Blog Posts

Photo Essay No. 8 "150 Rolls of Film"

6/20/2022

Beginning in 2015, I started photographing on film, and just recently I finished shooting through my 150th roll of film. I selected my favorite photograph from each roll of film and have them posted below in chronological order. All of these photographs evoke a wide spectrum of emotions in me, helping me to recall a lot of fond memories as well as a lot of difficult times. But regardless of any grief these photos remind me of, I feel immeasurably lucky to have known and loved so many great people and to have witnessed some of the most beautiful sights the world has to offer. These photographs give me a newfound gratitude for life that no other way can give.

(All photos are chronologically ordered from the time it was taken, 2015-2022)

Learning the Wet-Plate Collodion Photo Process (Tintypes)

4/23/2022

My first outdoor tintype shoot I conducted with the assistance of Michelle Baughan and Ben Williams. The left image is the resulting tintype from the shoot.

For the past year I've been working on making tintype photographs, also known as the wet-plate collodion photo process.

The wet-plate collodion process was first theorized by Gustav Le Gray, but eventually came to fruition in 1851 through the work of Frederick Scott Archer. The most popular photographic process at the time was the Daguerreotype, but within the decade, the collodion process succeeded the Daguerreotype in popularity. The collodion process was most often used for portraiture, landscapes, architecture, and general fine art.

Gustav Le Gray (1820-1884), the French Photographer credited with theorizing the collodion photographic process.

Frederick Scott Archer (1813-1857), the English Photographer credited with successfully deriving the collodion photographic process into reality.

One of the most notable historical events documented with the collodion process was the Crimean War. Roger Fenton is credited for many famous collodion photographs of the Crimean War and is considered one of the very first war photographers in the history of photography. The collodion process requires the use of a darkroom, so accordingly, Fenton had to haul around a mobile darkroom everywhere to create his photographic plates. Fenton mostly captured still-life subjects and portraits of war due to the collodion's labor-intensive and delicate process.

Roger Fenton (1819-1869), the British Photographer and pioneer in war photography.

Fenton sitting on his mobile darkroom. This was hauled anywhere he would make a collodion photograph.

"Valley of the Shadow of Death" (1855), a collodion photograph by Fenton of a scene from the Crimean War.

Today, the collodion process (most often referred to as 'tintypes') is popular worldwide among several fine art photographers and has created some of the world's most stunning imagery. Many contemporary celebrities have had their portrait taken on a tintype, fine-art photographers often opt for the tintype medium, and supplies to make tintypes still remain in constant production.

Above: Victoria Will created a series of tintypes of actors, actresses, and other celebrities, beginning her project at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. See more about Will's shoot here.

Paul Adams (right), Professor of Photography at Brigham Young University, along with former BYU student Jordan Layton, made 20"x24" tintype plates for their project titled "Vanishing Voices", making portraits of remaining speakers of their native language about to disappear. A plate from the series (left) has been acquired by the Smithsmonian National Portrait Gallery.

Learning the tintype process involves all sorts of variables that can all affect the resulting tintype for better or for worse. It's virtually impossible to create a flawless plate, but that's one of the qualities of tintypes that makes it so visually interesting. Below is an exhaustive list of anything that can go wrong in the making of a tintype (well, anything that I can think of).

- accidentally exposing light-sensitive chemicals
- spilling expensive chemicals when filtering
- poor application of chemicals onto tintype plate
- miscalculating exposure time, which is most often measured with an ISO speed of 1
- accidentally scratching/rubbing a developed image before varnishing it to completion
- not setting up the camera properly or handling the camera delicately (cameras used for tintypes are most often old, large and intricate to set up, and requires special attention to detail and careful handling to prevent any damage)
- having light leak into other parts of the camera (again, old cameras are often used for tintypes, which can bring unknown light-leaks due to the aging of the camera's construction)
- accidental exposure of plate before in-camera exposure is taken or after in-camera exposure is taken
- mixing chemicals incorrectly
- mishandling chemicals (they are toxic, dangerous, and some flammable)
- over or under-developing (developing requires quick attention to detail; when details in the highlights show up, a stop bath must be applied immediately to stop the developing. If a stop bath is applied too early or too late, the image can be ruined)
- outside temperature can affect chemicals to react differently
- for outdoor shoots, setting up a darkroom with no light leaks
- not wearing the correct protective equipment or not wearing it correctly
- having a plate catch on fire while applying its final varnish (applying varnish requires using an alcohol candle while holding the varnished plate above the flame; varnish is very flammable)

