I’d just like to say thank you for all the birthday wishes in comments and voicemails. That was very sweet of you. You’re the loveliest readers, ever. 🙂 I do feel guilty for not posting earlier, but as you probably have guessed, I’ve been keeping myself occupied with all the photography stuff. It’s all so new and exciting, being able to do everything, from film developing to the post processing on the computer until the photos are ready for printing. Photo printer is the only thing missing from my so-called home photolab, but I don’t really print my works very often anyway so it’s not a big deal. Not that I’m not tempted to get myself one since they’re not really all that expensive. Let’s see if I could resist the temptation. 😉
I must admit that film developing is not really my favourite part of photography because it’s a lot of work. Imagine shaking the developing tank for 30 seconds every 30 seconds for at least 15 minutes. But once I got the developed film in hand half an hour later, it’s all worth it. I have developed two rolls so far and only today do I realise that 1:4 dilution doesn’t necessarily mean 125ml of chemical in 500ml of water. I could’ve worked with 100ml of chemical in 400ml of water. Doh! I’m a dummy.
Anyway, the photo above is my favourite photo from the second roll. If you want to see all the photos from the rolls I developed myself that I’ve uploaded to Flickr, it’s all in this photoset. As you can see, I still have a lot to learn. But I’m learning by doing so the quality should improve with time. At least I hope so.
In the days before digital photography, I did my own black & white photo processing and printing. Color was another story.
I used a changing bag to load the film into the tank and did my printing with an enlarger that sat on a board on my bathtub. it was hard, but great fun and very satisfying.
It’s nice to see that you are enjoying the same thing.
I have to admit that these days I love my digital camera, now a tiny Canon SD 450.
I once took a photography class that taught us how to develop and print our own B&W film. Our tank tended to be a little leaky, so it definitely wasn’t fun getting all those chemicals all over yourself! In the end though, it was always so rewarding to get those photographs knowing you did everything by yourself. They seem to add an extra touch to the photographs, and I can see that in this set of photos you just developed. They’re wonderful!
Hello! I’m Oliver from Belgium! Nice blog. Happy birthday!