Well, have just acquired two fantastic daguerreotypes from a local online auction. The first is an early British Royal Navy image of an officer. Am still researching this one but am informed by the vendor that this chap is the son of the Captain or First Officer on the expedition to the West Indies to test Harrison's H4 chronometer. He has promised to try to find the sitter's name. Fingers crossed. The second image is by Robert Vance of San Francisco and is a half plate dag. Full case but split at the spine. Still has most of the original seals in place. These two images can be viewed by clicking "Collection", "Album List","Daguerreotypes" ....page 3. Quite a few new cased images added to the collection over the past few months so will list these when I get time.

 Monday 29th Nov.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/4399753/Bellows-camera-a-labour-of-love

Well, back again with a few updates. Still working on the Wairarapa house....an on going millstone that needs more attention than I can give it while working full-time at Park Road. My spare time over the past few months has been occupied with getting my son Anthony settled into his new home here with Diane and I. He's come to live with us and finish his schooling in NZ as his Mum has departed to Aussie. No wet-plate work to speak of as have been absorbed with making a mammoth camera for Ben Cauchi the wet plate artist from Wanganui. This thing which we have christened the "Behemoth" is a wooden 20" x 24" monster !!  When completed it will probably be the largest camera ever built in NZ. Lots of process cameras around which are probably larger but all built off-shore. I'll post some photos of it soon under "Gallery", "Behemoth". As soon as this project is completed I hope to get back to doing what I love to do....wet-plating !!!

Almost halfway through '09 and not a great deal of wet-plate to show for it !! Have been rather tied up with my fulltime job at Park Road so haven't shot half of the images I'd promised myself I would shoot. Coming up over the next couple of months is the NZ Affordable Arts Show ( I've been selected for an Single Artist's Wall again ) then a week later I'm off to New Plymouth for wet-plate demonstrations at Puke Ariki ( New Plymouth museum ) where my travelling darkroom cart will reside for the duration of the "Fixated" exhibition. I'm currently making a replica of a camera obscura for the exhibition. My friend and fellow wet-plate practitioner Wayne Pierce "The Company Photographer" from San Diego USA  will visit at the end of September for a few days which will be a memorable visit I'm sure !! Added to all of this, I'm still trying to get the house in Waitangi Rd finished......

My dear old Dad passed away at the end of February this year. A blessing in a way as he was totally disabled after suffering numerous strokes over the past few years. This didn't make it any easier for the family but we all know that he is at peace now and no longer suffers the torment and humiliation of total dependence on others. He kept his wicked wit through to the very end and will be sadly missed.

I'm always promising more images for the site and have added quite a few during the year but will try to add more, as I am now doing more Cyanotypes than previously and hope to get more wet-plate images on as well.....

Well it's now September already and I can't believe how the year has flown. Have almost completed the bathroom and ensuite at the house, plus the woodburner is in and the double garage almost complete.Water tank and septic system and driveway all in. Kitchen is gutted awaiting final decisions on what goes back in !! Vegetable garden has been dug and early potatoes planted. Have been spending a lot of time back at the old job with Park Road Post helping out now that the Laboratory Manager has gone. This is only temporary and part time so am still getting a couple of days a week to work on the house.
As far as the wet-plate goes, I've not been as active as I'd planned. Sold two 10" x  12" ambrotypes at the Affordable Arts Show in August which keeps the interest alive. As the renovations progress I hope to spend more time with the wooden cameras, bottles of chemicals and portable darkroom travelling around capturing the beauty of New Zealand as it hasn't been captured for 130 years or so.
Have also sadly neglected adding more of the collection ( both cameras and images ) to the site but hope to get more of this done before the year ends !! Keep visiting the site for updated material.I'll even add a section under Gallery called Waitangi Rd where I'll post shots of the renovation project.
 

Over the next few weeks I hope to start adding more images to my site. Woefully lacking so far are my daguerreotypes, lots more ambrotypes, tintypes and cameras. At an auction this past weekend I've added 2 wet-plate cameras a "C" Ordinary Kodak from the 1890's, and several more dry-plate "woodies". In the last few months I've also acquired a near mint Ticka Watch camera, a huge 12 x 15 inch studio camera and a 5  x 12 inch Korona panoramic "Banquet" camera. Watch this space........ 

Well, since my inaugural blog a lot has happened and this site has had a lot more content added. On the 2^nd March Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt hosted an exhibition of prints taken from wet-plate negatives made by the Wellington photographer James Bragg in the 1870’s. I had been asked by them for the loan of my traveling darkroom which was very loosely based on Bragge’s vehicle which he towed from Wellington over the Rimutaka Range to the Wairarapa making wet-plate images along the route.

In conjunction with my little wagon residing at the gallery for the 6 weeks that the exhibition ran I also gave a demonstration of the process to around 55 people on Sat. 24^th March. For the duration of the Bragge show I also had a small exhibition running in the Vector Gallery at Expressions. Featured were 8 of my 10’ x 12’ ambrotypes. Photos from the demonstration and the exhibition can be viewed by going to “Gallery” at the top of the page then clicking on “Exhibitions, Galleries and Museums” under the Album List.

Also in this section are some shots showing wet-plate images of mine which have been used by Te Awamutu Museum for an exhibition about the New Zealand Wars in the Waikato.

Work for sale is featured in “Gallery” under Album List -“Artwork for Sale”. These are all unique images made on location using the wet-plate process. You can see some of the locations in the Album List under the “Locations” heading.

I have also started to add selected items from my collection. These include a selection of 19th Cent. New Zealand images as well a "tip of the iceberg" offering of Union Cases. More cameras and hard images will follow shortly........