I think most photographers of that era used glass plates, and usually had a
mule- pulled wagon to hold all their gear- camera, plates, bottles of several
poisonous developers and emulsion mixes, light tight boxes, storage boxes,
etc. (And you think a Nikon is heavy!) They would then set up a tent, which
they'd do the developing in. IIRC, there's several famous images of Matthew
Brady leaning against his wagon.
George S.
> A week or two ago I caught just the tail end of a portion of one
> of the Antique Roadshow programs, and they were talking about a
> photographer in the American west in the late 1800s who shot on
> 20x24 inch glass plates. He hauled camera and plates around on a
> string of mules, wrote an autobiography, died in his 90s and left
> over 40,000 glass plates. I just can't remember his name.
>
> Now that's photography for the retro folks (of which I am one, I
> guess). Wonder how many OMs a mule could carry, if a mule would
> carry any OMs.
>
> Walt Wayman
>
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