Writing With Light

I couldn't believe how nervous I was as I poured the developer into the canister. My hands were literally shaking. You'd think I was performing some important surgery. No. I was developing my first black and white film in many years. Many, many years. I've been working towards this moment for the last three years. Every time I took a step forward, I ended up taking two backwards. I was so afraid I was going to royally mess up the process and not have any frames worth printing (or in today's world, scanning to the computer). My mindset was I'd rather not try if it meant failing. How dumb is that?

Thankfully Lovely Beautiful Daughter told me to just stop. It wouldn't matter if I did fail. It's just film and chemicals. Both can be bought and the process can be tried again. And again until I get it right. I used to develop film all the time. The muscle memory would kick in sooner or later. The fails would be less and less. 

I'm so glad I listened to her. While there are some casualties with today's developing, the majority of the frames survived, which means I have some images I can work with. When I pulled the first reel out of the canister, I held my breath as I started to unwind the film. The first good negative I saw, I couldn't help but laugh. I did it. The roll wasn't a complete fail. And the second roll looked even better. 

After I hung the film to dry in the shower, I cleaned up the sink and could smell the chemicals. The familiarity brought back memories, wonderful memories. The darkroom. Watching a print slowly emerge in the tray of developer.

Photography.

Writing with light.

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