31 December
On
In Family Portraits, Tintype, Uncategorized
With

This process has me hooked! Each image is a lot of work, and I never really know how it will turn out, but that’s also what makes the process so much fun. If I wanted reliable and perfect, I can just shoot digital 😉 With this process, you learn to accept, and love, the imperfections. Each image is handmade, and unique.

We shot 9 images in a little over two hours. Eight are shared here, we had one “blinker” and I won’t share that one.

From a quote I just read recently in Sally Mann’s “a thousand crossings”: “When I was shooting with collodion, I wasn’t just snapping picture, I was fashioning, with fetishistic ceremony, and object whose ragged black edges gave it the appearance of having been torn from time itself.” WHOA!

5×7 Tintype, our first image. I was worried if I had enough strobe power to cover 5 people. Quite happy to see it worked out.

5×7 Ambrotype. An ambrotype is the exact same process as a tintype, but is shot on glass. Mine are shot on glass that was given to me by a friend. This glass used to be a greenhouse, so I’m doing some recycling 🙂
Just the kids on 5×7 tintype.
4×5 tintype
4×5 tintype. Switched to a black background, and I think I prefer it to white. Feels a little 3D.
4×5 tintype. That’s bad developer pour on the right side of the image. I’d be slightly happier if it wasn’t there, but with this process, you embrace the imperfections. If you don’t like the imperfections, this process isn’t for you.
4×5 tintype
4×5 tintype (another bad developer pour on the top right)

If you’ve made it this far, and are interested in a portrait session with the wet plate process, send me a message. You’ll need to allow at least an hour for the session, but you’ll get to see the whole process from start to finish….and, it’s pretty cool! And, I’m just shooting these indoors right now with A LOT of strobe power, you can actually feel a little heat from the blast of flash. So, be aware. Not sure how small children would react to that. It won’t hurt you, but is a bit surprising the first few times.

Technical details….if you’re interested: Collodion is from Bostich and Sullivan, the “Old Workhorse” formula, and is about 3 months old. It’s a bit slow but the contrast is really nice. Cameras used: the 5×7’s were shot on a Burke and James 5×7 camera with an 18cm Heliar f/4.5 lens. The 4×5 plates were shot on a Crown Graphic with the stock Graflex Optar f/4.7 lens. Strobes are two Paul C Buff X3200’s, one in a silver beauty dish, the other in Buff’s 11″ long throw reflector, with couple of Buff Einstein’s as separation/kicker lights.

12 February
On
In Family Portraits, Portraits
With

We made the most of the almost 2 feet of snow we had a couple of weeks ago.

The Myers are neighbors….if I cross a creek, and climb several fences, I could walk to their house, but I didn’t do that.  I took the lazy way, the roads had been scraped reasonably well, so driving was a bit easier.

Beautiful location, right at their house.

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

January 25, 2016. Myers Family, snow

24 July
On
In Family Portraits, Film, Portraits
With

If you follow on Instagram, you’ll know I’ve been shooting a bit of film, mostly black and white, at portrait sessions for a while now, but I’ve never done a session completely on film, particularly black and white.  Film has such a different “look” than digital, and I get a little bored with the look of digital from time to time.  I really like the look and feel of these.  And I thank the Brockmans for putting up with me for a half hour or so last week so I can work out some of my crazy ideas.

9-3082-0014

9-3082-0002

9-3082-0008

9-3082-0011

9-3082-0018

9-3082-0024

9-3082-0028

9-3082-0032

9-3082-0034

9-3082-0036

For anyone interested, these were shot with a medium format Hasselblad on Tri-X 120 film, developed in HC-110b, and scanned on an Epson V600.  I do all the processing and scanning of black and white film at home, color film I have to send off to a lab.

If you’ve made it this far, and are interested in black and white film only session, click here and fill out this form to get in touch.  I’ll only have time to do a few before I get busy with high school seniors this fall, but we’ll see what we can work out.  And, I’m up for anything, family, couples, individuals, high school seniors, whatever.

