I’m writing this in April 2020, while the world is locked down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s World Pinhole Day today, 26th April, and I wanted to do something to represent the strangeness of the last few weeks, which have been spent at home with only occasional forays outside. I decided to make a camera specifically for the event, rather than using one of the many pinhole cameras that I already have. Baked beans have been in short supply during the lockdown, with many people panic-buying tinned food, so I liked the idea of getting “full use” from the baked bean cans I had. So I sprayed an empty can stealth black, and added a laser-cut pinhole which I found in a box of junk and happened to be about the right size for the focal length. The camera has a focal length of 70mm and a pinhole diameter of 0.3mm, giving an aperture of f/235. A card lid was added to make it light-tight. ...

One of the characteristics of early photographic processes is that they are slow. This limits their use for indoor portraiture unless a strong artificial light source is available, or a camera with a very fast lens. Regarding the latter, I came across an interesting camera design that gives a fast working aperture of f/1.7 by using a concave focusing mirror rather than a conventional lens. This camera, invented by Alexander Wolcott and John Johnson, was awarded the first U.S. photographic patent in May 1840, patent number 1582. ...

Taking the wet collodion process on the road has its limitations; since you have to carry your darkroom with you, there needs to be somewhere to park your car close to the subject. Back in the 1800’s Roger Fenton used a horse and cart rather than a Volkswagen, but I guess that he had the same parking problem. So, I have been scouting locations that are accessible by car in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, and came across Sutton Scarsdale Hall near Chesterfield. ...

Wet collodion is a challenging process. Just when you think that everything is under control, some change in circumstances will put you back at square one. Witness the wet plate weekend at Lacock Abbey in July, in which an enthusiastic group of collodion photographers descended on the former home of William Henry Fox Talbot. The weekend was kindly organised by Mark Voce and Tony Richards. Roger Watson, curator of the Fox Talbot Museum, generously allowed us to access the grounds and cloisters of the abbey and regularly dropped in to offer his support. ...