My boys Miles and Jonah having fun.

I attended Film is Not Dead in April and had a blast! It was great to learn from the best and also make new friends. Here they are...

Shot with a Mamiya 645 on Kodak Portra 400 and Fuji 160s.

I recently got a killer deal on film from Walgreens when they were having a fire sale on film. I also got a couple of disposable cameras, one of which I gave to my 3 year old Miles. I taught him how to wind it, hold it and see through the viewfinder... then I set him loose... A lot of the pictures were of the wall or cupboards, but a few were of people! Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.

I got a text one day from my friend Ryan Muirhead asking if I'd want to come up to Boise, ID to shoot some tintypes for a new show that he was hosting alongside Tanja Lippert and Tia Reagan. Of course, I agreed... he's Ryan-frickin-Muirhead...

So I made the trek to Boise, a nice 5 hour drive, with a lot of time to think about all the possible ways I could screw up and make myself look like an idiot while there:

"Were my chemicals fresh and going to work?"

"Is my camera too old and going to break?"

"Can I get my exposures right and make the plates look decent?"

Those questions aside, how was I going to sound as an "authority" on the subject? I am a self tought wet-plate photographer, basically studying up on the process and the techniques involved over a period of time, and finally just diving in. How was I going to sound explaining it?

After arriving in Boise, I was greated at the door of the house we were staying in by the gang, minus Ryan and Jan Scholz who were already asleep. We stayed up and chatted for a bit before we called it a night.

The next morning we went to the [framed] network's HQ and had a sit down to talk about the outline of the show. I had all of my wet-plate gear there with me, as initially we had intended to shoot them in the abandoned office space across from their studio. After debating about the light conditions a bit, we decided to head back to the house and shoot in the garage, while using the laundry room as a make-shift darkroom. I decided that I needed to run to Lowes to grab a red light bulb to replace the light in the laundry room with. I drove for 20 minutes to get to one, and got back to the house right when the others got there, plugged in the light, and.. it didn't work.

While Ryan, Tanja, Tia and Travis Lovell (photography instructor, talking about the history of photography) were filming their segments in the living room, I grabbed Jan to do test shot of him, set up in the garage where I was planning on shooting the rest of the tintypes... I walked him through the process in the darkroom, using only the light through a crack in the door (which was tungsten light) to load the plate into the film holder. We went into the garage, focused the camera, loaded the plate, and waited still for 6 seconds. Now, for those questions I was asking myself earlier... "Were my chemicals going to work?!!" 

We walked back to the darkroom, and while using the available light through the crack in the door, I developed the plate.... and....

It worked. It was a Boise miracle. For some reason, it still always amazes me when a tintype works. We took the plate in to show the others and they were getting VERY excited to shoot some more.

Now it was show time. I did an embarrassing little on-cam interview with Ryan (I hate seeing or hearing myself on camera) and then it was time to shoot some tins.

Since the red light didn't work, I thought maybe one dim tungsten light in the darkroom while loading and developing wouldn't damage the process and would allow the filming crew to capture those parts of the process as well... So we set up a light in there, and I explained the process, step by step, loaded the plate, shot it, developed it... and... NOTHING! Completely blank. This was a great start to the show indeed.

I knew immediately what the problem had been, it wasn't the chemicals, it was the light. We had to lose the light in the darkroom. How naive to think that I could get away with that.

We turned off the light and shot again, this time taking extra precaution with all of the steps. It worked. The  following one worked too, and the two afer that. That was a close one.

Long story short, I need to trust my instincts and my equipment.

I had an excellent time in Boise, and I am grateful to have worked with some of the best. Thank you Ryan, Tanja, Tia, Jan, Travis and Rachel! (and also to the guys on the film crew!) I really enjoyed it.

WATCH THE EPISODE HERE:

Here's another post that is long overdue... Miles had a 3rd birthday party in January, and I photographed it all on instant film. The party was a Cars themed party...

Shot with a Mamiya RZ67 PRO II on Fuji 100c Instant Film, Bleached, scanned and converted to BW.