A problem with taking portraits used to be keeping focus while taking the lens cap on and off. A problem no longer – having access to a good engineer who doesn’t mind small jobs is priceless. The extra piece of turned brass, when tightened, keeps precise focus. I have also no mounted the lens with [...]

My portraiture work now has a helpful addition – a sturdy headstand for the long exposures. I did have a replica headstand (the top shown here) but it was without the base and relied on a chair I had to fitted it to. This stand, which is from the early part of the 20th century, [...]

One of the joys of the home office is getting parcels. Usually its art supplies with a catalogue thrown in which makes for a good read. This morning though it was a fed ex box from a european client with two broken stereo cover glasses to be reproduced and a book about his collection. The [...]

Progress on improving plate quality is being made and I have started taking the mobile darkroom on the road. This is fostering a to do list of improvements to it and a learning curve in experience in the field. Double car parks are quite handy for making camp while the plates are processed.. The plate [...]

It has taken much longer than I thought it would to get back up to speed with the process again. This is partly because I am doing the process differently now but also I am getting used to and fine tuning, the mobile darkroom. This plate had not enough iodine/ too much bromine, discerning the [...]

The previous post might be a bit misleading for the correct colors of the halogens in silica gel, below is todays 4 square bromine test plate (showing the mobile darkroom) along with dark cherry iodine and dark post-it bromine in the silica gel medium. Quadrant’s are, from bottom right corner; 5, 10, 15 and 25 [...]

The information age has meant great things to the daguerreotype process. Since the daguerreian era (c.1840-60) there has always been someone somewhere practicing it, but the hardships of toiling away alone in the wilderness have been lessened greatly by the internet. Most, if not all, knowledge that is required can be found on cdags.org, the [...]