It’s years since I shot film and longer still since I had a darkroom. I wouldn’t give up digital, but if I had room for a permanent darkroom I would set up one up. There are several reasons.
In the darkroom everything is moving towards the big reveal. It is like waiting for your results in an exam or counting down the last few seconds when you’re bidding on something on eBay. Your mind says to keep quiet but your emotions don’t listen. You can get giddy with excitement watching the negative and the print develop.
I look back fondly at memories of tiptoeing across the floor of the kitchen/darkroom so as not to shake the enlarger when it was exposing a print.
Then there was the thrill of using the magnifier on a print and inching the wheel on the enlarger to bring the print into focus and finding it was actually in focus – sharp as a tack. That was really the first time you knew that you had actually taken a photo that was in focus.
The chemicals, the smells, the bending, the moving about – it was a real experience. Processing digital on a computer is very ‘thin’ compared to the darkroom, But as the world knows, convenience rules.
It doesn’t have to be either-or when there are services that will take the exposed roll of film and deliver scans.
I shot a roll of Kentmere on an Olympus XA2 that I bought on eBay. The Kentmere was years and years old. It is rated at ISO 100, but I shot at 50 ISO to compensate.
I sent the exposed film to ‘develop and scan’ at Analogue Wonderland. I forget how I heard about the company but people seemed to like them.
They are a UK-based company and they take the order online and provide the Royal Mail postage label to send the film to them for processing.
They don’t send scans back by mail. They provide a link to an account area to download the digital files from there.
I thought I would receive digital negatives, but in fact Analogue Wonderland reversed them. So I have printable prints.
Here are a couple of shots and a photo of the camera itself.
I really enjoyed shooting the roll. With no expectations and in foreign territory, I had some of that ‘beginner’s mind’ that we strive for – to ‘do’ without the invasion of knowledge.
I like the shot of the man holding his head as he runs off the punt. I wonder what he was actually doing? It looks like he hit his head on a pole but I don’t recall any drama like that.
UPDATE
After writing this I received an email from Analogue Wonderland telling my order was in the post. I couldn’t figure out what this was referring to. The a couple of days later I received the developed negatives in the post. That felt like a bonus surprise because I thought I would only receive the scans.
Analogue Wonderland says – Share this link to give your friends free Roll of Kentmere 400 35mm Film (36exp). We’ll send you 250 Referral WonderPoints when they make a purchase.
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