Are you bored with your photography lately?  Think you’ve mastered all your gear and looking for a new challenge?  Instead of upgrading your body and glass think about taking a step backwards with your gear.  Way back to 1839!

In 1839 no one had heard of Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Kodak and the other manufacturers that we are familiar with today.  Then, for a very short time, the only source of professional photography was from Alphonse Giroux and his brother-in-law, Jacques Daguerre.  From this pair came the world’s first commercially produced camera, the Daguerréotype Giroux.  It is credited with “the initial spark that began the worldwide spread of photography”.

There are only a few of these cameras known to be in existence and all are stored in public museums…except one recent find.  For the first time one of these cameras will be presented at auction, by the Viennese auction house WestLicht. The sale is scheduled for May 29, 2010 at their location in Vienna, Austria.  WestLicht does not state who the owner of the camera, only that it belonged to a family in northern Germany and was passed to the current owner by his father as a gift for passing his final apprenticeship as an optician. They also state it is in beautiful original condition, even coming with the original written instructions.

The outstanding original condition of the 170 year-old apparatus is remarkable. Every detail including the lens, the plaque signed by Daguerre himself, the black velvet interior and the ground-glass screen are in their original state.

The unique camera comes with the extremely rare original instructions in German with the title: “Praktische Beschreibung des Daguerreotyp’s”; published by Georg Gropius, Berlin 1839, 12×20cm, 24 pages with 18 illustrations in 5 plates showing the equipment used for producing Daguerreotypes in accordance with Daguerre’s invention. On the back of the little book there are two handwritten notes from 1840 with details of the process.

For comparison, a similar camera built by Susse Frères, also in 1839, was auctioned by WestLicht Auctions in 2007 for 576,000 Euros (~$800k) and set a record price for any camera at auction.  This auction is set to break this record.  It is estimated to bring in 500.000 – 700.00 Euros (~$700,000 – $1,000,000).

Hey!  We all knew this photography hobby was going to be expensive so buck up and make a bid.

A quick search of the term daguerreotype in the WorthPoint Worthopedia, a collection of over 50 million auctioned items,  returns quite a number of interesting items.  Daguerreotype photos, cameras, tripods, and even lens seem to have been a popular collectible over the past few years.  Photos from subsequent versions of the daguerreotype cameras are especially collectible like the image below taken during the Civil War sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s.

If you are interested in more on the background, history and the science behind the Daguerréotype Giroux, I’ve included information from the WestLicht’’s press release after the jump.

The historical background

From the end of the 1820s the industrious stage-set painter and showman Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre and lithographer Joseph Nicéphore Nièpce have been carrying out joint experiments into a process for making images from a camera obscura permanent. In 1829 they form a company in order to develop this idea but Daguerre achieves the technical breakthrough only after Nièpce’s unexpected death in 1833. He refines the process and, at the end of 1838, finally manages to fix the chemically generated images permanently.

The public first learns of this pioneering invention on the 6th of January 1839 in the daily newspaper “La Gazette de France”. The article reveals almost no details. Thereafter events follow thick and fast. The day after the report is published, physicist and politician Francoise Jean Arago makes a fiery speech in which he declares Daguerre’s invention to be too important to be the concern of a single person and proposes that the French nation should make the invention of photography a present to the world.

The Chamber of Deputies in Paris enthusiastically accepts this idea and Daguerre and Isidor Nièpce, the son of his former partner, are awarded a life-long pension of 10,000 Francs per year in return. On the 19th of August 1839 the secret of the new process is revealed stimulating world-wide interest.

The news spreads like wildfire and on the 24th of August, punctually for the public announcement, the first advertisement for the Daguerreotype made by Alphonse Giroux et Cie is printed in the “Journal des Débats”. The announcement explicitly draws attention to the fact that production will be supervised by Daguerre himself and the reader is informed of the brochure which contains a detailed description of the process.

The booklet, which will soon be printed in numerous languages and will go through 32 editions, also contains precise plans of the camera developed by Daguerre.

