I suck at this! I'll take up knitting!

[tim k]

No problem actually, a normal open relay and a door switch will do the trick, just wire the relay in series with the wall switch for all the "normal light", and wire in the door switch after the wall switch to the coil on the relay. That way, when you open the door, the light go out, and if you switch off the lights with the wall switch, the relay isn't energized and doesn't draw energy.

Or you could hook the switch up to a bark collar in your pocket. You would only do it once.

 

[mhcfires]

I started knitting not too long after my wife died in 2002. She was a prolific knitter, always had something going. I spend plenty on yarn and still have quite a stash after over eight years. I must confess that she did have a knitting machine. I could have sold it for about $1500, but I was intrigued by the mechanics of the thing. I still have it and have two others. A lady friend has been trying to teach me to hand knit, but I haven't managed as yet. I have knit many sweaters, blankets and socks. Also some nice scarves and a few very nice dresses. My lady friend likes my stuff, she wears out my sweaters.

Good luck with your dust,

m

 

[faustotesta]

I have had your same feeling sometimes.
Spent hours (always at night) and printed anything but dusty rubbish.
I learnt to stop and forget the experience. Calm down for a while (for me it takes weeks) then retrying.
It works.
Here is my incredible darkroom experience.
Early 90s. Me and a friend of mine had started to print BW on our own. We shared a darkroom.
A third friend gets married and her wife gives birth to a nice baby boy.
After some months we're invited to the baptism to take some pictures.
We were very happy about that and, being very entusiastic with BW, we shot 2 BW rolls and 1 color roll.
Back home we loaded the tanks and developed the films.
At the end of the process the negatives were absolutely empty.
Completely transparent. Not even the "Ilford FP4" marks.
After a while we realized to have swapped Fix with Rodinal.
That was our Waterloo.
Now my friend has gone digital.
The father of the boy still sometimes tells me with a sarcastic smile: "Do you still love shooting....?"
In the next years i took tons of photos to weddings, baptisms,etc.... Never made mistakes.
It's good that human experiences are made up of such failures. We can learn from them and we contribute to keep apug.og forum alive.
Keep shooting, keep rolling films into the tank, keep printing without a printer, keep living !
Ciao

 

[Black Dog]

ok computer?

And just keep thinking of all the many,many things that can go wrong with computers!

 

[pinhole_dreamer]

The downside might be that if newcomers read it, they could be overwhelmed and quit before they even start, thereby stiffling any possible growth in film sales.

Regards,

Dave

Dave,

I'm 'fairly new' to a darkroom, as it's been 20 years since I've stepped foot in one...much less developed film, ect...

I'm pretty positive I'd be in front of the enlarger going, "WTH?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

*shrugs* And I'd have the EXACT same feeling, only I would drown my sorrows with some really killer Belgian chocolate truffles and probably a glass of wine or two and then try it the following day...and take a TON of notes starting the list with "DO NOT TRY THIS AGAIN!" and then the "YEAH BABY!" side of it.

The way I see it, EVERYBODY has a bad day in the dark room. My college days gave me plenty and it was mostly because the dark room had no heat and I was ALWAYS on a deadline. (Enough to give me nervous fits and a serious case of the willies!)

I've been having my own fits with the photog. paper right now...then I read the insert more carefully and found out the ISO is 200. That was a total "D'OH" moment.

To Mats_A :

The whole reason why I even went back to film was because I was THE photographer at my nieces wedding. 2500 photographs later, and sitting in a chair that makes my legs go numb, and I was done, done, DONE with digital. I then promptly went online, bought myself a Lensbaby Muse for my K1000 and ordered film, tank, spool and chems. I've been happy ever since, even when I DO totally screw things up.

THAT is the whole point about photography. It's done because we love it - it's a passion (or in some cases and obsession) and a labor of love.

In the meantime, since I'm literally starting over, I plan to make mistakes and know that 20 years from now, I'll STILL make a mistake.

So, don't worry about sucking. And when things go that badly, I end up crocheting (south paw). Needless to say, I have a lot of doilies.

Your bad day in the dark room will get better.