In addition, not having any assistance on a tintype shoot makes things even more difficult.

There's many more things that can affect the tintype's final result, and they can happen from even the most minuscule of variables. After reading this list it can easily become intimidating to learn how to perform the wet-plate collodion process. And I'm sure most of these things listed won't make sense until actually trying the wet-plate collodion process.

Here are 3 plates, one plate in the fixing tray (left) to reverse the negative image into a positive image, a plate in the final wash (middle) to rid all remaining chemical traces, and a plate on a drying rack (top right corner). All plates need to dry completely before sealing the varnish, which will keep the image retained for dozens of years.

A lighting set-up (left) and the resulting tintype (right).

Here is another plate on the drying rack. It may looked finished but before varnish is applied, even the slightest of scratches can irrevocably damage the image.

The video above is a behind-the-scenes look at the lighting and camera set-up for a tintype I made in the studio.

This is me after setting up the camera for my first outdoor tintype shoot.

One risk of the chemicals used comes from the silver nitrate liquid. If any of the silver touches your skin it will result in a burn, darkening the impacted spots, and won't heal until the skin cells have replenished themselves (which can take up to 2-3 weeks). Luckily, the burns do not hurt. Here I had splashed a tiny bit of silver onto my ankles and my ankles looked like this for a few weeks.

The video above was from my very first tintype shoot I conducted, which happened to be an outdoor shoot. You can see I set up an ice-fishing tent to create a make-shift darkroom.

I have done two outdoor tintype shoots so far, and while both were incredibly challenging, the resulting tintypes were stunning. Plus, the camera looks really great for taking pictures of it.

Below are scans of my most successful tintypes I've created in the past year. I worked on tintypes May-July of 2021, and January-April of 2022. I'm very satisfied with my work and have learned so much as a photographer from working on this process. I've really come to appreciate how far photography has come as a technology. It's incredible what digital cameras can do compared to working with tintypes, and most people don't understand how much photography has progressed since its invention – but I sure know now, from personal experience.

Photo Essay No. 7 "An Uncommon Life"

1/19/2022

Medium: Medium Format Film Photography
Camera: Mamiya RB67 Pro S
Film Stock: Cinestill BwXX
Film developed and scanned at the FIND Lab

I want to give a special thanks to Jeff Wilks for letting me photograph moments of his journey to rid himself of colorectal cancer. This project has become so valuable and significant to me as I was allowed to capture such a difficult process. Through it all, Jeff worked hard to maintain his loving and positive disposition, and was very successful.

I loved all the time he and I spent together, especially all the meaningful conversations we had. I greatly appreciate his willingness to be vulnerable with me in front of the camera.

I love you dad!

Photographing BYU Football Games

12/2/2021

BYU tight end Isaac Rex celebrates a touchdown catch. I feel very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time to capture this moment.

When I was a kid I had a great affinity for sports – especially football. I remember in 5th grade when I brought a spare shirt to school for picture day so I could be free to dirty myself playing football during recess. I remember picking out an Arizona Cardinals Larry Fitzgerald jersey for Christmas and being so excited to wear it all the time. I remember enthusiastically watching Super Bowl XLII (42) on TV, cheering on the New York Giants as they ended the New England Patriot's near-perfect season winning record. I remember my dad taking me to all the BYU home football games for the 2009 football season and hearing the roars of LaVell Edwards Stadium.

