Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I have owned this tintype for a number of years – pulled it out of a box at a big photography fair and plunked on the wall at work where it has remained since. I have an ongoing fascination with the happy fantasy of a really splendid photo set like this one. Who wouldn’t be having the time of their life posed here?

Mom and her two sons I guess – I especially like the American flag and the boating banners waving.  North Beach – San Francisco and the Wharf? This tintype is reproduced at about full size, maybe a smidge larger.  When you take into account the rushed and repetitive process of these little wet plate photos, at a fair or seaside resort, undoubtedly developed in a pail of filthy chemicals that saw dozens or more that day – it amazes me that this photo and so many like it have survived and have such lasting power. Aside from a chemical smudge and a fingerprint or two, nice composition, it’s a solid little photograph. I always think that I would have liked to have been there, and would have been proud to produce it.