The UK calling

[ericmyers17]

I have been reading Practical Photography mag, back at the office and found APIG, hope you dont mind a Uk photog joining in. I am presently what you may call a mature student studying photography, I hope to join the Royal Society after that. Just bought new to me medium format, well impressed Bronica SQA, thats square format. V sexy after mainly using 35 mm.

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[Nige]

Welcome Eric (guessing from name)

We've got other Poms (that means British for you Yanks) and even another Eric! Hope you find something of interest!

 

[bmac]

Welcome to the group, there are several members from the UK here.

Brian

 

[lee]

Actually Eric it is not APIG but APUG. A joke don't shoot me. Off to mix Microdol-x and then off to drink coffee.

lee\c

 

[Donald Miller]

Hello Eric, Welcome!!!

 

[David Hall]

Jeeze, we sound like a frickin 12 step meeting.

Welcome.
dgh

 

[Donald Miller]

Yep, sure do, except we should say hi in chorus, all together now...

My name is Don and I first started having problems with my addiction to photography much earlier then I recognized. It is this thing called denial. I stole from my wifes grocery money to buy filters and film. Heck, I hadn't even gotten a camera yet. Little did I know where the insanity would take me. When I finally got here, I was sleeping on steam grates...just my Sinar, tripod, and I.

But my life is much better today...I only have thirty five cameras and haven't stolen from my wife lately...maybe it is because she left a long time ago.

 

[Ed Sukach]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Mar 13 2003, 03:52 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> ... I first started having problems with my addiction to photography much earlier then I recognized. It is this thing called denial. I stole from my wifes grocery money to buy filters and film. Heck, I hadn't even gotten a camera yet. Little did I know where the insanity would take me. When I finally got here, I was sleeping on steam grates...just my Sinar, tripod, and I.
</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
No! You've done that too!!

And I though I was the only one!!

 

[David Hall]

I bottomed out when I bounced a check at B&H. Oops. Too much gear in the closet, too little college education in the future. That's when I knew it was time to stand up and say My Name Is David H and I'm a...

dgh

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[Donald Miller]

Aggie, Nope the 12 step thingy is a program of recovery from addiction to all things photographic. If you find that your life is out of control, your every waking thought is about photography, and you find yourself engaging in photography when you had not intended to it might be that you have a slight problem with an addiction... Or as someone once told me, if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...chances are it isn't a goose.

 

[lee]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Mar 14 2003, 05:25 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> If you find that your life is out of control, your every waking thought is about photography, and you find yourself engaging in photography when you had not intended to it might be that you have a slight problem with an addiction... </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
that sounds like me all right!

lee\c

 

[David Hall]

Aggie,

You may be right. I have a daughter who is just turning that corner. Suddenly Target clothes just aren't good enough...

dgh

 

[Donald Miller]

Lee, Welcome, you will find recovery here...BTW how is the darkroom coming? Did you enjoy your trip west?

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[baronfoxx]

I dont want to frighten you guys and dolls out there with the problems of teenage kids, BUT, my three are between 30 and 45 and still a pain in the butt.

On the plus side the four grand children are great.

 

[lee]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Mar 14 2003, 05:54 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Lee, Welcome, you will find recovery here...BTW how is the darkroom coming? Did you enjoy your trip west? </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
The trip west went well I think. Met Robert Kennedy and he is a nice guy and has a great dog. Ironwood is a rough place.

Darkroom is coming along. Spent most of the week on the roof redoing it. Can't leak now, I hope hope hope. spent today indoors and we cut out all the plumbing there and capped off the copper feed lines. Tomorrow we are finishing the drain plumbing and then we are building a wall that breaks up the room and then we are sheetrocking that part need it. Not everything needs sheetrock. maybe 16 sheets total. tape and bedding mud. That will go a long way to making it look like a darkroom and not a storage room. If we had everything bought and in place I think we could be printing in about 10 days.

We are being a little slow trying to figure everything out ahead of time to save money. Sometimes I have to beat a dead horse with my partner in the building as he is not a photographer and doesn't seem to understand what I am trying to accomplish. Generally, after about 100 drawings and 3 or 4 yelling matches, we seem to arrive at the same place and then we discover we were thinking of the same thing all along.

lee\c

 

[David Hall]

Aggie,

That was a great post. It has been printed and will be laminated and put on a wall somewhere, like a checklist, ready to go.

