I lost ALL of my darkroom gear in my move - but now it's found again!

[SchwinnParamount]

That's wonderful news! The stuff that can't be replaced, you got back. Losing the darkroom gear is a pain in the ass, but nothing so exotic that a few dollars and a few days/weeks trolling ebay/thrift stores can't get back.

Hi Scott,
Yeah, you're exactly right. One of our Photrio members is getting me started with an enlarger table at the price of a good bottle of scotch... shhhh! Don't tell him. He thinks I'm just bringing a 6-pack of a good beer.

 

[Roger Thoms]

Great too here you got your negatives back.

Roger.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

The last missing box showed up. It went to a home in Oaklahoma. Fortunately, the guy is also a photographer. He opened the box and saw my bag of 17 undeveloped rolls from a recent project. Apparently, it took several calls to the moving company to find my name and address. He taped up the box and sent it to me. Boy was I surprised to see this box arrive and with my missing project too!
Now I have the film to develop but no darkroom. The Evergreen College darkroom in Olympia has open weekends so I can go rent time there if there are any images that I want to print.

 

[koraks]

The last missing box showed up.

Oh man. As happy endings go, this definitely beats the massage parlor around the corner many a Disney movie!

 

[Daniela]

@koraks!

Awesome news! It's a little miracle it ended up in a photographer's hands! Happy developing/printing/all of it!

 

[MattKing]

So - shall we update the thread title?

 

[MattKing]

The last missing box showed up. It went to a home in Oaklahoma. Fortunately, the guy is also a photographer. He opened the box and saw my bag of 17 undeveloped rolls from a recent project. Apparently, it took several calls to the moving company to find my name and address. He taped up the box and sent it to me. Boy was I surprised to see this box arrive and with my missing project too!
Now I have the film to develop but no darkroom. The Evergreen College darkroom in Olympia has open weekends so I can go rent time there if there are any images that I want to print.

That guy in Oklahoma has some seriously good karma in his account now!

 

[mshchem]

That is a great ending. Photographers are good people!

 

[Kino]

The last missing box showed up. It went to a home in Oaklahoma. Fortunately, the guy is also a photographer. He opened the box and saw my bag of 17 undeveloped rolls from a recent project. Apparently, it took several calls to the moving company to find my name and address. He taped up the box and sent it to me. Boy was I surprised to see this box arrive and with my missing project too!
Now I have the film to develop but no darkroom. The Evergreen College darkroom in Olympia has open weekends so I can go rent time there if there are any images that I want to print.

Great news! Kudos to the honest Oklahoman...

 

[Tim Stapp]

I understand the feeling of losing negatives. We experienced a flood a couple years ago. Deluged with 4-1/2 inches of rain in an hour and a half. Only negative that survived was one that was in the enlarger. Negatives, prints, paper, chemicals...all gone.

We had just recently moved, so all of my photographic gear excluding cameras were in storage boxes in the garage. Only had 9 inches of water in there. It was 21 inches deep on the side of the house. Insurance wouldn't cover because it was rain.

I'm slowly replacing things that were destroyed in the flood.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

Oh man. As happy endings go, this definitely beats the massage parlor around the corner many a Disney movie!

ROFL

 

[SchwinnParamount]

So - shall we update the thread title?

Yep, "Even a photographer can have a happy ending!" or something like that.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The last missing box showed up. It went to a home in Oaklahoma. Fortunately, the guy is also a photographer. He opened the box and saw my bag of 17 undeveloped rolls from a recent project. Apparently, it took several calls to the moving company to find my name and address. He taped up the box and sent it to me. Boy was I surprised to see this box arrive and with my missing project too!
Now I have the film to develop but no darkroom. The Evergreen College darkroom in Olympia has open weekends so I can go rent time there if there are any images that I want to print.

I am glad to hear that you got to last of the missing parts back to your darkroom including the negatives!

 

[MattKing]

Yep, "Even a photographer can have a happy ending!" or something like that.

Nah - a much more boring one, I'm afraid - but it has been updated.

 

[Pieter12]

My boxes have been located in Atlanta, GA. What the heck? That's east of Ky! Washington is west of Ky. I have no idea how they got there and the shipping company is making no promises with regards to the condition of the boxes or even if they will ship them to me. I guess it's time to either lawyer up or contact my local FBI office.

When my daughter moved, the shipping company delivered her boxes across the street although it was plain to see it was the wrong address.

 

[BAC1967]

I guess the lesson here is, put your name and address on all your boxes when you move. Clearly the movers aren’t good at keeping all your stuff together.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

By the way, as I was reading Matt's suggestion about renaming the thread, I was listening to Peggy Lee and her recording "It's all over now". The lyric that I heard as I was reading this thread was "... happy ending". Coincidence? I think not.

 

[What About Bob]

That is awesome news! Hats off to that photographer.

 

[Craig]

Reminds me of when I bought a furnace and AC unit from a place in Long Island NY, and had it shipped to trucking depot in Great Falls Montana, as it was the closest place to the Canadian border when I could drive down and pick it up. I got a call that my stuff had arrived, so I borrowed a truck and spent most of the day driving to the US. Get there and there is no sign of my furnace. It's on a 4x6 ft pallet, so not something that is easily hidden out of sight.

After a number of phone calls by the guys there they find out that it's on a truck somewhere between Salt Lake City and Kansas City. Turned out that the trucker in Montana delivered the paperwork to the office and forgot to unload my pallet, as it was at the front of the trailer. Guys in the office called me based on the paperwork, and didn't actually check the warehouse.

Fortunately, they were able to pull some strings and get it delivered to me, after I (almost literally) held their hand and filled out the customs forms to get it shipped in-bond across the border. Took awhile, but it did arrive.

So I can sympathize with the empty truck scenario.

 

[Rick A]

It does my heart good to know there are still honest people in the world. Kudos to the fella who went out of his way to get your gear back to you.

 

[SchwinnParamount]

I developed the first four of the 17 missing rolls tonight. What a pleasure to be back in the routine. All the muscle memory is still there and my technique is still solid. All four rolls look good. 13 more to go.

 

[Daniela]

 

[titrisol]

I have heard so many first-hand disaster stories from relatives and co-workers about moving companies in the USA; entire households lost, smashed or pillaged.

I would never hire a moving company in the USA.

I have moved transatlantic 4 times with no issues
BUT moving for 10Mi in the US needed a lot more supervision

 

[bluechromis]

My boxes have been located in Atlanta, GA. What the heck? That's east of Ky! Washington is west of Ky. I have no idea how they got there and the shipping company is making no promises with regards to the condition of the boxes or even if they will ship them to me. I guess it's time to either lawyer up or contact my local FBI office.

Yay! If nothing else it makes you appreciate having that gear all the more.