- Joined
- Sep 25, 2010
- Messages
- 12
- Format
- 35mm
Hello everyone. I first signed up to APUG over 10 years but posted very little. The time has finally come to reconnect and reintroduce myself. Back in 2010 I was more active on the large format photography forum as well as the rangefinder forum. I was living in Washington DC at the time and regularly printing colour and black and white in a community darkroom there. In the intervening decade I sold my Mamiya 6 (why?!) as well as all my large format kit, and began to shoot much less film than in the previous 10 years. I held on to my 35mm SLRs and never stopped shooting film completely but from 2012 onwards worked mostly in digital. Developing a passion for hill walking and mountaineering during this time, my little Ricoh GR Digital has accompanied into the mountain of Wales, Scotland, the European Alps, Japan and the Himalaya.
Now life has led me to Brussels, Belgium. My house here has a generous basement, part of which I intend to convert into a darkroom in 2022. Last week, on the local equivalent of Craigslist I noticed a Durst enlarger for sale up in Antwerp. I got in touch with the vendor, a retired professional photographer. I managed to get a great deal on all his darkroom equipment, which is now ready and waiting to install in my new space next year. So, while I may only be shooting a little these days, I’m looking forward to printing some of my better shots from the last 25 years. Being a new father, I’m not sure exactly how quickly: (a) I’ll be able to complete the work preparing the space; or (b) actually carve out much time for printing when the space is ready - I can live in hope though!
Anyway, it being such a long time since I did any darkroom work it seemed like the ideal time to jump back into this forum. In the new year, once the process is underway, I’ll try to start a thread showing the development of my home darkroom. Two shots from a decade ago that are high on my list for printing once I’m set up are these:
Now life has led me to Brussels, Belgium. My house here has a generous basement, part of which I intend to convert into a darkroom in 2022. Last week, on the local equivalent of Craigslist I noticed a Durst enlarger for sale up in Antwerp. I got in touch with the vendor, a retired professional photographer. I managed to get a great deal on all his darkroom equipment, which is now ready and waiting to install in my new space next year. So, while I may only be shooting a little these days, I’m looking forward to printing some of my better shots from the last 25 years. Being a new father, I’m not sure exactly how quickly: (a) I’ll be able to complete the work preparing the space; or (b) actually carve out much time for printing when the space is ready - I can live in hope though!
Anyway, it being such a long time since I did any darkroom work it seemed like the ideal time to jump back into this forum. In the new year, once the process is underway, I’ll try to start a thread showing the development of my home darkroom. Two shots from a decade ago that are high on my list for printing once I’m set up are these:
