Another 16 year old at risk of going to the dark side

WOW! As usual, I am impressed as hell by the APUG community's willingness to "pay it forward". Way to go, folks, way to go!!

joeyk49 said:

I've got a timer, some trays and a 35mm stainless dev tank and a reel or two; probably some tongs too....

Sounds crazy but I also have a spare (1 of 2) Beseler 23CII that he can have for a song...

PM me if he can use any of it.

A brother APUGger once did right by me in getting me started. Several continue to do so every time I read the forums. I'd love the oportunity to pass the favor along.

"Luke, you don't know the POWER of the DARK side!"

Click to expand...

Hi Joey!

in about a week we will see what we have as people send things here. I'll put up a list of what we don't have then and I'll let you know. I'm afraid of winding up with duplicate items... Maybe APUG can keep a 'bank' of equipment to send to kids in situations like David's in the future?

Well everyone,

Stuff for the darkroom is starting to arrive! I'll be going over there this weekend to start getting things set up for them. I am also bringing over a box full of Marshall paints because David is very interested in colorizing some of his B&W work. I know, it's not what I would do with my prints! What the hey, if that is what drives a kid to learn photography... I'm all for it.

A friend of mine and I just combined our dark rooms (he needs to make space in his house and I have alot of room to expand) to make a very large and VERY over stocked lab. I have a bit of everything. PM me with an address and I will send what I can, if you cant use it pass it on.

John

P.S. if he likes hand-coloring Google Richard Prehn (AKA. ZXORB)

Update: I was planning on this weekend to go and get David's darkroom started. Unfortunately, I've had a disaster in my own darkroom. With the 24th straight day of rain in the northwest, the water table is up and my basement flooded. My basement... where my darkroom is and my office is and a bunch of other stuff is. Barry Young and I will be replacing my carpet and this weekend, I'll be salvaging things. Fortunately, I've lost nothing in my own darkroom. I keep all things on shelves away from the floor.

Meanwhile, I continue to be very encouraged by the generousity of APUG members who are donating darkroom materials and equipment.

I'm sorry to hear about your flood and I'm glad you didn't loose your darkroom. I just wanted to let you know that I sent the items I promised by parcel post on Tuesday, so it may take about a week to get there. Good luck with your clean up project.

Karen

I remember my first photo teacher, he taught me much of what I know and use every day. It's amazing, how one person can teach you something that you may just very well use for the rest of your life. I wish there were more people like yourselves (all of ya) in this world. Seriously.

Wow, I'm impressed. After reading the first post, I was going to suggest Craigslist.org. It's pretty active in the Seattle area, and I was able to pick up almost my entire darkroom setup for $125. But it seems like everyone has really set him up well. Very cool to help out a kid like that. The darkroom in my high school was taken out in the mid 90's and replaced with a video production lab just before I went there, so I wasn't able to learn from anyone. All I know is from books and a friend who took one class in community college, so it's nice to hear that he is getting some help from someone with experience.

Update: Barry and Deborah (Barry's GF) were here for 14 hours on Saturday to put my basement to rights. They gave up their entire saturday to help my family out! I should point out that on the day of the flood, I was chatting via IM with Barry and mentioned the prollem in the basement. I was pretty shaken up by the whole thing but Barry and Deb are a pair of rocks! And yes, they ROCK! All I had to do was rip out the old carpet and toss the ruined stuff. On Saturday morning, Barry and Deb were at the door as they said they would be. They took me carpet shopping and made sure we had all we needed to fix the whole mess. All I had to bring was a pocket full of dough. We came home with a van loaded with carpet, carpet pad, tack board, nails, carpet stretcher.... and went to work. Rather, Barry went to work. I hovered around and handed him things when he needed them. It took the whole day so we had a nice lunch together and dinner too.

Barry and Deborah are good people... and APUG people to boot.

Whew... now that things are back together at home, I can start to plan the darkroom at David's foster home. Due to the generousity of the APUG community, I have almost all needed to complete the darkroom. I am hoping to be over there next weekend to start putting the darkroom space together. There are actually 3 teenaged foster boys there at the house and I'm hoping to interest the other two (in addition to David) in photography. As a foster child moves on in life, he takes with him the experiences (good or bad) from the foster home. I would hope that these kids take a lifetime interest in photography.

Update: We have all the equipment that you good folks have sent to David here at Rod and Tanya's house. David is really excited about being able to do darkroom work now. The other two boys in the house will also be learning to work in the darkroom as well. David has created a login on APUG this afternoon. Look for "DavidJay" sometime after the APUG welcoming email arrives in David's email account.

Update

I'm just hoping that maybe just one of these boys gets the same rush as I did when I first saw that print come up in the tray. Of course with VC papers and low lighting it is a little harderto se what's going on. Anyway-go have some fun and welcome to the wet side!!
Peter

SchwinnParamount said:

Look for "DavidJay" sometime after the APUG welcoming email arrives in David's email account.

Click to expand...

Hopefully they'll be active and committed particpants in future print exchanges.

Regards, Art. (So long as they don't renege on their committments!)

I had a similar experience when I was kid. I wasn't a foster child, but a family friend across the street ran a darkroom (colour in the early 60's!). He took the time to show me around his darkroom, and allowed me to use it when I wanted.
Sure is good to see so many people here willing to "pay it forward".

Rick.

Wow!

I just joined APUG and was paging through forums. I am truly impressed by the generosity and spirit that this thread shows. This is awesome! I am 26 and dedicated to mostly film in 35, mf, and lf, and I love the darkroom, so I appreciate it so much that this will be an option for these kids, and most likely many others if you all have anything to do with it.
I look forward to this forum and once again, wow!, what a great group of folks!