Something I wanted to share with all you folks: This is the first photograph I shot, developed, and printed on my own when I was about 10 or 11 years old. This was shot with a Kodak Brownie Target 616 (which was considered old even then) my dad gave me to use in a photography class I was taking in 4-H. The photo is of my Dad, who was a farmer and sold various farm equipment on the side.
The cool thing about the old box cameras (they were often referred to as) was that the negatives were fairly big, almost the size of a 6x9. Because of their size, they made great contact prints.
The instructor of the photography class was also the director of the local art center which happened to have a B&W darkroom. He offered to show me how to make contact prints so I then learned the basics of printing.
I set up a makeshift darkroom out of my bedroom. For a safelight I used a regular light bulb, stained red using my mother's glass stain. I made a makeshift contact printer using a dresser drawer, light socket from a lamp, and a peice of glass from a picture frame. Pie pans for trays, and I was set.
Of course, the glass-stained bulbs kept burning out so the following summer I got a real safelight for my birthday. (SWEET!)
By the time I was 12, I had saved enough money from shooting gophers and working in the garden to buy an enlarger. My parents were remodeling some parts of the house, so Dad built me a small darkroom in the basement. (yeah baby!)
Post edited by: FloppyDog, at: 2007/12/26 04:17
Everything seems so perfect in it. 