As evident from my crazy hair, this is the 5th grade photo I described where I brought an extra shirt to wear for my picture so I could go all-out at recess playing football and not have to worry about looking dirty for my picture.

Skiing at age 11 in my new Larry Fitzgerald jersey (11 was a good number that year).

Left: David Tyree becomes an NFL legend making an impossible catch to set up the game-winning drive for the Giants. Right: Giants quarterback Eli Manning cheers at the success of his team, and is later given the MVP award for the game.

Max Hall led the '09 BYU football team to an 11-2 overall season record and ended the season ranked no. 12 in both the Coaches and AP polls.

Fast forward to 2021, I'm a photography student at Brigham Young University who just got hired to work as a photographer with BYU's school newspaper, The Daily Universe. Beyond standard responsibilities to make photographs accompanying news articles, I learn one of the bigger responsibilities of the photographer is to shoot all big sporting events, which of course included football!

This image came from my second BYU football game I photographed. I always hauled that big lens around at every game because I would get most of my best shots with it.

Below are all of my favorite photographs I've taken of the BYU football team in action for the 2021 season. I feel so lucky and blessed to have been a part of it.

Go Cougs!

Photographing with Motivation from Instagram Silences the Artistic Voice

11/17/2021

Left to right: characters Walter Mitty and Sean O'Connell in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (2013)

This blog post came from a homework assignment asking me to write about something I try to avoid when practicing photography.

Two excerpts from the book Art and Fear read:

“Making art now means working in the face of uncertainty; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward... Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself.”

“In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.”

Considering the above passages, my philosophy regarding authentic art-making (in my case, making photographs) focuses on the following tenets: prioritizing self-discovery, taking risks for the sake of authentic progression, an emphasis on internal motivation, and continuously pursuing the development of a distinguished voice single to the photographer only, all while simultaneously working in a private manner in order to foster meaning in the photographer’s pursuits. In comparison to Instagram, my beliefs illustrate the social media platform as the antithesis to authentic art-making.

Instagram’s structure discourages self-discovery. Its framework and algorithm creates a powerful platform mostly for advertising and for users to gain significant attention. Instagram seduces photographers to participate in photography trends, detracting from the ability to develop a singular artistic voice. Instagram accounts can be set to private, but doing so will severely limit how many users can see their work. If uninterested in creating a photography business and more focused in progression as an artist, the photographer would benefit from avoiding Instagram.

The intention of this paper is to explain the negative influence Instagram can wield, how working in privacy continually enables the photographer to unearth their artistic voice, and sharing how I have applied these principles to my personal work.

To begin, it would be valuable to understand the main purposes for Instagram, designed by Instagram. The platform’s configuration mainly intends to trap users into spending more and more time on the app. This is accomplished through Instagram’s endless feed feature. Instagram’s features also encourage users to share everything and anything publicly for opportunities to “connect”. This gives an immense amount of opportunities for businesses to advertise - and most alluring - gives opportunities for anyone from the general public to become famous by going “viral”. It’s a haven for advertisements and attention. For the photographer interested in making a business out of their photography skills, Instagram is essential, especially for those who want a large client base or to reach a vast amount of people.

When motivated by Instagram’s rewards (likes, follows and views), photographing in an art-making paradigm causes many negative effects to the photographer and the overall progression as an artist. These negative effects I will describe come from personal experience and relating to other photographers about this specific dilemma. Motivated by Instagram’s external rewards, I photographed with a people-pleaser mindset. I wanted to follow the latest trends in subjects and style, which inhibited my ability to develop an artistic voice unique to only me. I may have experienced some moments of self-discovery, but it was always secondary to my focus on gaining a larger following. I not only shared most of my photographs, but I also shared many thoughts regarding my artistic development, even my deeper emotions in general. I did not practice photography in privacy, which left me vulnerable to the addictive external rewards Instagram provides. This overall mindset was damaging to my artistic progression, and caused me to plateau in my work. My photography essentially became advertisement for myself - basing my worth on how many likes, views, and followers I would receive.

