While reviewing old family photos, I was struck by one collection not only because of the age of the photos but also the representative examples of the types of photographs commonly available during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Daguerreotype

On the left in this daugerreotype is my great-great-great-grandfather James William Howe, born in 1831. (I don’t know who the gentleman on the right is.) This image was probably made sometime in the early-to-mid 1850s, which was also the time of peak popularity of daugerreotypes in the US. The image is under glass and beautifully detailed even under magnification. As with all photos using this method, the image reflects a negative view when observed at an angle and has a striking depth to it.

Tintype

Carte de Visite

The carte de visite (or CdV) was a very popular type of photo starting around 1859 in the US. It was an albumen print on paper backed with sturdier card stock. This 1877 photo of Robert Henry Julia was made just before his tragic death one year later at the age of 22. The reverse sides of the CdVs often had ornate advertising of the maker’s business and artistry.

Cabinet Card

The cabinet card introduced in the 1870s replaced CdVs and were popular through the beginning of the 20th century. They were a standard 4″ X 6″ size and, like the CdV, were albumen prints on paper mounted to a thicker cardboard. These two images are my great-great-grandmother Esther Amelia Ferris Hyatt and my great-great-grandfather Eugene Hyatt.

The photographer, Evan D. Evans, opened his business in Ithaca, NY after an 1881 fire destroyed his Corning NY business. He was highly skilled and successful, becoming Cornell University’s official photographer. We can conclude these portraits were made in Ithaca sometime between 1881 and 1894, the year of Eugene Hyatt’s death.

I recently had a photo book made by Blurb. It’s really more of a photo album dressed up as a book. There were a few motivations: put some of my favorite images in a form easily shared with friends and family; consolidate my embarrassingly-large collection of slides, transparencies, and digital images; and take a step forward with döstädning (death cleaning).

That last point means I want to eliminate my horde of images that were in a form nobody is likely to contend with after I permanently depart. It’s just one of many tidying projects in the queue to relieve the burden of pointless possessions and ease any future living transitions.

I’ve had a little experience making books before. A test effort using Google’s print service yielded a nice little soft-cover vacation booklet. There are few format and layout options but that means it’s very easy to use. I also made a soft-cover black and white photo book of my father’s old family images. I had a very unpleasant experience with a company whose name I won’t mention (it has the word “shutter” and a type of insect pest in the name). Trying the same book with Blurb did the trick nicely and convinced me to use their service for my new project. I’m pleased with the result.

With many options in size, layout, cover types, and papers, I designed for a hard-cover book with dust jacket, 10 X 8 inches in size. Once you’ve learned the basics of Blurb’s (sometimes primitive) BookWright program, you have a lot of flexibility for making layouts and design elements that suit your project. Order a proof copy, make final corrections and adjustments, then order as many as you need, taking care to place the order during one of their frequent promotional discount windows. You can also have them create a quality PDF version. These books are expensive, and not generally viable for bigger print distribution runs but are perfect for these one-off custom masterpieces.

I’m impressed with the print quality–almost all images, some of which pushed color boundaries, reproduced well. Blurb makes a color profile available for those who understand and can use soft-proofing in a color-managed workflow, but it’s not necessary for generally very good results.

The end result for me is a nice-looking book with about 200 images as an attractive photo album. All those old raw materials, prints and slides, are off to the landfill. Next up, I have a family album in the works as I digitize almost a century of family photos and slides. Copies of that book will be sent off to siblings and nieces so all have easy and organized access to visual family history.

Making your own books with modern printing technology is a worthwhile and interesting way to consolidate your art or experiences in a form that’s appealing, accessible, and likely to endure long past aging film and disorganized digital records. And it’s fun.

The last time I shot a roll of film has to be at least 20 years ago. I’ve kept my favorite cameras expecting to dip back into film photography at some point.  It’s not going to happen. My interest in film has grown vanishingly small.

That reality combined with our renewed effort to get rid of stuff means the cameras are all being permanently retired after each provided many years of reliable service. So long (and good riddance).

The Olympus OM-2n single lens reflex (SLR) camera is a 35mm film camera made in the early 1980s. Here it is coupled with an Olympus Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 lens.

The Mamiya C330 Professional is one of the few twin-lens reflex (TLR) cameras taking interchangeable lenses. In this case the Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f/2.8 lens is mounted. The C330 took 120 or 220 roll film and shot square format.

The Nikon F3 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) camera was introduced in 1980 followed shortly by the F3HP High Eyepoint version. This camera has a 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens mounted.

The Nikon FM2 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) camera had a built-in light meter but automated nothing. One advantage is that the camera could still be operated with a dead battery.

As a little photography experiment, I set things up so I could back-light a couple of round objects to force the background to pure white.  One of Lori’s most recent pottery pieces, fresh from the kiln, was a very nice plate with interesting patterns and beautiful glazes. We’ll use part of this image on an updated set of business cards for her.

Next, I used the same setup to try my hand at an effect I saw in a gorgeous set of photos in “Gather”, Corning Museum of Glass’s member’s publication. In this case the background light refracted and reflected through the patterns of my grandmother’s cut glass bowl, one of her wedding presents way back when.

From and black-and-white 8 X 10 print made by William Duncan c. 1960.

Over 50 years ago my father made this photo of 4 of us dressed up for Halloween. As I recall, our trick-or-treating consisted of visiting the Douglas family home in Hawkeye, NY–there were no other reasonable nearby options but we made out just fine.

The photo, shot with my father’s beloved Kodak Retina II A on Plus X film, was developed and printed to an 8X10 in the kitchen/darkroom. If memory serves, a light bulb on an extension cord placed inside the pumpkin provided the spooky light.

I’ve acquired a new toy tool.  It’s been fun playing with utilizing it for a new perspective on things. I’m shooting for a higher standard in hopes that my photos achieve new heights.  I could tell you more about it but I would just be droning on.

Lori’s 60th birthday celebration picture with bourbon and cigar.

Lori has been a bit distressed about marking her 60th birthday: she’s reached middle age.  (She plans to live at least until 120.)  I wanted to commemorate it with a photo that emphasizes the spirit of how I would like her to approach it: with equanimity or indifference.  She’s too busy enjoying life to pay much attention to arbitrary chronological milestones.

I was a bit surprised when she agreed to the concept as I described it. A cigar and glass of bourbon were always part of the narrative but the venue changed from field of daisies to woods due to uncooperative weather.

A moderately wide aperture reduced depth of focus. A low ISO and 1/250th shutter speed enabled darker tones in the woods so that some lighting would help bring the subject out a bit more.

Lighting was via two studio strobes.  One was camera left in a pan reflector for a slightly diffused overall subject lighting.  Another strobe in a grid high camera right behind Lori brought up a little separation on her shadow side. Both were at very low power because of the wider aperture.

We are pleased with the results.  At least photographically.  We got many good poses to pick from.  Unfortunately the cheap cigar made Lori ill and it took her the rest of the day to recover from all the puffing to bring the shot to life.

So, aside from poisoning my wife on her birthday, I would say things went pretty well.  Lori may differ.