News and Information from
Camp Tintype

Contents

2009 Workshop Information

Featuring three solid days of hands-on training in the making of:   AMBROTYPES, FERROTYPES (Tintypes), GLASS PLATE NEGATIVES, ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS. 2009 Workshop Dates: May 28, 29, 30 June 11, 12, 13 July 9, 10, 11   Tuition: $675.00 Per Student...No lab fees! A $250.00 deposit is required to secure enrollment. EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Send in your $250 deposit before January 1, 2009, and get a 10% discount on any workshops offered in '09 Includes a comprehensive manual with instructional DVD set. All materials and equipment provided. FREE CAMPING! Each student will receive "The Doers Guide", a complete, 165 page, fully illustrated workshop manual covering the entire wet-plate process, including the making of albumen photographs. Manuals can be purchased separately for $75.00 ppd. USA, refundable toward workshop tuition, and includes DVDs (4 hours total). The DVD set is available separately for $45.00 ppd. Contact John Coffer by regular mail for details. Don't delay - class size is limited to only 4 students For details and registration, write: JOHN A. COFFER 1236 DOMBROSKI RD. DUNDEE, NY 14837-9443 NOTE: Private tutoring is also available for $550 per day as to your schedule and individual needs. I have more than 25 years experience as a professional wet-plate collodion portrait photographer and am well prepared to teach you the correct time honored methods that work consistently and the best.    -JC EXTRA! EXTRA! Free Play Day! For those taking the above beginner/intermediate wet-plate collodion in-the-field workshops, you are invited to stay over at no extra charge an extra day! You may shoot wet-plates with our gear and supplies to your heart's content. We have found over the years that after the third day of the workshop, all the students have the routine down pat and are chomping at the bit to keep right on shooting fun images around the farm. You may even shoot plates as large as 8x10 (limited in number) if you like. Also, be aware that students are welcome to check in the day before the workshop officially begins to settle in if they are camping, but also to look over the wet-plate gear we will be using, or have us look over any potential wet-plate gear they care to bring along for evaluation or would like to try to shoot with. Further, be it known that workshop days are very full at Camp Tintype. When the sun shines we make wet-plate hay, and after supper we usually varnish plates and mix some chemistry into the night. In short, if you are seeking as much wet-plate bang for your buck as you can get, look no further than Camp Tintype!

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Just Tintypes Workshop

   To be offered on July 23, 24, and 25, 2009.

If wet-plate tintypes are what grabs you the most, this is the workshop for you. If you are an experienced wet-plate photographer but want to specialize in tintypes, this workshop will put you on the right path. If you are a total beginner but don't see yourself doing anything but tintypes for the foreseeable future, there is no better way to start off with learning wet-plate than with making tintypes.

   This class is sure to be productive and exciting!

We will be shooting mostly authentic Ferrotype (not the aluminotype) tintypes in sizes up to 6 1/2" x 8 1/2" (traditional whole plate). Everyone will get a chance to black japan their own plates by the original baked on asphaltum paint method. Hand coloring will be practiced on plates of your choice for spectacular image results. Stereo tintypes and round badge tintypes will also be a couple fun options. Without a doubt more plates will be shot in this workshop than any other!

   Tuition is $700.00 per student. Class size is limited, so register soon.

Also, the extra Sunday "Free play Day", as described above, will apply to this workshop as well!

To sign up for this unique class, write to:

John A. Coffer
1236 Dombroski Rd.
Dundee, NY 14837

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Mammoth Wet-Plate Workshop

   2009 dates to be announced soon! Class size is limited to only two students.

This class is truly only for the most advanced wet-plate photographer who has at least done 8x10 plates successfully on their own. We will be making true 20"x24" mammoths and also 11"x14" wet-plates. Each student will make at least one fine 20"x24" ferrotype tintype and one 20"x24" glass wet-plate negative. Students will also make P.O.P. prints from their negatives.

Seek and you will not find a more exciting wet-plate experience for the advanced collodion artist who is thinking BIG!

   Look at the Mammoth Plate Camera at work:

   

   Tuition is $600.00 per day. No lab fee. A $250 deposit is required.

To sign up for this unique class, write to:

John A. Coffer
1236 Dombroski Rd.
Dundee, NY 14837

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Manuals and DVDs Now Available

   Chemical Mixing, Managing, and Maintaining DVD
The Chemical Mixing, Managing, and Maintaining DVD is out and available for $18.00 ppd.

   The Complete Wet-Plate Instructional DVD Set
The Complete Wet-Plate Instructional DVD Set (4 hours), which now includes the above chemical mixing, etc. section, is now available for $45.00 ppd.

   The Doers Guide to Wet-Plate Collodion Photography
The Doers Guide to Wet-Plate Collodion Photography manual, with the complete DVD set, is now available for $75.00 ppd.

To order any of the above material, write to:

John A. Coffer
1236 Dombroski Rd.
Dundee, NY 14837

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Your Wet-Plate Collodion Follow-Up Starter Kit

   It's new for 2008!
Finally, a reliable kit for the beginning wet-plate workshop student to be able to take home for an uninterrupted flow of wet-plate fun!

   For only $225.00, this kit includes the following:

> 500 mls of ready to pour Ol' Workhorse Collodion.
> One liters worth of Potassium Cyanide Fixing solution.
> One liter of Ferrous Sulfate Developer ready to use.
> 500 mls of Silver Nitrate Bath Solution all ready to sensitize your plates.
> 200 mls of Gum Sandarac Varnish.
> Two sheets of 12"x24" "peel & pour" plates ready to cut down to whatever sizes of positives you want to make.
> 100 mls of Calcium Carbonate glass cleaner.

