Because the snowdrop shoot what so much fun, I wanted to do something like that again. After I saw the cherry blossoms on my tree, it was crystal clear what comes up next. I wanna shoot one of these with my wet plate camera, but this time I will shoot them on the tree.

When I was little, this tree was my climbing adventure. This tree has seen better days – the weather from the recent years started to ruin some parts of it. But it is still beautiful in the springtime.

To make the blossom more steady, I clamped it onto a light stand, because the wind moved it so much.

I stopped the camera down to f/12 and used a strobe 1000W pretty close to the blossom.

I could reach my camera into my tree with my maxed out Berlebach tripod (above 2 meters).

I thought I need an extra table underneath the tripod to reach that high. Because I took too little care about securing my tripod, it nearly fell down two times. But with the legs and a counterweight, the Berlebach tripod showed that it is built like a tank and so it held my ultra large format camera in this extreme position.

The final 21x27cm plate looked like this.

About the Author

Markus Hofstätter is a professional portrait, events and sports photographer based in Austria. He has a passion for analogue and wet plate photography. He loves travelling to visit new places and meeting new people. You can find out more about him on his website or blog, follow his work on Instagram or Facebook or reach out to him through Twitter. This article was also published here, and shared with permission.