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 šŸ˜‰ 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 šŸ™‚
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.

01 January
On
In Uncategorized
With

A few favorites of the 19555 sports photos that ā€œmade the cutā€ this year. Thatā€™s somewhere around 10-20% of what I shoot. Fortunately you donā€™t have to look through all the duds. I give a star rating in Lightroom to a few photos from each game/event and those are the ones I blog, or maybe I wanted to remember for some reason. This is a selection of those. Iā€™m not about to take the time to go back through all 19555 to pick out new favorites! See you in 2015 šŸ™‚
No music, just pictures. All black and white, color can be distracting.

2014 – The Year in Sports from John Berry on Vimeo.

29 March
On
In Uncategorized
With

If you’re not on Instagram, you probably should be :-). Ā It’s my preferred place to share photos. Ā So anyway, Instagram posts a Weekend Hashtag Project. Ā The idea being to post photos with a particular theme, and tag them with the appropriate hashtag so others can find them. Ā For this weekend, it was #WHPchairaffair. Ā From their post, “The goal this weekend is to capture beautiful and creative photos of an everyday object: chairs. Some tips to get you started: Chairs come in all shapes and sizes. Look for a unique chair or a chair you find particularly beautiful and photograph it in a way that emphasizes its lines and shape. Think about the significance of an empty chair and the story you want your photo to tell. A single chair on its own can be inviting or lonely. You can also arrange a group of chairs to imply a different kind of story. Finally, setting can be very important for this project. A simple or solid-color background will emphasize the shape of the chair. The chair’s natural setting (a home, restaurant or office for example) can help tell its story, but don’t be afraid to take a chair to an unlikely setting to create a surprising scene.”

I’ve rarely done these, but we were hunting for some furniture for Ellen’s apartment next year at W&M, and I found a few that I liked. Ā I only moved a couple of these. Ā Most were photographed exactly as I found them.

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

And, I LOVE this last one for some reason….

March 29, 2014. Uncle George's, Miss Odie's

29 November
On
In Uncategorized
With

The sophomore class and the Student Council Association at Madison County High School is sponsoring theĀ 6th Annual ā€œWinter Wonderland Fun Dayā€Ā on Saturday, December 10thĀ from 10:00 am ā€“ 3:00 pm. There will be some new games and activities this year, (in addition to the Craft Tables, Make-and-Take-Ornaments, Reindeer Games, Lollipop Pulls, Building Blocks, Balloon Art, Face Painting, and much more) for toddlers through fourth grade.Ā Ā Santa will be there and children can have their picture taken with him by photographer John Berry, for only three dollars!

Ā 

Winter Wonderland Fun Day will be held in the Madison County High School gym and admission is five dollars for 20 tickets.Ā Bring in two cans of food and receive a free hot chocolate.Ā Ā All proceeds go to fundraise for the Prom.