Photo: Terry Krebbs
30 Years Behind the Lens and in the Darkroom
In 9th grade I discovered the work of Ansel Adams, and was inspired by my English teacher and fine art photographer to borrow my dad's Pentax Spotmatic and explore the world around me through a lens. That was it. I've been shooting ever since.
I learned to really see an image, not just look, working in darkrooms. The process of making a print with your hands, paper, and chemistry isn't something you forget. It's tactile. It's deliberate. When digital photography came along, people called it a revolution. Perchance. Eventually I hopped on the bandwagon too, and have taken amazing images with digital photography. But what it did for me was remove the process of creating prints. The hands-on, slow-down-and-think part of making a photograph that the darkroom always demanded.
Wet-plate collodion photography gave that back to me. It's older than digital by about 150 years, and it's still more honest than anything a sensor can produce. You coat the plate. You expose it. You develop it right there in front of you. Chemistry does what chemistry does... and what comes out the other side is yours. No undo. No version two.
From the Classroom to the Camera
I taught music in classrooms for over 20 years, and what teaching actually taught me is how to see people for who they are, not just what they're doing.
Working with students meant meeting them where they were. Not where you wanted them to be, not where the curriculum said they should be. Where they actually were. You learn to find every element that goes into making something complete, and fine-tune from there. Pun intended.
That has carried over into my photography. The best images don't come from telling people how to stand. They come from making people forget there's a camera in the room. My job behind the lens is the same as it was in the classroom; to figure out who's in front of me, and help their real self show through.
What Tin Riot Studio Is
Tin Riot Studio is a fully mobile photography operation based in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I bring the studio to you: your office, your venue, your location. From corporate headshots, portrait sessions, weddings, and events, to something you won't find anywhere else... live wet-plate tintype portraits made on the spot, on metal plates, with 19th-century chemistry.
No studio overhead. No scheduling around someone else's space. Just a photographer who shows up prepared, works efficiently, and delivers images that hold up.
Work with Dan
Thirty years behind a camera. Twenty years in a classroom. One van, a chemistry set, and a lot of genuine investment in getting it right. If that sounds like your kind of photographer, let's talk.