Since the French nation has compensated him for his invention, Daguerre no longer has the exclusive rights to it but, as a good businessman, he finds ways of making money out of his name which is now famous all over the world. On the 22nd of June 1839, two months before the process was made public, he already signed a contract with Alphonse Giroux and the Susse Brothers. (Incidentally, an original Susse Frères camera was auctioned by WestLicht Auctions in 2007 for 576,000 Euros). In the contracts the two companies were given the exclusive rights to produce and sell the Daguerreotype and the other equipment necessary.

The famous optician Charles Chevalier expressed his disappointment at this agreement because he had been hoping to acquire it. After all, it had been Chevalier who had made the contact between Daguerre and Nièpce in 1826 and he had also been following their experiments over the years. In his biography the respected producer of scientific instruments commented on the choice of an interior decorator and a stationer for the production of the Daguerreotype with ridicule and a certain degree of annoyance. Despite (and because of) that position Chevalier was given the commission of producing the lenses for the cameras made by both companies.

The cameras produced by Daguerre’s brother-in-law are more opulently finished that those of the competition. Every Giroux camera has a golden plaque which, in addition to the maker’s mark, bears Daguerre’s personal signature. The selling price of 400 Francs was very high, representing approximately annual income of a normal working man. Under the terms of the contract Giroux was to have half the profits, Daguerre and Niépce taking equal shares of the remainder.

There is no record of the total number of cameras that Giroux produced but since cheaper and improved cameras came onto the market relatively quickly, it is assumed that the numbers were very limited. It can also be assumed that the Giroux Daguerreotype was only produced in 1839. Apparently Daguerre did not take the development of his camera any further. The inventor died in 1851 at the height of his worldwide fame.

On the functioning of the camera and the process

Making Daguerreotypes is a relatively involved process. Since the photographer has to ensure the light sensitivity of every photograph, he needs to have a lot of equipment with him. For open-air shots he must also carry a darkroom. For this reason the Daguerreotype was originally sold with everything necessary for the production of Daguerreotypes. All in all the required equipment weighed around 50 kilos and included in addition to the camera itself, fuming and mercury boxes, a spirit burner as well as the silver-covered copper plates and the necessary chemicals.

The camera itself consists of two boxes which are slide into each other and are made of different kinds of wood. The larger of the two, which has the lens attached to it, is fixed to the base plate. The back of the smaller box is either the ground glass plate or the holder insert and it fits into the forward box so that the whole is lightproof. The interior is lined with black velvet. In order to bring the image into focus the rear box is moved back or forwards along the wooden camera base.

It can then be fixed in position by means of a brass screw. A fold-out mirror behind the ground-glass screen allows the image to be seen while standing upright.

Initially Daguerre used plates of pure silver. Later, to save costs, they were made of silver-plated copper. Before the exposure was made the plates were fumed with iodine or bromine. This took place in a special wooden box with the aid of a spirit burner. Under the influence of this fuming process, light-sensitive silver iodide formed on the surface of the plate.

In order to maximise the brightness of the image while focussing, the lens’s outer brass fitting was removed. During the exposure the ground glass screen was exchanged for the (now) light sensitive plate (167 x 216 mm). Before the exposure was made the diaphragm was replaced and a swivelling cap served as a shutter. Daguerre suggested exposure times of between 3 and 30 minutes, depending on light conditions.

After the plate was exposed, the photograph was developed with the aid of mercury fumes which adhered to the surface producing a very faint silver image. Development and fixation in a salt or cyanide solution results in a positive image made of grey quicksilver. The tonality of the original pictures varied between grey and blue-grey but, after the introduction of gold toner, they could also be gold, purple or sepia-coloured.

Daguerreotypes are astoundingly finely nuanced and practically grainless – even when examined under a magnifying glass they exhibit very fine details. When they are framed in a way that excludes air they are extremely durable. Daguerreotypes are always unique and cannot be reproduced. This is also one of the reasons why they are such sought after and desirable collectors’ items nowadays.

