Rachel Abby

Because wet plate was invented in the early 1840s and came into the mainstream later that decade (overcome in large part in the 1870s by dry plate), it seems that in America at least the process will always be associated with the Civil War, as soldiers got tintype portraits of themselves and photographers made ambrotypes of some of the battle locations.  I'm not aware of any "pin-up" type plates that may have been made, but had they been made I'd like to think they may have looked something like this... 

Rock n Roll, aka Robert

I was sitting in my house, thumbing through old albums, when I came across a live Doors record that I bought used a while back for a buck.  I wasn't sure I'd ever played it before, so on it went  OMG, the "break on through" track was awesome!  WAY better than the sanitized radio version.  This was Jim Morrison yelling wacky weird shit in the mic.  Like jump outa the stuffy chair, pump the Krell, and hop around the room with the dogs looking at you funny, kind of awesome.   Wow.  It brought me back.  For some reason, it reminded me of sitting on the garage floor getting good-n-drunk with my buddy Robert, listening to a little piece-o-junk boom box, smoking camel lights, seriously rocking out, and ogling our motorbikes talking about where we'd take `em tomorrow.  So, here is a picture of Robert, in honor of that good memory.  While not a particularly "handsome" shot of the man (who looks a lot more like Daniel Craig, in his better moments) you'll note that he looks good-n-healthy here.  That's because he was smart enough to cut the booze and start endurance training.  So, he runs 100 milers, while I run 3 milers!  Oh well.  At least we still ride motorbikes together!  He's a good man, and one of my best mates....

Marina

Here is a close-up of Marina that I really like.  The eyes came out beautifully, as did the slightly down-turned head, with fall-off of focus.  Also, the overall gradation of dark-to-light, top-to-bottom, gives it a nice dramatic effect.  This is a full plate.  I'm finding that the full-plate dimension, 8.5 x 6.5 inches, is a nice size with which to work (trying not to dangle my prepositions, Mom!) and also to view in-person.  The slightly smaller 5x7, being a bit taller in dimensional size, is also nice.  Anyway...

Mylen

I've had the good fortune to have two photo sessions with Ms. Mylen, and you can likely appreciate why I'm much looking forward to the third.