Cameron's "wet" pictures were both the bane and joy of her life as a photographer. She used the "wet" collodion negative process, a cumbersome and sometimes dangerous procedure of multiple steps that required working with highly flammable chemicals in near darkness. It differed from earlier techniques, such as the daguerreotype and the Talbot's paper negative (calotype), by reducing exposure time, and, perhaps most significantly, by producing a sharp negative from which multiple prints could be made. Cameron considered this photograph of Annie to be her "first success" with wet collodion photography.