All aforementioned is damaging to an artist’s authentic progression, as I saw it was to mine. I was so focused on pleasing the masses and basing my worth on Instagram engagement, I neglected finding self-fulfillment and discovering what I am most drawn to as a photographer. I slowly made this important discovery: both self-fulfillment and understanding my preferred subject matter requires me to keep my photography more sacred. Instead of letting my photographs be tainted with social media’s judgements (mostly from uneducated laymen), I deleted my Instagram account. I then began keeping my photographs to myself and to close friends whom I knew understood how to look at a photograph. This epiphany to keep my photographic pursuits more private came from a pivotal scene in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

When both he and a colleague are about to lose their job, Walter takes action by embarking on an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was released in 2013.

Walter, the main character, sets out on an extensive trek to find the renowned (and elusive) photographer Sean O’Connell with the goal of retrieving an important photo negative. After following all traces of where Sean recently traveled, Walter ends up hiking at the top of the snowy Himalaya mountains in search of Sean. Walter miraculously stumbles on Sean in the moment of attempting to photograph the “ghost cat” snow leopard. The snow leopard then appears in the camera’s viewfinder, but Sean doesn’t take the picture. In this scene, a couple significant lines said by Sean struck me, and are as follows:

“Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.”

“Sometimes I don’t [take the picture]. If I like a moment, I mean me personally, I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.”

(watch this movie scene here)

At this moment Sean had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to photograph the notoriously elusive snow leopard, but to Walter’s surprise, he didn't take the picture.

In this scene I noticed how sacred a moment was treated by Sean. To him, fame was secondary - the moments with his camera were primary. I realized the essence of photography was right before my eyes - I saw photography was all about noteworthy moments, and truly understanding what to do with the moment. The photographer can always photograph the moment to their discretion, but intentions must remain untainted by selfish motivations to gain fame and fortune from a photograph (as clearly portrayed in Sean’s character). When the photographer does not dictate the moment but instead remains its servant, their photographs retain a sanctified aroma to it. Photography then becomes the authentic art-making pursuit as described in Art and Fear, enabling the photographer to find true progression as an artist. I came to the conclusion that what Sean embodied was what I wanted for myself as a photographer.

I shortly thereafter applied what I learned from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to my photographic pursuits. As mentioned earlier, I deleted my Instagram account and avoided most social media platforms. I began keeping my photography mostly to myself. Keeping my photography to myself and close friends helped me feel enabled to photograph whatever I wanted, which set me on a path of understanding my own artistic voice. I could ask myself what I truly wanted to photograph without the pressure to please others. I also decided to shoot on film instead of my digital camera, which significantly enhanced my new photography approach.

This photo is from the very first roll of film I shot in 2015. I started my film photography journey on a black and white film stock.

Shooting on film taught me the importance of the moment. I only had so many frames available to use on a roll of film, and I had to decide which moments were really worth photographing and what were not. Shooting on film also taught me the importance of slowing down. By photographing on an old film camera with no automatic settings, I was required to take the time to manually set my aperture, my focus, and shutter speed according to my light meter. Manually setting my camera combined with the consideration of limited frames created a perfect environment for me to decide what I thought was worth photographing. With the pausing and the crucial decision-making, my authentic journey of developing my personal artistic voice was strengthened.

Today, I still keep social media secondary to my photographic pursuits, and I continue to shoot on film. Six years of photographing on film and a three year break from Instagram, I’m here now, in tune with and following what I understand to be my artistic voice. This was made possible through a hiatus from Instagram and working in a much more private manner. For my pursuits as an artist, I will always keep social media secondary to my work. Social media stardom is an external reward, but I’d much rather have the internal reward of “finding nourishment within the work itself."

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Photo Essay No. 8 "150 Rolls of Film"

Learning the Wet-Plate Collodion Photo Process (Tintypes)

Photo Essay No. 7 "An Uncommon Life"

Photographing BYU Football Games

Photographing with Motivation from Instagram Silences the Artistic Voice