Thanks for reading

I hope you found this information as interesting as I did.  Let me know if you plan on bidding during the auction so I don’t cross-bid you.  Hah!  (I wonder if it would fit on my Manfrotto tripod???)

What kind of photography collectibles do you own?

Related posts:

1. My slow but sure comeback My absence from the online community I hold dear...
2. Frecs for 3/19/2010 If you read last week’s Frec or follow me...
3. #snowpocalypse time lapse video Sherri had a great idea of setting up the...

Chris Hughes, Mary Brenneman, Mac Liaw, Kathy Kamnikar, Jim Kamnikar, Michael Glick, Lars Klores

As you may remember in a previous post I mentioned some big news coming from WorthPoint.  Last week we announced the successful acquisition of GoAntiques.  I was lucky enough to be invited to the GoAntique’s offices in Dublin, OH and participate in the early conversations concerning our combined future efforts.  All I can say for now is there are great things coming.  Stay tuned to WorthPoint and GoAntiques.

From left to right:  Chris Hughes, Mary Brenneman, Mac Liaw, Kathy Kamnikar, Jim Kamnikar, Michael Glick, Lars Klores

Link to press release:

WorthPoint Corporation Completes GoAntiques Acquisition

No related posts.

One of the benefits of my position at WorthPoint is being involved in what many would consider “cool” projects, like our widget and mobile app development efforts. We recently worked with one of our Worthologists, Jim Warlick of USA Button Poll, to create a widget for his site. Jim started the USA Button Poll during the 1988 presidential election and the results of his button sales have predicted the winner of the popular vote every election since. We’re waiting to see if he keeps his streak alive this year.

Read the WorthPoint article.

No related posts.

As much as we in the USA believe we have heightened security measures its a real eye-opener to visit an area like Mindanao.  Armed security guards are a way of life here in every aspect of public life.  Men in uniform wielding M-1 rifles, machine guns, shotguns and sidearms are commonplace.

The one main difference I’ve noticed here from the other similar areas of the world I’ve visited are the guard’s personality.  In the middle east and other high violence areas security personnel are not at all friendly, they speak…you listen.  Here in Mindanao the security staff carry the same air of authority but they do it in a very polite and friendly manner.  They truly appear to be here to protect and serve.

From stepping off the plane I was immediately approached by the local police representative at the airport to inquire about my purpose of being here and to ensure that someone I trusted was going to meet me there.  I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette with him and he showed me a poster listing the most wanted terrorists in Mindanao, each accused of kidnapping or other heinous crime.  This wasn’t a scare tactic as much as his way to let me know this was something to take seriously.  He seemed very much relieved when I talked about our NewHelix staff and how I was going to be working with them the whole time I was here.

Armed guards at the entrance to the local mall in Cagayan de Oro:

No related posts.

Yes I know what you’re thinking, I already have a Day One entry.  Well I realized that my actual first day covered 30+ hours including crossing the International Date Line so I deserve to have two Day One entries.

The trip from Manilla to Cagayan went well especially since it only lasted 1 hour 20 minutes.  After landing I was met by Aldrin Valdellon and Alex Perez who drove me the rest of the way to the NewHelix offices in Iligan City.  We traveled through the rural areas of northern Mindanao that includes protected forests and rice paddys.  I noticed lots of livestock like cows, goats, chickens and even a few water buffalo.

There wasn’t much wildlife other than birds to be seen but we did have one visitor.  A giant spider the size of my head jumped up on my passenger side window and tried to break the glass so he could eat me.  Ok ok, maybe he was only 4 inches across and maybe he wasn’t trying to eat me but you couldn’t convince me of that at the time.  It was unnerving seeing this monstrosity that close to my face with only a 1/4 inch piece of glass separating us.  He eventually gave up and left the vehicle.  I think I saw him bring down a water buffalo in my rear view mirror.

