Triad Area, NC

[Sundowner]

Anyone around the Winston-Salem or Greensboro areas? I'm starting to think that I'm the only person with a darkroom in a five-county radius.

 

[aepearson]

I'm in Greensboro, there are several of us around here with darkrooms Mine is makeshift of course, but functional!

 

[Sundowner]

I had given up all hope...

 

[mattbellphoto]

Near Greensboro.

All I need to develop is my blacked-out bathroom. No room for an enlarger and printing, though. But I make up for it with a great film scanning setup..

 

[bascom49]

I'm in Siler City. I shoot primarily medium format.
Have a darkroom, currently building a new darkroom for my 14 foot, 4' by 6' horizontal enlarger.

Charles

 

[EdGallop]

Bassett, VA here.

I think Greensboro is the closest Starbucks (maybe Roanoke) anyway not too far away.

I'm working on my darkroom now. Almost complete

Ed

 

[lancekingphoto]

I'm a few hours away, in east Tennessee. I wish I were closer to that area. NC is a beautiful state, and there are only a handful of film shooters in this area (only one of which does his own developing, that I know of). I don't have an actual darkroom, but I do develop my own b&w (35mm and 120), and scan it.

 

[Sundowner]

I'm right next to Greensboro, myself, and I have a small darkroom...but I can't lay claim to anything nearly as cool as a 4x6 horizontal enlarger! That's awesome, on the principle of sheer size.

 

[drumlin]

In btwn chapel hill and Pittsboro nc. Dont have room for a darkroom setup in our current house, but have half a small attic of enlarger and trays.

 

[gb hill]

I'm over here in Lexington. I have a makeshift setup in the spare bathroom now that the boys are moved out.

 

[j_j_j_j]

I just use my changing bag!

 

[Donald Qualls]

A little thread necromancy here...

I live near King, and just a couple months ago got my dedicated darkroom built. Laundry tub for a sink, counter with cabinet, shelf above that, and three kitchen carts (two with Omega 4x5 enlargers on them). Now if I can just get the other junk off the floor to have room to walk from the enlarger(s) to the trays on the counter...

 

[Michael Firstlight]

Hi Donald,

Congrats on your dedicated darkroom! I'm in Asheville. I recently moved from the Raleigh area. It's been decades since I had a dedicated darkroom myself but I'm in the final stages of building my dedicated darkroom (14x13 feet) in the new home that I just finishing building - a fully finished room with 16 feet of cabinets, a custom 30" wide counter top L-shaped), two LPL enlargers (4550 XLG and 670/7700 MXL) along with automatic dry-to-dry desktop film and paper processors and a separate print finishing area. I'm doing mostly 6x7 and 4x5 color and B&W end-to-end along side my digital work. The room is generally finished (fully sheet rocked, painted, flooring, trim, electrical, plumbing and ventilation), but now I'm just waiting for the the cabinets to arrive next week, then the countertop and sink and I'll finally be in business.

The closest darkrooms to the Triad were in the Triangle area - two I recall, one at Sertoma Arts Center and another in Chapel Hill Arts Center, but I don't know if either or both of those are still functioning.

There's a thriving film community out here in Asheville with a large community darkroom, gallery space, classes, though I don't see any events scheduled as I suspect they've shut down thing until after Covid, but check it out sometime if you are in the area. I plan to join and support it now that I live in the area (https://www.theashevilledarkroom.com/).

I hope others in this region chime in and tell us about theirs - it would be great to get a bunch together from the region after Covid subsides.

Regards,
Mike

 

[Donald Qualls]

Sad to say, I think my color enlarger (Chromega 2/D5) likely came from one of the ones in the Raleigh area. At least, that's where it came from, geographically, and there were four or five listed by the same seller at the same time -- I bought the one I did mainly on the basis that one of the photos showed the lamp actually lit, leading to reasonable supposition that the power supply/stabilizer was working (though it now occurs to me they might have simply bypassed that component -- still, it's a big, hairy transformer stablizer, weighs about 20 lbs, unless it has electrolytic capacitors inside, it should be fine). Having do do some work to get it reassembled (including straightening one of the cross brace rods in the carriage), and now I'm wondering if I should just set up to swap heads between the Chromega and the condenser lamphouse on my D2, which is much less worn and I already have the lenses set up for. Know anyone who wants a somewhat tired D5 column, bellows section, turret, carriage, and baseboard? Free for pickup near Pilot Mountain...

 

[Michael Firstlight]

Yah, I wonder if they came from the closure of one of the college darkrooms in the triangle. Might want to post it here in the classifieds - never know who might be local for pick-up.

