Here is a close-up from one of the recreation photos of Grant’s War Council that were taken by Terry Thomann on Saturday at Massaponax Church (see shoot details below). We had a great group of participants and everyone did the best they could to match the original series as much as possible. These are the exact pews (painted today of course), but there were some other factors that prohibited us from capturing an exact replica.

The ground was not level anymore, so they had to dig ruts into the church yard to level the pews out. Of course this limited the angles at which they could be set. In the original shot, Timothy O’Sullivan was able to lower the balcony window, but today those original windows are protected by an outer layer of plexi-glass. Therefore, the wet-plate box camera had to be angled in between two of the pane frames. And of course the busy street and gas station in the background had to be ‘cropped out.’ We did our best to mask them with two wagons and horses.

There were two successful shots in the series, which I believe will be available in print form, but here is a cropped out version to show what the end result looked like. I added numbers to show the match-ups that we tried to duplicate. Hats off to Jackson Foster (#4 the pipe smoker) for darn near mirroring his character. Stay tuned for details on where to get the finished prints. Most impressive is the clarity of the tin-type photo that was taken using an 1800's-style camera and developed using 1800's chemical recipies and techniques.  SEE LARGER/UNMARKED VERSION

And speaking of photos, tomorrow I am being photographed in the cemetery at St. George’s Episcopal Church for an article on me and my latest book in the Saturday Town & County insert in The Free Lance-Star. Keep an eye out for my ugly mug.