Good evening

[Doug Hook]

Hello everyone, I have taken a look at this site quite a few times following a mention in Black and White Photography magazine. Each time it looks very helpful and friendly. So, here I am....

My camera, darkroom kit and aspirations go back just over 25 years. To be honest, I have gone a bit hot and cold over this time concerning photography. More recently I have printed some old work for the first time and have found it so compelling - I owe much to multigrade filters. I have discovered Forte warm tone - a beautiful paper - wonderful for African portraits, producing very rich images.

I feel very much a poor relation to some! My darkroom is the kitchen; a pot of coffee and Tom Waits playing on the stereo sets the scene for a few hours of printing.

I look forward to learning much, being inspired and hopefully making some useful contributions.

 

[roteague]

Hi Doug, welcome from Hawaii. Always glad to have another film user join us, and I think you will enjoy our community.

 

[reellis67]

Welcome! There are a lot of good resources here, many of whom have helped me greatly since I joined. By the way, my darkroom is in the bathroom, so don't let your kitchen setup get you down.

- Randy

 

[MattKing]

Welcome from British Columbia, Canada.

My dark area is the bathroom, and processing area is the kitchen (I use tubes for paper and tanks for film).

Oh, and don't let the Tom Waits get you down either

Matt

 

[Les McLean]

Doug welcome from the far north of England.

 

[Drew B.]

Welcome from the newest of englands....New England. You'll enjoy yourself here. Oh, I don't have a darkroom...so you have a leg up on me.

 

[papagene]

Welcome Doug from another Noo Englander. I hope you like your visits here. And there's nothing wrong with Tom Waits in the background!

gene

 

[MattKing]

Welcome Doug from another Noo Englander. I hope you like your visits here. And there's nothing wrong with Tom Waits in the background!

gene

Tom Waits with a good scotch - good!

Tom Waits in the darkroom - YMMV

Matt

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Welcome, Doug, from Melbourne, Australia.

 

[copake_ham]

Doug,

Welcome from New York City (and, also Copake and Tucson at various times...).

 

[roy]

Hello everyone, I have discovered Forte warm tone - a beautiful paper - wonderful for African portraits, producing very rich images.

Welcome Doug. I must give Forte another try. I have not used it for some time (it was unavailable for a while I believe) as I liked it for lith printing. Do you have an involvement with Africa ? I worked in East Africa for several years.

Enjoy the forum.

 

[Black Dog]

HI Doug, nice to have you with us and good to hear that you like Tom Waits-I've enjoyed many a darkroom session with him croaking away in the background (you might want to try Johnny Cash as well).

 

[Dave Miller]

A warm welcome from Wellingborough.

 

[pentaxuser]

Welcome from British West Northamptonshire. With your arrival, there's now several of us in this part of the S Midlands/N Home Counties. Great

pentaxuser

 

[David Lingham]

Welcome Doug.

 

[Tony Egan]

You've won me Doug! A double dose of Swordfishtrombones always produces better prints. I imagine the beauty of old New Orleans, the B&W cinematography of Jim Jarmusch's movie Down by Law and try to get that feeling into some of my prints.
Oh yes, welcome from Sydney!

 

[Mark Pope]

Welcome Doug.

 

[Black Dog]

Raindogs is a real classic as well, and has a great Anders Petersen image on the cover-you might remember his work from Ag magazine circa 1999 or so (there was some in the Independent magazine a few weeks back as well).

 

[Doug Hook]

Everyone - many thanks for the warm and friendly welcome. I appreciate the real mixture of people within apug from all corners of the world and with many different views on photgraphy etc. Makes it feel alive!

I do hope a friend can scan some prints for me with the gallery in mind sometime, so you can see what I've been up to.