back in MY day . . .

I've been working on getting my darkroom up and running for three years. Actually longer if you consider the year I bought the enlarger and had it sit in the garage attic. More like fifteen years. When I brought the enlarger home and set it up in the basement of the house I was then living in, it wasn't going to work because I couldn't raise the enlarger far enough up to focus the image onto the paper. Hence why the enlarger went into the garage attic. 

Fast forward twelve years and me buying my adorable little house in a little village out in the middle of corn and soy bean fields. This house has a lovely basement. I started my darkroom the summer of 2020, getting everything in place except for making the room light tight. I turned my attention to other things, leaving the darkroom to sit until this summer.

This summer I returned to that social media platform I'd left five years ago. Five years of not knowing what others were doing. Five years of learning that it's actually awesome not knowing what others are doing. Then someone suggested I return and use the platform for its groups, such as a photography group. I thought about it and decided to give it a go. If I didn't like it, I could always leave, just like I did five years ago.

I belong to two photography groups, and both are absolutely fantastic. I can post a question and have an answer in a matter of minutes. I just wish I had asked my latest question before I dropped off six rolls of film at a camera shop, shelling out nearly $150 to have the rolls developed and scanned to a thumbdrive. I about dropped to the floor when I was told the cost. I've become my grandpa: "That used to cost $3 a roll back in MY day!" Seriously. I'm still in shock over the cost to develop a roll of film. I asked if I could just do the developing, negatives and prints. Yes, but that cost even more. WTF?!?

So I jumped into the one group and asked about sending film to labs from home. Lots of great suggestions for where I can send my film. One person, though, said, "Develop at home and scan them yourself." I was like, what? How? The developing part I can do. The scanning I know nothing about. I asked for more info and several others jumped in with all kinds of suggestions. I then went down the rabbit hole of scanning negatives. 

It's so cool! And much cheaper than sending my film to a lab. I really want to support local businesses, but sometimes the cost is just too much. 

Now I'm deciding between two scanners. I found a used one, and the reviews of it are good. I might go that route and see how it works out. 

Long story short: I really don't need a full darkroom. I can certainly go the route of developing the negatives then processing my own prints, but with the ability to scan the negatives right into an editing program and working with them that way, it's much quicker and in the end cheaper to scan. I think, though, I'll get the darkroom in working order just to have a place to go and putz around, see what happens with the enlarger. I do enjoy watching the magic happen when the image slowly emerges on the paper.