Got an email saying my subscription here automatically renewed. Oh yeah, LULa! I've continued practicing wet plate and have been doing it for just over two years now. I started with 4x5 and now shoot 8x10 a lot. I mostly use lenses from the 19th C. and shoot tin types. My camera is a 1920s Kodak 2D, a very solid field camera. I only photo outdoors and have built a nice dark room that fits in the back of my Subaru Forester. While I haven't mastered wet plate collodion, I do feel I'm at least competent now. I've been photo'ing Civil War re-enactors (we have a few,) abandoned farm houses, local waterfalls, and a lot of country churches. I looked for a forum to post a photo or two such as "B&W photos," "large format" etc. but didn't see one that really fits what I do. I guess I'm about 150 years too late for a forum here.
I've just bought Watson & Sons stereo camera, half plate format that was made about 1884. I plan on trying to make stereoviews using dry plates when the weather gets too cold to shoot wet plate outdoors. It's a beautiful camera made of Spanish mahogany, brass, and finely tanned leather. I do own a Nikon D850 and excellent lenses but I just don't use it much. I take photos on the weekends, usually driving hundreds of miles on the Northern Plains. I really enjoy doing wet plate even though there are a lot of obstacles. It takes me about half an hour to make a photo when everything goes right.
First photo I took earlier this year. Lone Rock Lutheran Church near Flandreau, South Dakota. I used a Chamonix 4x5 and vintage 1910 Dagor wide angle (4 inch?) on Ilford FP4+. Second photo is Concordia Lutheran Church, near Summit, South Dakota. I used the Kodak 2D 8x10 and a c.1870s Darlot Hemispherique wide angle (about 8 inch). It's a wet collodion tin type.
Kent in SD