Lee, would you mind sharing what the total cost and total construction time on the darkroom will be when all is said and done? I am in the planning stages for either converting the back of the garage (no plumbing or electricity currently) or converting a small basement (plumbing, hot water, power, but 10 feet below the drainline) right now. I would be interested in whatever you can share.

dgh

 

[Donald Miller]

Lee,
Sounds as if you are moving along with the darkroom. I'll bet you are looking forward to getting it finished. With your partner and yourself doing the work the costs should be kept within manageable levels. Do you have to pull inspections on your work? Do you have to have a general contractor and the various trades insofar as mechanical involved? Where are you doing your darkroom work now?

 

[Donald Miller]

David, If you decide on the basement, there is a device that is called a lift station to take care of the drainage problems. I know that LA plumbing codes are some of the toughest in the nation and it would bear checking into whether these devices are allowable. Just by way of information.

 

[glbeas]

The lift pump is how I did mine. Since there are no solids to be disposed you can use the lower priced models for pumping "grey water" from the laundry up to the drain.

 

[lee]

thanks for the encouragement guys. The building is in a little bedroom community that is ethnically Hispanic and Afro American. We got the lease because it belongs to my partner's relatives. Somewhere down the family tree. They are Hispanic. We have not pulled any permits. So far we only have the electricity on. Officially! We turned on the water ourselves the other day to test the rest of the system and to flush the toilet. When we are ready I will officially turn on the water with the city. We have, as been mentioned doing all the construction work ourselves. I have 2 more darkroom people (one is a commercial guy and the other is a lawyer) that are helping pay the bills. My partner (he is a potter and artist) has a painter and video lady in his side. So, with 5 people we can split up the building expenses and so far, we have only spent about $300. Well, we did rent a 20 yard dump for $275 (we filled that up in about 3 hours). The place was trashed. It is pretty clean now. The next big expense is a 30 gallon water heater. My partner and I own a "handy man" type company here in Ft Worth. We install a lot of water heaters and the like. So it will be no big deal. Like I said we sorta "roughed' in the drain today. Tomorrow we will finish that wall. All the plumbing will be exterior and not in the walls as will the electricity. It will just be in conduit and run to where we need it. The bathroom in the darkroom will remain a bathroom but we are removing the sink and placing a shelf over the toilet to serve as a film loading area.
We have about 40 hours in the building of the darkroom. We have a lot more hours in the roof and general fix up of the building.

In darkrooms you can make them a fancy or plain as you want. I have had several darkrooms that were too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Most of the rough darkrooms I have had have been really just closets or bathrooms. I am tired of that arrangement. Right now, I have been using the front bath for several years as a darkroom (the wife is VERY tolerant in that regard) with the hope that my daughter would move out and I could convert her room to a darkroom. About the time e started the darkroom in Everman, Tx, she moved out. Go figure!

lee\c

 

[edbuffaloe]

In response to costs for building a darkroom, I recently spent about $2000 on mine. I painted floor and walls, put in an 8-foot fiberglass sink and plumbing (I already had hot and cold water outlets stubbed in, but had to install faucets and pipes), two 3x3-foot cabinets on the walls, an 8x4-foot work surface (covered with formica) on the opposite wall with a 4-drawer cabinet underneath and various shelves for paper, 4 8-foot shelves on each wall, a corner set of narrow shelves for chemicals and mixing, and a combination UV light exposure unit and drying cabinet. I already owned two enlargers, timers, trays, scales, a print washer, etc., but I had to purchase some additional safe lights.

 

[lee]

Hi Ed,
How large is the room where your darkroom is located. The one I am building is to be shared by 3 people. And of course the expense is also. My room is 13'-6" square. I will have 2 eight foot sinks and 3 work spaces. There is a small room on the other side of the darkroom wall that will be a finishing room and office. It is about 13'-6" x about 9'. There is a 32" door connecting both rooms. Like you, the 3 of us all have most of the equipment needed to use the darkroom as soon as it is finished.


lee\c