I think it's officially printing season

During the long summer months here in Northern California it's hard for me to resist being outside, so I spend very little time in the darkroom printing. But with the time change in California this past weekend it's getting dark pretty early and so there's not much time to shoot pictures outdoors during the week. So, it looks like it's officially the start of printing season and I'm hoping to finally make some headway through the backlog of photos I've selected for printing.

Does anyone else struggle to split their time between photographing and printing during the summer months, or are you able to discipline yourself and carve out time to print year round?

logan2z said:

During the long summer months here in Northern California it's hard for me to resist being outside, so I spend very little time in the darkroom printing. But with the time change in California this past weekend it's getting dark pretty early and so there's not much time to shoot pictures outdoors during the week. So, it looks like it's officially the start of printing season and I'm hoping to finally make some headway through the backlog of photos I've selected for printing.

Does anyone else struggle to split their time between photographing and printing during the summer months, or are you able to discipline yourself and carve out time to print year round?

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Don't have a bit of trouble with going into the darkroom in the summer. I just go in there and stay where it is cool until November when it is cool enough to go outside and make pictures. Been doing that for years. Except, that is, for the one summer I was in Northern California, in the Redwood country where it was cool enough to take pictures........Regards!

logan2z said:

Does anyone else struggle to split their time between photographing and printing during the summer months, or are you able to discipline yourself and carve out time to print year round?

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Here in Finland the light is so low during winter and it's freezing outside so I prefer doing darkroom work during winter time. Last summer I just shot and shot and shot, had a huge film development buffer in the end of the summer - and that was the plan.

However I've got good sessions in the misty weather (see my site) after the summer. I choose shooting over darkroom work since one cannot have too many negatives. You can always print, whatever the weather is.

But yes - it's darkroom time and Multigrade V on it's way. Pretty decent times ahead!

I'm also in California, love the mountains, but practically don't spend much time in them during the snow months.

So I'm like you, it's printing season.

Bill Burk said:

I'm also in California, love the mountains, but practically don't spend much time in them during the snow months.

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If I had mountains here, I would spend all months there - no matter of the weather Finland is so flat land in south and that bugs me a lot. I have to dig photos from 100 meter high "hills". With a thick forest surrounding them.

Same here, winter is for printing, scanning and finishing backlog accumulated during summer.

My darkroom is a wonderfully cool refuge from what can be hellish Australian summers, I tend to print more in the summer. In winter my darkroom is a constant 14C,.

For me winter means not having to do so much lawn and garden work. It frees up time for printing without adding guilt.

Just the opposite here in my part of northern California -- it photographing season in the redwoods! I rarely photograph in the redwoods during the summer...I am anxiously waiting the the rains to start -- the redwoods get even better!

markbau said:

My darkroom is a wonderfully cool refuge from what can be hellish Australian summers, I tend to print more in the summer. In winter my darkroom is a constant 14C,.

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Me too! The first room in my house to be air conditioned was the darkroom. Winter is ok for large format camera work outdoors but summer with its endless row of 30+ Celcius days is too brutal.

I too use summer for the darkroom, coolest part of the property. My darkroom is in a bungalow and is completely self contained, with heating, cooling hot and cold running water. I have a handful of negatives to print and will probably start around Christmas when the heat really starts to get serious. Plenty of solar on the roof to power stuff, combined with 20kW/h of batteries for night time usage.

I have two boxes of MGIVRC to use, then hopefully I will be able to get some of the new Ilford RC deluxe paper.

Mick.

I also do little printing during the summer. The bright summer days and nights are best spent accumulating negatives. In the winter it's dark when I go to work and dark when I step out of the office. Perhaps a bit weird to then spend time in darkness, but the work is enjoyable. The darkroom is in the basement and must be heated to reach 20°C even in the summer. Funny how thing are the other way round in other parts of the world.

Trond

I barely touch my darkroom in the summer and don't shoot much either. There is too much to do up here in the summers and the days are super long so the light is harsh.

Fall is when I start shooting more and winter is when I really focus on printing. I also love shooting in the winter because the light is good all day and you can sleep in late and still catch sunrise.

My place is ideal for those rare British heatwaves. 28'C outside = 22'C inside. Corresponding temp drop in the winter too. This will be my first winter with the darkroom (almost) ready to go. I'm planning on having my 400w halogen heater under the enlarger bench to keep my knees warm.

Summer and winter are both times for shooting, but unless something requires urgent attention the printathon can wait until the winter, when there's even more rain than in the summer!
Steve

logan2z said:

During the long summer months here in Northern California it's hard for me to resist being outside, so I spend very little time in the darkroom printing. But with the time change in California this past weekend it's getting dark pretty early and so there's not much time to shoot pictures outdoors during the week. So, it looks like it's officially the start of printing season and I'm hoping to finally make some headway through the backlog of photos I've selected for printing.

Does anyone else struggle to split their time between photographing and printing during the summer months, or are you able to discipline yourself and carve out time to print year round?

Click to expand...

I’m relatively new to darkroom printing, so haven’t really formed a noticeable longish term pattern. That being said, I do the vast majority of my printing at night. It’s hard to print during the day with everything else going on. It’s not until after the day has quieted down that I go and set everything up and spend a number of hours printing away. I’m also a total and complete night owl, so 9-10PM to 2-3AM if I don’t have anything planned too early for the next morning is prime printing time, otherwise I try to start a little earlier and cut it off at midnight so I can have enough sleep if I need to get up early(ish) the next day.

I'm another winter is darkroom time person.. Its just hard to spend time inside when its nice outside. and now that today has a windchil of 4 degrees(F) and its still snowing I have to say that darkroom season is here..

The first 12 years of my photography saw me working for the USFS for 6-months/yr, late spring to early fall. Usually outside in situations where I found a camera awkward to have when working your ass off in hot dusty conditions all day for multiple days. I did not trust the mules enough to load my 4x5 equipment on those critters for those up and down wild trails. Most likely it would be fine...but mostly wasn't good enough. I did make some images of course, and there are some images I missed that would have been fun to have if I had room in my fire pack for the Rolleiflex...but I thought a quart of water was a better idea. A photojournalist, I am not.

The other 6 months would be a little traveling, photographing, and volunteering at the local college darkroom (in exchange for access).

So that was about a decade-long stretch of working in the woods for 6 months, then concentrating on photography for six months (with occasional overlaps). Then I got a job as the darkroom tech for the university. For the next couple of decades
photography was year-round...and then towards the end of the second decade, I became a SAHD to our set of triplet boys...and that has no season, although the college (undergrad) season is almost over.

Life is quite the rollercoaster and we do our work when we can!

Time for me to head to the park for a few games of horseshoes -- I am already late, so I'll take the bicycle!

It's officially carbon transfer printing season for me. Summer is too humid to make reliable tissues/prints. Winter is nice and dry.