fantastic. thank you!Originally Posted by goamules
fantastic. thank you!
great photoI joined the two wet plate FB forums about a year ago, and began actually doing wp last August. Since then it's been about 80% of my photo activity. I started with 4x5 and added 5x7 and 8x10. I'm mostly active on the "Collodion Bastards" but also "Friends of Archer" when it isn't being overtly political. There are two things I notice about these groups. First, there are a LOT of beginners showing up, at least one per week if not three. Second, most if not all the people on the forum seem to be into the arty farty "alternative photography" camp. Me? I'm attracted by the historical aspects but not to the point of being a purist. I use a Chamonix for 4x5 and 1920s cameras for 5x7 and 8x10. I have stuck with lenses made 1844 to 1880 for the most part though. I don't dress up in special clothes unless old ones I don't mind getting stained count. I love to do Civil War reenactments but as you can imagine there are damned few of those in the Dakotas. One of the two has already been canceled this year. (Ridiculous since it's held outdoors.) I'm mostly into photo'ing old abandoned buildings or natural subjects such as waterfalls. I don't see any way I'll get into some of the more offbeat stuff I see on FB. I rarely do portraits either and when I do it's outdoors. For me the FB groups have been very helpful and I have learned a lot. I have been catching the "Q Show" on Youtube the past couple of months. He's very knowledgeable but tends to ramble. I have picked up some pointers that have helped me so I keep watching. I think I've reached the point where I'm not a beginner any more, but certainly have not mastered it. I suppose I'm a "midginner?"I shoot WP pretty much every week.
---->Wet plate has definitely grown. I can see that even during the past year since I've started. I have a hunch that with some states and places (definitely not mine) still shut down to some degree, photography could be an outlet that people can still do. I think interest in WP will only accelerate. I'm proposing we start a WP forum right here! Why not? I think the numbers & interest for it is there.
Kent in SD
I am still mourning the loss of Szabo's site. I wasn't much interested in their version of authenticity, but the knowledge there was amazing.
Facebook is a consumer behavioral data mining operation posing behind a social media front.
Most of the professional groups I belong to were previously on Yahoo groups or similar, and have moved to groups.io. Groups.io was founded and written by the guy who wrote Yahoo groups, but with all the improvements and changes he had wanted to implement.
There is a small fee for initial setup, but it's well worth it, and in the other groups we simply asked for volunteer donations and had everything covered in a matter of minutes.
I don't do WP, not sure I ever will, pretty sure I will never dress up in civil war clothing, but I do think it's important to preserve and spread knowledge for others to benefit and learn.
Yep, me too. Remember Morganwerk, Szabo, Dunniway, Claudet, Brewer, and about a half dozen more were true experts at collodion? And back then, they were about the only people doing it world wide! In those days I estimated that there were less than 20 people shooting wetplate world wide! I joined the ranks, and it took me about a year to feel I was "somewhat good", never an expert! Like Two23 says, your an intermediate for a LONG time. I shot every day for 6 months, the once a week for another year. Now...about once ever 2-3 months. But still love it.
The Collodion Bastards....their name pretty much tells your their philosopy: Do whatever you want, no learning required, call any traditionalist names, create a new lens and do hard sales and call it a "Dallmeyer 3B" ... lot's of drama and politics. I quit that FB group after a year. The Wetplate Photography one was good, but the Wetplate Photographer one varies. I know what we need! Let's set up 10 more wetplate facebook groups! (That's pretty much what happened/happens).
By the way, I've gotten the archives for the Collodion dot com site. One day I can set it up as an archive.
Garrett
flickr galleries
Another thing Quinn started was World Wetplate Day. Me and Geert helped him build the website, I wrote the content, and helped promote it. The goal was to print a book from the submitted plates each photographer poured on that one day, 2 per person. Quinn took the proceeds from the book sales, and bought a new grave stone for Frederick Archer in London. It had become dilapidated and almost forgotten. He and John Brewer (who discovered Archer's death was recorded on the wrong day, it's actually 1 May) had a ceremony to unveil it.
The first year, 2009, there were about 25 plates if I recall. I just checked the wetplateday.org site, it's still there. But many of the first year's galleries are gone. I know the admin got tired of messing with it, so it must have almost died, then got resurrected in 2019 it appears. I'm sure there are hundreds of wetplaters today if not thousands. Much of that is due to Quinn and his efforts.
https://britishphotohistory.ning.com...k-scott-archer
https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ...0grave&f=false
Garrett
flickr galleries
I moderated a group on carbon printing for many years on Yahoo, moved it to groups.io several years ago when it became apparent that Yahoo had no interest in continuing support of groups. At the time there was no cost to make the switch. Groups.io did a great job of moving the archive of the group, and the move was almost seamless. The platform of groups.io is in my opinion excellent and I would definitely recommend it.
Sandy
For discussion and information about carbon transfer please visit the carbon group at groups.io
[url]https://groups.io/g/carbon
Is there any free hosting available for a SQL database forum, even if it's "locked" for comments, and just readable? I have the archive, now what to do with it?
Garrett
flickr galleries
You should consider starting a forum here. There's already a number of us that shoot collodion. Word will get out to the FB crowd and I'm sure a number will migrate here as well. The forum here has lots of LF people and no doubt some are interested in wet plate already but don't know how to get started. This website has been very stable for several decades and has an excellent archive.
Kent in SD
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
I'm not sure how I would "start a forum here". There is 16 years of content, uploaded plates, and an entire directory structure that isn't consistent with this LF site. I need a place where I can put it as an archive of all that expertise and guidance. I'm thinking it needs to be free to host, and comments disabled. Otherwise, I would have just paid to keep running it where Quinn had it, and paid the yearly fee. He got out because no one want's to pony up, but everyone likes free content and help.
Garrett
flickr galleries
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