   This kit is only available to workshop & tutorial students at "Camp Tintype"
No other workshop or tutorial anywhere offers this extra service. Yet another reason why "Camp Tintype" workshops are the Best!

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Jamboree 2009

   Announcing the Ninth Annual Wet-Plate "Jamboree" - July 31, August 1 and 2, 2009.

America's first and best wet-plate collodion artists Jamboree will again be hosted here at Camp Tintype for its ninth year. This year's patron saint will be "Brownie, the Wetplate Horse"!

Check back often for more news and information about the 2009 Jamboree!

For more information and authorization to attend, please write:

John A. Coffer
"Camp Tintype"
1236 Dombroski Rd.
Dundee, NY 14837

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Contact Information

E-mail address

Click here to email John
 
Please note that since John does not have Internet access at Camp Tintype, all email sent here will be printed and mailed to John once every couple of weeks. To receive a reply from John as soon as possible, please include your mailing address in the email. It will be faster to write him a letter at…

Mailing address

John A. Coffer
1236 Dombroski Rd.
Dundee, NY 14837

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Biographical & Camp Tintype Information

"Camp Tintype" is the best known and longest running learning center for wet-plate collodion photography in the world. It is the creation of its founder, John Coffer. Its humble beginnings started in 1978, when John hitched a bay workhorse named "Brownie" up to a 19th century style darkroom wagon dubbed the "Photographic Van" and criss-crossed the continent for seven years, plying his trade as an old time traveling portrait photographer. This was an experience as unique as the many tintypes and prints from glassplate negatives he made and sold along the way.

Having started out using commercially available, at the time, dry plate tintypes and glass negatives to make his living, he eventually was able to glean enough information from historic archives and gather up the necessary chemicals from different sources, that by 1982, he was able to do the much more desirable wet-plate collodion process. That spring, he immediately began making wet-plate collodion Tintypes (the real Ferrotype kind), ambrotypes, and glass plate negatives for his patrons, as he camped on field and farm and small town back lots along his way.

In 1985, after more than 11,000 wagon miles and having passed through 36 different states, John and his horse "Brownie" settled down on their own 50 acre farm in the heart of the beautiful "Finger Lakes" country of up-state New York.

Tintype of John Coffer by Tom DeLooza, 2005

He began offering his, now famous, three day wet-plate collodion photography in the field workshops in the summer of 1996. Since then, to keep up with the demand, he has had to schedule steadily more workshops each year and is, also, increasingly busy with private one-an-one tutorials.

"Brownie" went on to graze in the big pasture in the sky at the ripe old age of 33.

Here are ten reasons why "Camp Tintype" workshops are the best wet-plate collodion experience to be had anywhere:

1.    Highest student teacher ratio.
The class is limited to only four students and will be taught regardless as to any fewer than that should arrive.

2.    Students make a lot of Pictures.
Typically, a workshop student goes home with eight to a dozen. Each student will be making Tintypes, ambrotypes, glass negative, and albumen prints.

3.    Ideal span of Time.
Three days has proven to be just right for this immersion experience.

4.    The Price is Right.
Shop around and you'll see that "Camp Tintype" workshop and tutorial prices are very competitive and more so, considering you get a bigger bang for your buck!

5.    Free Camping!
Save a bundle on lodging and campout! There are on-site Teepees or bring your own tent. For the less adventerous, there are a number of B&B's and motels in the area. Also, plenty of restaurants and grocery stores.

6.    Close to photography mecha, Rochester, NY.
Camp Tintype is about 90 miles south of Rochester. Call ahead to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and make an appointment to see their behind the scenes collection of rare old wet-plate images and equipment, if you like. Cost is only the standard price of admission to the museum.

7.   The workshops are specifically taught, as is necessary to do the wet-plate process in the field.
Most see themselves going outside or on the road to shoot wet-plate, at some point in time. This requires a certain know-how and set of gear unlike the generally less challenging modern walk-in darkroom and studio situation other wet-plate workshops and tutorials tend to be taught in. After learning to do the process in the field and becoming comfortable with that, it is an easy transition to doing it in a studio. Not so, the other way around!

8.   Camp Tintype is laid back.
The rooster starts sounding off at about 5:30AM, but class doesn't start till about 9:00AM. All take a short lunch break at about noon (bring your own snacks and beverage) and then resumes till about 5:30PM or whenever. The class is often still talking wet-plate on into the night while roasting hot dogs and smores over the big evening campfire.

9.   Totally experienced Teacher.
John Coffer has been doing wet-plate collodion photography professionally for more than 24 years and been teaching workshops and tutorials for over eleven years. He has also had many apprentices over that time. His personal work is well known in the art photography world, having had numerous shows of his Tintypes in some of the most prestigious galleries in New York City and the country. He has been favorably reviewed and featured in top publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, Village Voice, People, Wired, Aperture, and Forbes, to name a few.

You can expect plenty of patient help from John at the workshop or by correspondence afterwards.

10.   The world's best wet-plate Manual and Instructional DVD.
At a whopping 165 pages, no other contemporary manual compares! And, it comes with a 4 hour DVD set, that features the process in detail, the many equipment options, black japanning Ferrotype plates (for making authentic Tintypes on) and many other must see to appreciate vital aspects of wet-plate collodion photography. And, if that isn't enough, you receive your copy as soon as you sign up for a workshop or tutorial. It's mailed right out to you. Many get a big head start that way. No other wet-plate workshop dares to provide so much!

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Note: There are no phones or E-mail at "Camp Tintype".
Correspondence is, by preference, done by mail. Write:

John A. Coffer
"Camp Tintype"
1236 Dombroski Road
Dundee, NY 14837

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