Ever since I started taking photos as a kid, I have looked on in awe as I watched people making a print in a darkroom. How was that possible? It must require great skill, time and of course money to do that! During my adolescence and young adulthood I had neither skill, time, let alone money to pursue such an endeavour . As children entered the scene the desire to make darkroom prints were rightly relegated to the stuff of dreams.
That was until recently. As I started to home develop my films, little surprise that the desire to take the next step and make a darkroom print was rekindled. However while I may have developed (pun intended) a little skill and have a little more time I still couldn’t justify in my mind the major expense of an enlarger.
A couple of months ago while conversing with a customer’s gardener over a cup of tea , I was asked if I wanted an enlarger that was doing nothing and was no longer wanted. I could not believe my ears!
When I got the enlarger home I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only an enlarger but one with a colour head!
I have already done a dry run. That is I’ve placed everything in my darkroom, the bathroom, and run through the process in darkness. It highlighted a few things in my process that will have to be corrected when I do it for real.
Can you image my excitement when projecting a negative for the first time?
Awesome!!!
arhphotographic 