Hey all, first let me say:
Wow what a great site!
I'm a mid-fifties guy getting back into analog after 20 some odd years. Bought my first Canon AE-1 way back in 1981 while I was in the Navy. It was a constant companion with me across two oceans, several seas and 4 continents. Somewhere along the way one of my commands found out I was a shutterbug and decided I would make a good "ships photographic officer" (no one else wanted the job). The Navy taught me B&W processing and darkroom and I spent the last few years I was in the Navy taking pictures through a submarine periscope or using one of a brace of Nikon F2s we had. Unfortunately most of my pictures and negatives from those days were damaged while in storage many years ago.
After I left the service my family moved back here to Oklahoma. My wife was working on her graphics art degree and was taking a photography course where she was also learning B&W processing and darkroom work. We ended up with a nice basic darkroom setup and had a bunch of fun with it for a year or so before we bought out first house. Everything got packed away with plans to set up the darkroom "soon" and get back at it. As happens life and work and kids and time got in the way, my trusty AE-1 died and digital became the way of things.
Well, the house was paid off, the kids grown and gone and cranking out kids of their own and I was just not happy with the results from the little P&S camera I had and I wanted some good pics of my sailboat and sailing activities so I bought a Canon 70D and have had a blast with it but the itch to get back into the darkroom just wouldn't go away. So about a month ago while on another photography forum someone posted a link to a guy doing overhauls of Canon A series cameras and off my AE-1 went for repair. Then while waiting for it I happened to be browsing Craigslist looking at photo stuff and stumbled on a minty Yashica Mat 124 at a 2nd hand store right here in my little home town.
Well the Yashica came home with me. I channeled my inner Indiana Jones and excavated the closet where our darkroom kit had been stored for 20+ years, amazingly all the important stuff was just fine if a bit dusty. Film, fresh chemicals and I'm shooting real film again. I've shot and developed several rolls both 120 and 35 and to my surprise I still know how to develop film. Tonight or tomorrow the safelight will come on and I will see if I can still make a respectable print.
I'm really looking forward to learning and sharing on this forum.
Wow what a great site!
I'm a mid-fifties guy getting back into analog after 20 some odd years. Bought my first Canon AE-1 way back in 1981 while I was in the Navy. It was a constant companion with me across two oceans, several seas and 4 continents. Somewhere along the way one of my commands found out I was a shutterbug and decided I would make a good "ships photographic officer" (no one else wanted the job). The Navy taught me B&W processing and darkroom and I spent the last few years I was in the Navy taking pictures through a submarine periscope or using one of a brace of Nikon F2s we had. Unfortunately most of my pictures and negatives from those days were damaged while in storage many years ago.
After I left the service my family moved back here to Oklahoma. My wife was working on her graphics art degree and was taking a photography course where she was also learning B&W processing and darkroom work. We ended up with a nice basic darkroom setup and had a bunch of fun with it for a year or so before we bought out first house. Everything got packed away with plans to set up the darkroom "soon" and get back at it. As happens life and work and kids and time got in the way, my trusty AE-1 died and digital became the way of things.
Well, the house was paid off, the kids grown and gone and cranking out kids of their own and I was just not happy with the results from the little P&S camera I had and I wanted some good pics of my sailboat and sailing activities so I bought a Canon 70D and have had a blast with it but the itch to get back into the darkroom just wouldn't go away. So about a month ago while on another photography forum someone posted a link to a guy doing overhauls of Canon A series cameras and off my AE-1 went for repair. Then while waiting for it I happened to be browsing Craigslist looking at photo stuff and stumbled on a minty Yashica Mat 124 at a 2nd hand store right here in my little home town.
Well the Yashica came home with me. I channeled my inner Indiana Jones and excavated the closet where our darkroom kit had been stored for 20+ years, amazingly all the important stuff was just fine if a bit dusty. Film, fresh chemicals and I'm shooting real film again. I've shot and developed several rolls both 120 and 35 and to my surprise I still know how to develop film. Tonight or tomorrow the safelight will come on and I will see if I can still make a respectable print.
I'm really looking forward to learning and sharing on this forum.