The afternoon was spent meeting with the leadership of NewHelix and coming to agreement on the goals we wanted to achieve during my visit.  They broke down as follows (in no particular order of priority):

• Establish a new organization chart with improved local management chains
• Conduct in-depth review of the SCRUM process we have experienced to-date
• Establish and conduct a SCRUM meeting daily
• Review and improve current software test processes
• Review and improve current metric reporting system (Pentaho)
• Conduct personnel reviews on staff supporting WorthPoint
• Establish regression testing process through the use of Selenium
• Discuss future plans for the WorthPoint widget

That covers my priorities for being here.  Time permitting we will also address:

• Visual design concepts
• Programmatic design concepts
• Review and document build procedures
• Review and document our configuration management processes

I’ll cover our progress here.  Before dusk sets on my final day here I’m hoping to have made great progress on many (if not all) of these areas.

No related posts.

It’s 8:45 AM and I’m sitting in a coffee shop in the Manilla airport wrapping up a cheese and cracker tray.  So far so good on the WorthPoint trip to Iligan City.  I left Dulles International Saturday afternoon at 6:00 PM on American Airlines to Los Angeles.  That 5 hour trip was just a precursor to the Los Angeles to Guam to Manilla marathon flight on Philippine Air.  16 hours.  Thats 21 hours without a cigarette.  Ok…Ok…I hear you.  I shouldn’t be smoking anyway.

The Manilla airport has a very Singapore feel to it.  It is extremely clean, I cannot find one piece of trash anywhere inside or outside the terminal.  The airline representatives and terminal security guards are all very helpful and friendly.  I’ve actually had two guards come up to me and ask if I needed any assistance (I didn’t think I looked that lost).

Manilla has the smell of burnt oil and exhaust fumes that I’ve found in almost every port city I’ve visited throughout the world.  Ecology Green has not taken root here yet.  Taxis, buses and the delivery trucks I see are all spouting black smoke from their mufflers.  Oh and if you visit here and walk around outside expect to be approached by every cabbie in the area asking if you need a ride.

My last flight takes off in about an hour taking me to Cagayan de Oro.  There I’ll be met by some NewHelix folks who will bring me to Iligan.  I should reach NewHelix at 2:00 and I’ve got my first WorthPoint meeting scheduled at 3:00.  No sense in wasting time, may as well jump in as soon as I get there.  No matter how rough the trip here is, its definitely worth doing.  I’m looking forward to working face-to-face with my developers and setting up process to improve our Skype communications in the future.

In a little over 5 hours my 30-something hour trek will be concluded for the trip out.  I don’t want to think about having to do it all over again on the way home.

No related posts.

Today I say goodbye to the USA as I travel to the island of Mindanao in
the Philippines. I will be visiting the cities of Iligan City and
Cagayan de Oro.  The purpose of this trip is to spend some time with my off-shore developers at NewHelix in Iligan.  NewHelix supports WorthPoint in the development and maintenance of our public-facing site along with many other efforts on the back end that our visitors never see.

When I first started at WorthPoint my first responsibility was to establish an Agile development methodology between the requirements providers (product owners), management and our NewHelix developers.  The implementation has been received with mixed reviews, some good and others identifying room for improvement.  My CTO, Andy Forbes, and I both realized that we could not reach the level we required in our development efforts without some face to face communications.  Skype is a great resource but can only facilitate communication to a certain extent.  Cultural and language differences, though they are fewer when working with a Philippine company, do not help either.  I’ve found it increasingly difficult to present certain concepts like design, development and management techniques.  This trip is for me to present the WorthPoint expectations, identify areas of improvement, encourage the areas they are currently doing well, and then ensure that the information is received correctly on their end.  Once this is accomplished then Skype communications should flow much easier.  I do plan on making recurring visits though not as long as this first one.

