Business boomed as successful miners were keen to send photos of themselves to their relatives at 'home'. Most of the photographs taken were studio portraits because of the large amount of chemicals and equipment that were needed to take a photograph with the wet-plate cameras that were available at the time. Dry plate cameras became common during the late 1880's their invention meant that it was no longer necessary to carry out chemical processing in the field. During the 1890's hand cameras began to come onto the market and photography started to become practical as a hobby.