He used a traditional
bellows camera fitted with a genuine Victorian lens for the photographs.
In fact, all we learn about her past concerns her photography (which she practices "a l'ancienne," with a large-format
bellows camera mounted on a tripod), and particularly her recent decision to switch from natural subjects to close-up portraits of survivors of the great fires.
Using his cord- activated
bellows camera, he gathered workers for group portraits in places such as the Seavey hops fields and Southern Pacific railyards.
Photography became huge with the development of the
bellows camera in 1851.
Charles, who also has a stall at the Farmers' Market, uses an old-fashioned
bellows camera with a vintage lens that, he says, helps lend a timeless quality to the photos he takes.
The 352 black and white photographs were mostly taken with a half-plate
bellows camera made by Thornton Pickard in 1904, requiring a tripod, black cloth, and exposures as long as 15 minutes.