Sally J, aka The Practical Archivist (an Internet acquaintance on two axis -- steampunk and family history technology!) dropped me a note to mention her recent musing on daguerreotypes (and a desire for one of the very steampunk Neverwas Haul) that led to a comment and correspondence from an real life daguerreotypist.
John Danforth loves to hand craft daguerreotypes for people based on existing photos they already have. John says high resolution color digital files work best. Many of his customers choose a favorite wedding photograph to be rendered as a beautiful keepsake.....
Why Daguerreotypes? According to John, there are two main reasons. The first is the incredible detail you get using this process. Anyone lucky enough to have seen a dag knows exactly what he's talking about. The other reason is close to [Sally's] heart: Longevity.
Wow, how cool would that be? Your wedding photo -- or family photo (Ah, the family Brumfield in all it's steampunk glory, hung over the fireplace?) turned into a daguerreotype?
The above picture is a daguerreotype from John's gallery. I love how it mixes the very 19th century Eiffel Tower with the very 21st century Google Maps on a Dell laptop.
Oh, and John is happy to teach you how to make daguerrotypes. If that's above your budget, hunt up the 2nd issue of Craft, which has an article about John's process.
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