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Posted by Bill S on June 18, 2007 at 6:31:45 pm EDT
In reply to Hi I'm New (And I have pics of my latest adventure) posted by ericjustin on June 14, 2007 at 5:31:29 pm EDT

Hey, I have an enlarger in the closet (Beseler, top quality), unused for, ummmmm, decades, and a Nikkor developing tank, and trays, and all sorts of darkroom gear. I stuck it back in the various boxes and into the closet when the People's Republic of Palo Alto (a "liberal city" by city ordnance, and that's serious and not a joke) declared photochemicals to be hazardous materials, not to be dumped down the drain, including the wash water, and therefore no home darkrooms allowed. Kodak moved their Northern Calif labs out of Palo Alto shortly thereafter, thanks to the requirement of processing the waste water to drinking-level standards. Well, yes, the dissolved silver salts do indeed cause serious harm to the wetlands.

Anyway, I might just be persuaded to sell the whole lot cheap to someone who can use it (you pay shipping). Then again, it does make a great antiquities exhibit, along with my 4x5 view camera. Oh, the enlarger is 35mm and 2-1/4, not big enough for 4x5 negatives.

I keep hoping to find some way to get back to the darkroom. As someone said earlier, there is a lot of satisfaction to making a great print that Photoshop just doesn't give. But I disagree with Steve - I can do anything in terms of processing the print in Photoshop that I could do with the chemical darkroom, except that what I get is an inkjet print, not a silver print, and not a print toned with selenium toner that has that deep, rich look than an Ansel Adams original print has (hmmm, selenium is one of the major contaminants of Central Valley wetlands, and has been killing off lots of waterfowl, including migratory birds).

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