Mike

 

[Donald Qualls]

@Michael Firstlight Yeah, in fact, I can put my Zone VI cold light head with it and someone can get a fully functional (mins lenses and negative carriers) 4x5 diffusion enlarger. I even straightened the bent axle for the front column guide wheels and replaced some missing screws.

 

[PFGS]

@Michael Firstlight Yeah, in fact, I can put my Zone VI cold light head with it and someone can get a fully functional (mins lenses and negative carriers) 4x5 diffusion enlarger. I even straightened the bent axle for the front column guide wheels and replaced some missing screws.

I might know a certain chronically broke "someone" just an hour and a half from Pilot Mountain...

 

[Donald Qualls]

Okay, that's a good start. Let me get the guide wheels reinstalled and my D2 set up to swap heads -- likely take a couple weekends, my partner keeps insisting on doing other stuff, too, and there's the whole needing time to shoot and process. Working full time sucks!

You drive something good sized, or will we need to take the column off the base board again?

 

[PFGS]

Okay, that's a good start. Let me get the guide wheels reinstalled and my D2 set up to swap heads -- likely take a couple weekends, my partner keeps insisting on doing other stuff, too, and there's the whole needing time to shoot and process. Working full time sucks!

You drive something good sized, or will we need to take the column off the base board again?

Ha, no hurry on my end. I drive a surprisingly capacious Accord coupe (https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a33313/honda-accord-v6-coupe-muscle-car/) that could really stand to have a little carbon blown out after 6 months of pandemic near non-use. But I'll need to take the baseboard off anyway, to adapt it to my enlarger cart, so I can bring wrenches too!

 

[Donald Qualls]

I put it on with my Leatherman, I can take it off the same way (it's not locked down tight anyway).

Since I work in an essential industry, I haven't missed my hour commute (each way) except two days when I quarantined waiting results of a Covid-19 test (a friend's husband tested positive, and my partner had been to their house). All negative here, but I had to stay out until I had the results. Beyond that, my 2015 Fiesta has been rolling up the usual 400+ miles a week. Had my oil change and tire rotation for 120,000 this past weekend.

 

[PFGS]

I put it on with my Leatherman, I can take it off the same way (it's not locked down tight anyway).

Since I work in an essential industry, I haven't missed my hour commute (each way) except two days when I quarantined waiting results of a Covid-19 test (a friend's husband tested positive, and my partner had been to their house). All negative here, but I had to stay out until I had the results. Beyond that, my 2015 Fiesta has been rolling up the usual 400+ miles a week. Had my oil change and tire rotation for 120,000 this past weekend.

I'm a web developer for the university; though the pandemic has me busier than every with replacing legacy paper forms & etc. with online solutions, it's been 200 days since I worked in-office and clearly don't need to be physically present. Just as well, as it's a rare respiratory infection that I don't seem to catch, and catch hard.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Yeah. Whereas I'm the one they use to determine if this one is the one that will end the world -- if it takes me down, humanity may be done. I never get flu shots; haven't had flu. Ever. Not even Hong Kong flu (had both my parents, then around 30, down for 4-5 days), swine flu, etc. I used to lose my voice for a week every spring, but that was allergies -- and not talking on the phone 40 hours a week makes an amazing difference (not to mention not living in Seattle any more).

Pretty well can't do power tool repair from home, though. All the parts and test equipment are in the shop.

 

[PFGS]

Yeah. Whereas I'm the one they use to determine if this one is the one that will end the world -- if it takes me down, humanity may be done. I never get flu shots; haven't had flu. Ever. Not even Hong Kong flu (had both my parents, then around 30, down for 4-5 days), swine flu, etc. I used to lose my voice for a week every spring, but that was allergies -- and not talking on the phone 40 hours a week makes an amazing difference (not to mention not living in Seattle any more).

Pretty well can't do power tool repair from home, though. All the parts and test equipment are in the shop.

The one and only year I got the flu shot, I came down with "parainfluenza" (same disease, different germ) and was soon hospitalized for double pneumonia, myocarditis, secondary infection of the spleen, a MRSA scare and etc. My wife still has nightmares about dressing up our then-10-month-old son in a little suit for my funeral (he's 11 now), so here under corona I'll probably be the last man let back to "normal" life. But I can drive around with a mask, so long as I promise to not go inside anywhere to pee.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Yike! So much for "The flu shot can't give you flu." I believe the science on that, but if you just get the other flu instead, it isn't much help. I wonder what a plastic bubble costs??

 

[MattKing]

I wonder what a plastic bubble costs??

You should ask the "Get Smart" team