Learning this darkroom thing.

@cdevroe Oh, that makes me nostalgic. I used to run the school darkroom 30 years ago - and had my own in my parents’ house.

@adders How fun! Printing is a wild combination of frustration and joy. I’m happier now since I’ve decided I prefer making 5x7 rather than larger prints. Less fear of making expensive mistakes! Are you doing all 35mm?

@cdevroe Nice. I loved my time in the darkroom at college.

@adders I have no doubt I could learn very much from you. Care to stop by for a pint and a darkroom session? :)

@zorn It is a lot of fun. Looking forward to spending some of the winter under the red light.

@jack Were you asking me or @adders? Perhaps Micro.blog’s not including all in the thread bit you? (cc @manton)

Any who, this was 35mm onto 5x7”. Long story short, I exposed some new 35mm for the expressed purpose of testing my darkroom. I also have 2.25x3.25 negatives that I’d like to print at 8x10/11x14. And then I’ll be moving onto 4x5” negs.

@cdevroe I had a darkroom, in a bathroom, in my young years and really enjoyed it. I can almost smell the chemicals as I type this.

One of the fun aspects was the serendipitous discovery of creative techniques. I.e. some of my complete foul ups turned out to look rather interesting in spite of being mistakes.

@cdevroe I was asking you, sorry. My bathroom darkroom is only set up for 35mm currently (well, and 4x5 contact prints) but the bigger (4x5) enlargers are ready and waiting in storage. Just need to find the room, but haven’t decided I want to yet.

@jack The 4x5 enlarger I’m using needs to be put on a low shelf in order to raise high enough to fit in my basement. I’m thinking of taking it apart and side-mounting it to shoot against a wall - as Ansel Adams did.