Pumpkin Wetplate Camera

[goamules]

This Halloween I had a funny idea cross my mind. New wetplate photographers often ask about what camera do they need, and often spend a lot of money. I sometimes tell them to get an inexpensive, simple camera, that the camera isn't as important as the lens. Today, I decided to prove it.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5542/10600150923_24b96cbf66_z.jpg

Do you know where I'm going yet?!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7406/10599896945_3568d5222c_z.jpg

Perfect fit. I knew those Petzval focus knobs were needed for some implementations.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/10599897515_c45de3a3d2_z.jpg

People get all wrapped around an axle worrying about plate holders. We don't need no stinking plate holders!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7419/10599911734_f62cd7ffeb_z.jpg

[goamules]

With my precision plate mount system, I need to check the focus several times. Looks good for mid range.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7376/10599917636_ae1a193440_z.jpg

What better subject on Halloween for a pumpkin camera, than a pumpkin? And since we're all photographers, a camera too....
It's important to mark where you will bring the pumpkin back to shoot. Remember, you have to pour and load the plate, into the pumpkin, in the darkroom!

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5524/10599915025_8fdaf07fc8_z.jpg

TaDa! One wetplate! Time taken from conception, to carving, to collodion, to ccccvarnishing - 1 hour. Believe it - or not!

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2834/10600155853_3b350e06e2_c.jpg

[Mark Stahlke]

Sweet!
:D

[Mark Sawyer]

Excellent! And I'm pretty sure that's how Carleton Watkins did it, only he used a bigger pumpkin... :rolleyes:

[StoneNYC]

This is neat :)

[jnantz]

lets see, you have the pumpkin cam, john kasaian has the turkey cam,
all we need is the fruitcake cam and we have the fall and winter covered ..

great stuff! :)
john

ps i love the $ht eating grin on your jackolanern!

[SergeiR]

And now to mass production :)

[jcoldslabs]

Now THAT is fun photography.

Jonathan

[William Whitaker]

Garrett, Garrett, wet-plate man, had a thought for a pumpkin cam.

He put a lens in a pumpkin shell and there he made one very well.

(with apologies to Mother Goose)

[StoneNYC]

Ok so now make an image with a 4x5 chrome and then make a pumpkin projector using candles inside :)

[David Lobato]

You make it look easy as pie.

[jcoldslabs]

There once was a man without hype
Who carved holes in a pumpkin quite ripe
In went a wet plate
Dripping silver nitrate
And out came a nifty tintype

(With apologies to....well....everybody.)

[StoneNYC]

There once was a man without hype
Who carved holes in a pumpkin quite ripe
In went a wet plate
Dripping silver nitrate
And out came a nifty tintype

(With apologies to....well....everybody.)

Haha not bad!

[Frank Knapp]

Amazing!

[Vincent Pidone]

I'll bet you even have longer working time as the plates won't dry out so quickly.

[goamules]

You poets are just as creative!

[UlbabraB]

genius!

[Peter Gomena]

I was going to say but Vincent beat me to it - a self-humidifying camera for extended wet working time.

[Michael Cienfuegos]

Just don't use that one for a pie. :p

[goamules]

And...it makes a dandy candle-lit magic lantern when you want to project a negative.

[pierre506]

Great idea ~

[Regular Rod]

Wonderful!!!

Nice photograph too...

RR

[John Fink Jr.]

There once was a man without hype
Who carved holes in a pumpkin quite ripe
In went a wet plate
Dripping silver nitrate
And out came a nifty tintype

(With apologies to....well....everybody.)

You take the (pumpkin) pie with that :-)

[John Kasaian]

VERY cool! Sure beats the snot out of my frozen turkey pin hole :o

[gleaf]

Let me inventory here... War baby Dallmeyer, check. 4x5 Plate holders, check. Plate emulsion.... I may be ready next year. Do the ad hock rules require a correctly sized naturally grown body pumpkin? Single rail pumpkin with bellows and Graphic screen back may be way way out of bounds.

[StoneNYC]

Let me inventory here... War baby Dallmeyer, check. 4x5 Plate holders, check. Plate emulsion.... I may be ready next year. Do the ad hock rules require a correctly sized naturally grown body pumpkin? Single rail pumpkin with bellows and Graphic screen back may be way way out of bounds.

What about an SPR (single pumpkin reflex) hehe

[jcoldslabs]

You take the (pumpkin) pie with that :-)

Thanks, John. I'm a Limmerick nerd of sorts--perhaps a low-brow holdover from being a literature major in college. I cheated a bit since this one does not quite fit the traditional Limmerick meter. I almost didn't post it because it's silly, but I've posted photos that are worse!

Jonathan

[Brassai]

Mmmmm, Leica.

[Terry Christian]

Heck, you could probably do away with the lens entirely and do a wet plate pumpkin pinhole. An all organic cam!

[goamules]

Let me inventory here... War baby Dallmeyer, check. 4x5 Plate holders, check. Plate emulsion.... I may be ready next year. Do the ad hock rules require a correctly sized naturally grown body pumpkin? Single rail pumpkin with bellows and Graphic screen back may be way way out of bounds.

You should make one now, before the pumpkins are gone. My local store was letting them go for .50 cents a piece this weekend!

Brassai, it's actually a pre-war Fed NKVD commune made Leica copy. Works just as well, really (I've had a lot of trouble with leicas)!

[John Fink Jr.]

Thanks, John. I'm a Limmerick nerd of sorts--perhaps a low-brow holdover from being a literature major in college. I cheated a bit since this one does not quite fit the traditional Limmerick meter. I almost didn't post it because it's silly, but I've posted photos that are worse!

Jonathan

Jonathan,
In this day and age we need all the lit. we can get :-)

[Roger Thoms]

Nice a camera that you can make into a pie.

Roger

[StoneNYC]

Nice a camera that you can make into a pie.

Roger

A poison pie lol