It's the beginning of the school year and what better way to teach how cameras work than to build one from scratch. It's funny in our high-tech digital world, the kids still love going into that darkroom and developing prints the old-fashioned way. I love watching them get so excited by the safelights and the trays. I usually hear "Wow, I've seen this in the movies!" at some point during the project. I happened to have my G11 at school this week so I took a few shots in the darkness on high ISO. An 8th of a second at 2.8 and it looks super cool.
Does this bring back and memories?
This is a pinhole camera image coming up in the developer. Yes, you can still buy black and white photo paper and Dektol developer.
Film cameras themselves are getting harder to find and even harder to get repaired but we don't shoot too much film, we just build our little cardboard box cameras and take pictures using paper as our film. The kids like it and I think it gives them a great foundation to the magic that is photography.
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Darkroom developing is my favorite memory from high school! It makes me so sad that it's disappearing as an artform. I love my 5D but developing and printing your own film just can't be beat. I feel digital photography is always about striving for perfection, and with film you get a whole experience and if you find perfection, that's great too. Maybe too much thought, but this post DID bring back memories!
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