My first and only dark room experience, up until this past weekend at least, was at Lane Community College circa 1993 or ’94. I loved the experience, but I wasn’t made of money (I had to borrow a camera and class textbook from my fiance at the time), so I didn’t take any further classes there or later at the UofO and once digital came around I’d completely given up on the idea of developing film or working in a dark room. Thank the gods for Franklin Foto, an awesome organization located in Saint John’s, Oregon, which offers classes and facilities. I’ve got a month of free dark room time in my name so you’ll be seeing me there over the upcoming weeks!
Here are a few of the photos I worked on this weekend.
The portrait is of a stranger I bumped into at the Saturday Market last weekend. He had brilliantly coloured hair (green and blue if I recall) to which I complimented him and asked for a shot which he was kind enough to give me. As many of you know black and white is my default for street photography, but there was so much going on, colour wise, that my brain had switched from the default over to colour mode, but I couldn’t pass him by even knowing I had black and white film (the roll provided specifically for this weekend’s class) in my trusty Nikon F5 . What the hell, I thought, maybe it’ll work in b/w too? And sure enough it did. I love this shot!
The second picture I enlarged in the dark room is from my home town, taken three or so months ago on 120 film. Unfortunately the negative had some lint pressed in, but otherwise I love the photograph and am pretty happy with the dark room results. Sure, the imperfections could be photoshopped out, but in this example I’ll go for a little character over perfection (just like my home town).
