Happy Wet Plate Day - I Hope Your Hands Are Black!

It's a beautiful day today and we made the most of it. Today is Worldwide Wet Plate Collodion Day 2009! We're honored and pleased to be a part of it.

Summer and I made plates most of the day and was lucky enough to have a couple of sitters for some portraits. We had a lot of fun. Summer knocked it out of the park with her Converse shot. She'll have to tell you what it's about - consumerism and being a teenager, I think.

As a group (Collodionistas), we decided to set a day aside to honor the man who invented the process - Frederick Scott Archer. We also want to honor the process itself - however ones sees fit to do that (usually by making some photographs). Unfortunately, today is Archer's death date. He died 157 years ago! We don't know his birth date, if we find out, we may change the date we do this on.

It's easy to forget what role photography has played in our lives and in history. Frederick Scott Archer played a significant part in making photography what it is today. We tend to take it for granted - pour a few plates and that might make you think twice - that's not a bad thing, either (ether).

If we really wanted to honor Archer, we would all be making 8x10 negatives and printing Albumen - maybe next year!

Here's some of what we did today:

"Jürgen, der Klempner" - Whole Plate Alumitype - by Quinn 
 

"Schweinehaxen" - Whole Plate Alumitype - by Quinn 
 

"Schweinehaxen" - burnished & cropped - Whole Plate Black Glass Ambrotype - by Quinn (I love the texture of the glass showing through)  
 

"Converse From Berlin" - 5x4 Alumitype - by Summer