September 20th – developing on the road

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I’m relatively new to the darkroom. The last few months I’ve started dipping my toes in and the reward has been immense. Recently I went on a six day road trip around South western and western Ontario. Living out of my Mazda 3, eating, sleeping, and yes developing film. The first two nights I camped out in onroute parking lots. With my trusty kit including dark change bag, chemistry, day light developing tank, and drying hanger. I’m sure the other patrons parked nearby were uncomfortable with the stranger sitting in his car with a mystery bag on his lap trying to get the film from the holders loaded into the developing tank cursing why wont you go in! Bringing the oversized flask looking container out of the bag and pouring chemicals in and out one at a time with a timer going. The finished sheets of 4×5 film being brought out and hung to air dry from one of the door handles. Packed in the car was a light table requiring an outlet. Once the sheets were dry I went into the onroute and scanned the negs with my phone. This system was not without it’s flaws however, mainly caused by human error. In the dark one night I mixed up my fix and developer. The result lost negs and throwing out the now tainted chemistry. Which created another scene. Using syrup style developer from flic film (black white and green) the easiest way to extract from the bottle that I have found is using a syringe. I’m sure the onlookers at the onroute thought I was getting ready to shoot up. Night three and four I camped at craigleith Provincial Park. It was nice to be able to set up at the picnic table after a day of shooting and develope the film watching the waves on the Georgian bay. At night it was dark enough to tray develope right there at the picnic table under the stars. Once the film was dry off to the comfort station to access an outlet for the light table. For once I returned home without the work load of processing waiting for me.

September 20th – thoughts in the dark room

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Over the last few days I’ve watched the lizzie Borden series on Netflix. While the cast and story kept drawing me in episode after episode, some details will make fellow photographers / history buffs mutter under their breath, including the magic multi firing flash powder trays depicted in some scenes, or the Edison phonograph and victrola that magically start the song midway through the record and end in close to the same spot. But this is getting way off topic. For several nights after watching several episodes I’ve gone into the darkroom to develope rolls of 120. Puritans avert your eyes from here on out. I’ve been tray developing the roll film with the panning method, constantly running the film back and forth through the chemistry in a completely dark room while the timer ticks down. The issue at large the last few days was my nerves. After watching the program thoughts of Lizzie Borden run through your head as you stand by the counter panning the film like a prospector in the pitch black. To alleviate some of those nerves I did purchase a stronger developer. Shelving for now the slower working flic film black white and green for ilfosol 3. A faster reacting developer, that gets me to the turning the lights back on step much quicker. One of the rolls developed in this way was agfa copex rapid. A 50 iso high contrast film. Of course agitation breads contrast and with the panning tray technique it is constant. It was a wonder that shadow detail was retained at all. The negs looked marvelous in their complete black and complete clear white state. While thoughts of lizzie will slowly recede back into the far corners of my memory, I’ll continue to head into the dark room to process the film.