My First Post!

My introduction to photography took place when I was 15 years old and it was the summer of 1969. I was in the Boy Scouts and our assigned project was to work on our merit badges. I can't remember exactly why I ended up working on my photography merit badge but it was probably suggested by my father who already had a strong interest in photography. He helped me set up a basic darkroom in the bedroom closet using an enlarger he had. I learned how to develop film using a film tank and make prints. I had a blast. The family moved a few times and the darkroom was long gone. My interest in photography never left me but took the back burner for the next 25 or so years. Below is a photo of me and my dad from about 1976 or 77.

I finally bought a decent 35mm camera back in the 90's and started shooting again. Online services for film processing did not yet exist yet so we had to drop film off at the camera store and pick it up in a few days and it was expensive. Then digital came along. My first digital camera was under 1MP. it was 640x480 and the images were terrible. However, to have your pictures instantly was just amazing! I was so hooked again. Since then, photography has become a passion. I mostly work in digital but also take a few images on film.

Thus far, this story has been an intro to the actual subject of my post. For the next few weeks I plan on chronicling my foray into film processing. The "look" of film has its own atheistic and most often is difficult to duplicate in digital. In the digital world, I am able to take the image from camera capture to finished print and presentation. I would like to be able to do this process in film as well. At least shoot in film and scan the negative to digital. I'm not sure where these efforts will lead but I plan on purchasing the classic film tank and start developing film. I have on Amazon a list of all the basic supplies to develop my favorite film which is Ilford PANF 50. I plan on working with 120 film but one step at a time. I remember the basic process but online resources has been awesome. I'm not sure I will be able to post every week but stay tuned!

-Bruce