16 September
On
In Family Portraits, Portraits
With

First a “Thanks!” to the Duncans for coming over for my little experiment.  I’ve been wanting to shoot a film-only session for a while now and they were kind enough to come over an model for me one afternoon.  Working with older film cameras is a totally different experience than shooting digital.  The camera is manual focus so that slows things down a bit.  I have to stop to change film every 12 frames.  But, I like all of that.  I like taking a little more time between photos.

For the film heads out there, most of these are Portra 800 overexposed two stops (so shot at E.I. 200).  I did also shoot one roll of Portra 400 (at E.I. 200).  The overexposure gives those nice saturated colors and warm tones you see below.  This was a overcast day, but the film really “warmed it up” 🙂   I didn’t touch the photos below, these are straight scans from the lab.

August 18, 2014. Duncan Family Portraits.

August 18, 2014. Duncan Family Portraits.

August 18, 2014. Duncan Family Portraits.

August 18, 2014. Duncan Family Portraits.

August 18, 2014. Duncan Family Portraits.

31 December
On
In Family Portraits
With

Let’s finish off the year with these lovely folks.  They’ve come back to me several times over the years for updated family portraits.  As a photographer, we just love our “returning customers”!   It’s so nice when they put their trust in us time and time again.  THANK YOU!!

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

November/16/13: Duncan and Lambrich Families.

27 December
On
In Family Portraits, Portraits
With

It was a somewhat chilly day in November, a little windy, but we survived quite well!  🙂  Thank goodness we had a nice warm sun!!  And, the leaves stuck around a little longer this year, so we had some nice color in the backgrounds too.

October/26/13: Massey Family

East-8-2372-0096-Edit

East-8-2372-0141-Edit-2-2

East-8-2372-0170-Edit

East-8-2372-0196-Edit

East-8-2372-0268-Edit

East-8-2372-0342-edit2

17 December
On
In Family Portraits
With

As you’ve noticed, I don’t usually write a lot about portrait shoots.  I’m a photographer, not a writer.  (“Better to keep my mouth shut and be thought a fool, rather than open it and remove all doubt.”)  Anyway, several years ago I read about a photographer who, when doing family portraits, always took a photo of the family in front of their house.  These were photos for the future.  The idea being that as the family changed over the years, more kids came along, the kids grew up, the family moved to a different/bigger home, etc., that these photos would be a nice little “history” for the family.  I thought it was a cool idea.  So, whenever I do family photos at a client’s home, I do at least a few photos in front of their house…even if they don’t have grass in their yard yet :-).  The Shiffletts JUST moved into their new house a few weeks ago.  This photo will be a nice start 🙂

December/7/13: Family Portraits.

December/7/13: Family Portraits.

Logan’s cousins were there for some Christmas photos too.

December/7/13:

I’m going to write one more time, then I’m quitting for a while, I promise.  I just can’t tell you how much I like the photo below.  I’ve done their photos for three years now I think.  And in previous years, Logan has given me about 5-10 minutes.  Then, he has had better stuff to do!  🙂  This session was different.  I think it helped that he was home.  He’d already given me a tour of his awesome new room.  This photo was taken near the end of the session.  He was sitting on a bench telling me about what he wanted for Christmas….those eyes, those hands….I don’t have to take another good photo for a while now.

December/7/13: Family Portraits.
(And, just a note here. No retouching was done on those eyes. I don’t like that over-retouched look for eyes, so I rarely do any eye enhancement. It can be done with good lighting, and it looks so much more natural.)

December/7/13: Family Portraits.

December/7/13: Family Portraits.

03 October
On
In Family Portraits, Portraits
With

I don’t usually write anything when I post portraits from a session…because I’m not a writer and would just sound stupid…but I definitely wanted to thank Torie for this session.  She had the winning bid on a portrait session that I donated to the Madison County Education Foundation’s MARCH MADNESS Fundraiser this past spring.  We had  a perfect afternoon for the session, and they could not have been easier to work with!

September/29/13: Knighton Family Portraits.

September/29/13: Knighton Family Portraits.

September/29/13: Knighton Family Portraits.

September/29/13: Knighton Family Portraits.