Ive been on the road a lot lately. Moved out of my house in SW Virginia Jan 1. Moved to Florida with all my stuff. Hated it so I only stayed 2 months then moved back to a friends place in North Carolina just west of Durham. Moved most of my stuff back and stored it at Chris Morgans. Im now in Florida again to pickup the rest and do a cowboy shooting event. This is my 4th event in 4 weeks. 2 more events the next 2 weeks to go and then I might get a break. Also did 4 days of computer tech work this week. With the way the economy is and the price of gas I cant afford to sit at home.

Had some really nice events the last 2 weeks. The 2 before that not so good. I was on Roanoke Island in NC and the the Mariners Museum in Newport News Virginia for the last 2. Shiloh 150th coming up in 2 weeks with about 6000 registered. It will be me, Todd Harrington, Bruce Shultz and Doug Harding there doing wet plate. Wendell Decker will be at the other Shiloh event and I hope to see him after the events are over.

Here is one from 2 weeks ago that I really like. I shot this as a vertical composition on half plate. After playing with cropping it I like it even better this way. So it is a horizontal crop from the center of a vertical half plate. Shot with my CC Harrison half plate lens. It is an older dag lens with no slot but I have a permanent stop in it between the size of a quarter and a half dollar. Over cast day with off and on rain at just a couple seconds. It is a soft (not intensified) but contrasty negative digitally scanned. Used all potassium collodion (pot. bromide/pot. iodide) because I dont have any ether right now. Cadmium makes thicker collodion so I find if Im substituting alcohol for ether the all potassium pours better for me. Have some ether coming so Ill be back to using old reliable again soon.

I like it very much, it's beautiful.
Also like the notion that the women are doing all the work while the men are standing about watching!

Seán

Those "life-scene" tintypes are just so amazing. We are drawn in to them; imagining what life would be life if we were there.

Robert,
Please post some pictures from the cowboy mounted shooting. I do that and I'm in the process of finishing my dark box and chemicals will follow soon after. Ray made me a great whole plate camera and he got me a Petzval lense. i can't wait to try the process out. I would love to see some picture you take of horse and shooter. Thanks and have a great shoot.
The Lost Spur
RJ

Love it!

nice one!

great shot