Duh!!

In the Dodo-of-the-week category:

Last Friday, went into the darkroom to run some test prints. Mixed my developer (E-72+ stock concentrate diluted 1:9) and started in. (The concentrate was mixed fresh about three months ago, and should have been fine--it lasts forever.)

To my surprise, no image appeared after two minutes (usual time is 1 1/2 minutes for complete development.) I muttered some impolite words, mad: ) and chucked out the remaining concentrate and then mixed fresh. As I was diluting the fresh concentrate, the little light bulb in my brain went off, followed by a swift self-administered kick in the patuckus.

There was nothing wrong with my concentrate; I had simply forgotten to throw the two Tablespoons of Carbonate into the tray. No activator, no image.

Oh well, it was only a few dollars worth of Phenidone and Vitamin C. Could have been worse.

Larry

Could have been worse indeed... Two days ago I emptied what I though was a tray with pre-soak water down the drain after a toning session. Only when I saw the empty bottle two minutes later did I realise that I'd just dumped 1.5 litres of gold toner with plenty of life left in it down the drain... Argggggh!

Bah! Bob.

Ouch!

No darkroom problems lately, but last week I learned the hard way that when you leave the lens cap on a rangefinder, you can't tell by looking through the viewfinder