Travel to Mindanao is not trivial matter.  I’ve gone through my rounds of immunizations, fought the passport office, taking my Malaria pills, researched the area on Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube.  To be completely honest I’d rather be heading to Tahiti but Iligan will do for now.  This is an area of the world I’ve never had a chance to explore.  My Navy days had me spending time all over the Atlantic, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Persian Gulf.  I have to thank WorthPoint for this opportunity to expand my cultural experience.

Funny story…I went to get my Typhoid immunization and the doctor reviewed what I should look out for while I was there.  She covered Malaria and Dengue fever, both spread by mosquitoes.  It appears the mosquitoes in Mindanao have their own version of a labor union.  The Dengue fever carrying kind come out during the day and at dusk they go home and the Malaria group take over.  I had to laugh, it reminded me of the old Warner Brothers cartoons where the sheep dogs clocked in and out to protect the sheep from the coyote.

So today I commence my journey by spending the next 30 hours either in flight or in an airport.  Check back for more journal entries throughout my trip.  I’ll see you on the other side!

If you have stories to share about a visit you’ve made to the Philippines I’d love to hear them.

No related posts.

Last night I had the pleasure of emceeing a tech forum where Jeff Whatcott, VP of Marketing at Acquia, Inc. gave a very informative presentation of his views on overall trends in the content management
market, specifically in Drupal as a social publishing system and how his company is forging the future for Drupal into commercial marketplaces.  His presentation can be found here.

From Jeff’s Twitter feed:

Completed a webcast to a Drupal meetup in virginia. Seemed to go well. Good questions.

Frank Febrarro of Phase2 Technology then demonstrated a module they have recently released for Calais.  The Calais web service allows you to automatically annotate your
content with rich semantic metadata, including Entities like People and
Companies and Events & Facts like Acquisitions and Management
Changes.  Phase 2 has integrated this service as a module for Drupal 5 and 6.  You can watch a short screencast Frank recorded to demo main features of the module.

Toward the end we as a group decided to keep this meeting rolling as the Drupal Northern Virginia Users Group.  We are targeting the second Tuesday of the month.  This forum will be very much dependent on audience participation for suggestions of topics and also utilizing a rotating emcee.  If you’re interested in Drupal we would love to have you join us.

I’d like to thank Teqcorner
for providing the space for us along with Andy Forbes and Arman Anwar
of WorthPoint for their invaluable assistance in coordinating this
event.

For more information on future meetings, to suggest topics, volunteer to host or make a presentation please contact me at marc.benton@worthpoint.com.

Here are some pictures from last night’s event:

No related posts.

As the WorthPoint Product Development Manager I get to work on all aspects of our site. One of the more enjoyable projects is the design and development of our widget. You can see it over here in my right rail ——->

Our widget development team is led by Jeremy Ancog who has a deep background in graphic design and Flash development. Being a social network junkie like myself, he utilizes such services as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster. (Speaking of Facebook, look for the WorthPoint page there soon and become a fan. We’ll announce it here when available.) He also has experience as a Second Life developer, skills I hope to take advantage of in the future. All of this experience and interest come to bear on this effort. We look forward to where he and his team takes our widget in the coming months.

Our plans for the widget in the coming weeks include deployment to MySpace and Facebook, and a widget configuration page where you can choose the type of feed you want displayed. Future enhancements will include more choices in data feeds, increased designs to choose from, and calendaring functionality to display upcoming events.

The code to deploy the widget using our standard feed is currently available. Last night I embeded the widget here and it fit quite nicely. If you would like to use it on your own site the code is listed below. Let me know if you employ it so we can promote your site.

I am interested in what you think could be improved both in the widget and with WorthPoint in general. Please let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Marc…

———

Embed this line in your sites HTML templates for the WorthPoint widget:

<div id=”flashcontent_xmlwidget”><embed
type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” src=”http://www.worthpoint.com/sites/all/modules/xmlwidget/xmlwidget.swf”
style=”" id=”xmlwidget” name=”xmlwidget” quality=”high”
wmode=”transparent” flashvars=”env=http://www.worthpoint.com”
height=”300″ width=”200″></div>

No related posts.