In the quiet of a January afternoon, my studio filled with flowers and fungi. Olivia arrived with three sculpted hats of her own making, each one a small universe. A daffodil, bright with the promise of spring. A dandelion, soft and airy, holding a thousand wishes.

Humans have been photographed with their pets since the beginning of photography in the 1800s. The following images are from the late 1800s and early 1900s that show what we already know, us humans love our fluffy buddies.

Wearing glasses in tintype portraits presents unique challenges and considerations that can affect the final image.

Modern coatings on glasses lenses are made to protect your eyes from damaging UV rays. But as the wet plate collodion process mostly captures UV light on the blue side of the spectrum that can cause your clear glasses lenses to appear as tinted. From a slight amount all the way to full on sunglasses.

On their 1 year anniversary they came from Edmonton to my little tintype portrait studio, donned their wedding attire and were captured in silver for all time.

Photographer Riley JB setup his mobile tintype studio at Ill-Fated Kustoms to make portraits during the One Stop Pop-Up Market in Calgary.

Family portraits don’t have to be boring. Bring your ideas to my Calgary tintype studio to etch them in silver using a Victorian-era chemical process.

The first tintype portrait I made of Zowie, my now constant collaborator, was during a fall blizzard back in 2019. Now 3 ½ years and a few dozen plates later we were back to bring her vision to life in my little Calgary studio.