I’ve returned home today from a delightful week-long respite at “the beach.” You’ll understand why I didn’t inform you seeing as how any fool with Google can come and rob your house while you’re away. Seeing as how I have a strong desire not to be liberated of my multi-hundred dollar daguerreotype manufactory, I didn’t tell anyone about it online. I have, however, returned with daguerreotypes! I again packed my trusty portable daguerreotyping kit and managed to produce three 4×6″ pieces using my new lens. A fourth daguerreotype, a quarter-plate affair, was overexposed.
The ruins pictured here are of the Old Sheldon church near Edisto, SC USA. Quite hilariously, almost every reference I find to this structure reports it to “not be on any map.” 
Within minutes of hearing about it, I had plugged the coordinates into my GPS and I was off. Perhaps the reference materials I was using were outdated?
This historic relic, regardless, is conveniently located mere paces from the road (yay!) and is among the older structures in South Carolina which, by world standards, makes it a bouncing baby boy of a ruin.
But I digress.
Originally constructed in 1748 as the “Church of Prince William Parish,” the structure stood for a good 34 years before the British got uppity and torched the place. Rebuilt, the church survived another 86 years before an entirely different argument resulted in it being razed a second time. The razing of 1/14/1865 (coincidentally on the anniversary of the last day of the Revolutionary War) was the last straw and, after 120 years (give or take), the church closed its metaphorical doors.
…except to lazy daguerreotypists and other tourists as can be seen in the numerous (and beautiful, in my opinion) carvings in the old brick.
The daguerreotype pictured was the best of the bunch. The first exposure was too long, the second exposure was too short, and the third was just right. I saved all three since I’ll never go back to the place again.
Jonathan
Looks like a fascinating place. As I recall you said you pre-sensitized the plates before the trip. How “old” were they when you used them? Do you think your exposure difficulties were related to that advance preparation, or is that just a normal level of problem with the process?
The plates were sensitized on Saturday and used on Wednesday. Plate 1 was overexposed, plate 2 was screwed up both by underexposure AND by the Amberlith falling off the developer (the sun melted the tape. It was THAT hot.)
I think that the high UV index had something to do with it although Jerry Spagnoli seems to think that my exposure time sounded about right for f/5.6. Who knew? Sheesh…
As my polishing technique improves I’ve been discovering that the plates are getting faster. My current technique seems to yield faster plates than my initial notes (and the EV Guidelines chart) demonstrated.
That is encouraging to hear that the plates were workable after several days. There are some things that I would like to photograph (daguerreotype? how do you refer to this activity?) that are a bit off the beaten path. The camera itself is hard enough to lug around without taking the whole manufacturing outfit. Let us know if you do any experiments with developing after a delay. I wonder what the limits are.
According to my OED subscription (how could I live without you, my dear?!?)
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daguerreotype, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To photograph by the daguerreotype process.
1849 C. BRONTË Shirley vii. 80 “A head, that daguerreotyped in that attitude..would have been lovely.” 1867-77 G. F. CHAMBERS Astron. VII. vii. 707
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It has been suggested to me that if you can’t develop right away that a few minutes development in the field are helpful before taking it home to be finished.