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| Photographers, Valley View - Yosemite 2013 |
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| Very Large Camera - Yosemite 2013 |
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| Prints (For Merge?) - Yosemite 2013 |
These fellows were manhandling this baby at the valley view in Yosemite when I stopped by. They were very absorbed in their work, though, so I'm not exactly sure what process they were using. Photographs were being printed and fixed on the spot using, interestingly enough, an
ice fishing tent (!)
UPDATE: Please check out the very interesting comments by Carl Weese. (His blog is
here.)
The photographer in the orange-red shirt is apparently Eric Taubman. Extra photos of a similar camera can be seen at
this site. Also see Carl's comments for an explanation of the ice fishing tent.
Wow . . . aren't the internets amazing?
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| Eskimo Ice Fishing Tent - Yosemite 2013 |
5 comments:
Looks like tintype. Not a print, but a unique original made with wetplate emulsion coated on black-painted metal. The image is a negative, but what you see reads as a positive image against the black. This is very popular at the workshop center where I teach Pt/Pd several times a year. It has a distinctive look and some people like the unique aspect. Other people scan them and make editions of big digital prints--to each his own.
Just thought, the red tent is really clever. The emulsion is orthochromatic, sensitive only to blue and some UV, so even though the tent wasn't meant to be a darkroom, any light that gets through that red fabric would likely be "safe" during the coating and developing operations.
this is getting funny: after sending in a couple comments, I did a double take looking at the guy in the orange shirt, and clicked to enlarge. I can't quite tell because of the angled view of his face, but I'm quite sure it is Eric Taubman, wet plate expert and guiding light of the CAP workshop center and Penumbra Foundation in NY, the place where I'm "the platinum guy."---Carl
Carl: Thanks for the extra info!
Great rationale for red tent use, as well. I've updated the post.
BTW, while I was poking around their work site, I picked up on something I'd not experienced in ages . . . the distinctive acid scent of fresh fixer . . . large containers of it.
I'm thinking that they probably had to get NPS permission to set up all that gear.
Amazing, but fallible. I'm informed that the guy in the orange shirt isn't Eric (there is a strong resemblance, not to mention that it's someone doing wetplate/tintype 11x14 in the field, but now I realize he's not the right age). But what a coincidence! The CAP/Penumbra facilities keep evolving, and that daylight studio shown in your link is wonderful.
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