PHOTO: Photographer steps back in time as she captures modern-day surfersusing Civil War-era tintype camera

These photographs may look like something you'd find in an old family scrapbook, but the surfers pictured are alive and well and probably out on the water as we speak.

They were captured on beaches all over the the U.S. and Australia for photographer Joni Sternbach's on-going series 'SurfLand'.

To create the images, Ms Sternbach uses a large-format camera which produces tintypes - a style of photography popularized during the Civil War-era.

The photos have a distinctly vintage vibe but Ms Sternbach says she wasn't interested in recreating turn-of-the century pictures.

I was more interested in creating a new topic of conversation about how can we use the materials and information from the history of photography to make new and wonderful images that we haven't seen before,' she told Slate.

Ms Sternbach first started the series back in 2002 when she was shooting a different project in Montauk, New York.

Her camera was facing out towards the water when the sun broke through the clouds and the surfers on the water erupted in joy.

'At that moment I snapped the shutter, turned the film holder around and shot another frame,' she said. 'In less than 20 seconds on a seemingly average summer morning, I felt I had bonded with an entire group of people in the ocean.'

In 2006, she went back to Montauk to photograph more surfers, and since then has traveled to beaches all over the U.S. and Australia for the ongoing project. 

One memorable experience was capturing surfers in Santa Barbara, California riding to the beach with their surfboards on the back of a horse.

She says she enjoys photographing surfers because they make being happy a priority, something that she believes most Americans don't.

Working on the project has had a positive impact on her.

'I feel like I've been infected with the surfer state of mind,' she said. 'I just feel like I take things more as they come. The time I spend sitting around doing what surfers do I don't spend in this frantic way of working that I used to do. One of the biggest takeaways is that somehow making pictures of people has calmed me down.'

But it's not all fun and games. Producing the tintypes involves more than just pointing and shooting.

Right after snapping the pictures she has to develop them on the spot using a portable dark room. And working on a windy beach only adds to the difficulty. Still, she finds the end-result rewarding and believes tintype photography is a great alternative for those who want to experiment outside of digital.

Ms Sternbach's work will be on display starting September 23 at The Light Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina.