 sheet film, plus glass and metal plates AND a portable darkroom that I am lugging as carry on baggage. Ambitious? Uh, yah....

I hope to post photos of my darkroom in action doing tintypes and ambrotypes on the streets of Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, as well as the beaches and backwaters of western India. I am not taking any chemistry with me since it is somewhat problematic to take flammable, explosive, and poisonous things on airplanes and through customs.
So my first task when getting to Pakistan will be to find chemistry. Oy vey!

My urdu consists of "excuse me, I'm sorry" (how Canadian), "please", "thank you","good morning" and a bit of hindi for "don't move for 3 seconds" .
I figure if you don't know what is going on, at least be polite.

I needed to test my Olympus trip 35, that was birthday gift from daughter and had yet to be used.
I live in a small place, isolated by a ferry ride from the big city. Well, you'd think it wouldn't be so terribly difficult to get a roll of film developed...2 weeks later, an additional sample roll shot, that I requested be developed gratis and asap (sorry 'bout that) since my order was taking soooo long...and it came out monochrome...
hmm....not right...so I asked them to do it again.
The little trip works splendidly in automatic, which means I can hang it out the window of moving trains!

I much prefer square fomat however...If only I could somehow cram my hasselblad 500c into my carry on bags...I don't really need to pack clothes do I?
I guess I will have to repack.

So that is 5 cameras and a portable darkroom.

west coast winter wet plate portraits

Leah
4x5 ambrotype

So after fall's home renovations and then the holiday season, I now get to spend some time in the dark...ahhh...the darkness. I was unsure whether I would have any satisfaction from my old reddened collodion or my wayyy too old developer, but even with the dark rainy Canadian west coast day, I managed to make some shoe portraits. Since no one was home and the dog can't manage to sit still for a whole 90 seconds, it had to be shoes...

taken with a 4x5 speed graphic with a petzval type lens, for 90 seconds, on a very dark and rainy day.

pour le moment

au revoir Ottawa and all my fab SPAO people. I had a fantastic workshop, lots of great creative folks and now I am off to the west coast to get mucky. Merci ms. Aviva Cohen for snapping a photo of me as I prepared for my departure.

Aching for the Ether

Image by Ed Ross

































Image by Kristen Hatgi

It has been 4 months since I made my first wet plate image, and it feels like an eternity. I had to return to the west coast from Ottawa to take care of my home and ended up in renovations. So on the eve of my return to Ottawa to teach another Modern Tintype workshop at the School of Photographic Arts Ottawa. I am truly ACHING to get out my wet plate gear.

I have found some lovely wet plate folks out there scattered across the world like Ed Ross from San Francisco and Kirsten Hatgi from Denver.

So upon my return I will endure the cold rainy days and attempt to shoot in the rain with my new (old) brass lens.