Walter's post Craigslist: Darkroom forsale

    I will make this short as possible. I already have an enlarger the Lentar69 and really wasn't in the market for a different. My thought was research what I need for a darkroom, you know the "stuff". I looked through a ton of material and everyone had the grandiose set-ups, all pro and crap. I stopped looking for a while then one day on Craigslist I glimpsed at a post "Darkroom for sale" scimmed thru but wallet was thin that week. So, I will check back later, you know CL has a 45 day posting ,right? So, a couple of weeks later I answered the CLpost and it was still for sale, yes(fistpump).
        I get the cash, call the guy up, hey be there in 20mins, ok, ok, boom I am there in the garage with the "stuff". I meet Walter. I am thinking well it's time to work the magic, how much do I get him lower the price. I started my speel but suddenly stopped,
       Walter tells me his story. He purchased everything new, his inspiration came from his father, a veteran war photographer ,dad loved his Rollie. Anyway Walter did BW darkroom printing and encouraged the children to get into photography. The kids used the darkroom as well for years and then they packed it all away. It lay in a basement for years and now Walter and wife are moving and stuff needs to be sold off.
            That's when I met Walter and so glad I did. I did a quick print wrote some stats on it, drop it off and went about my way.
   Now I got an entire darkroom, Thanks to Walter. Check it out in the photo's.

Darkroom Beseler 67C

You're such a pro....photographer.

  You're such a pro photographer , most likely  you thought that about some person in some kind of setting, right.  With that thought you also most likely went ,hey how, why, what and when did my photos not look as good as other photographers, what ever that person is doing I must do. I need to be a professional photographer and I must do what others do and that makes me a pro  photographer. I think of a pro photographer is one that sells and has to put everything down as income to some IRS paper. That's what a pro is today but maybe you can change  that and make it more about something else.

  When someone sees a great photo and they want to try and emulate it, naturally the photo they are trying to reproduce can't be done  by the average non pro photographer. People don't understand that what they see is staged and processed  in great detail. One great photo is most likely thirty and one, plus thousands of dollars in gear and a staff of ten, then back to a computer where the real photo of today's media is actually produced. Wow, wait it's not just about the camera any more now it's some software program as well. I have seen horrible photos turned into great photos by a software program and vice versa.
  You don't need to be a pro photographer, all you need to be is a person that doesn't have any limitations in photography. One of the things I find is you just need to stop being envious of others, lose the ego that others have and if the enjoyment is gone, packed it away and come back to it another day.  You maybe more of a pro than you really know it. Make it more about something else.

Imperial'ist resulted in crazy photos.

Orpheum theater downtown St. Louis ©2012

   Got the negatives back from Creve Couer Camera store in Edwardsville after having them scanned to digital format. The horrific vignette and the random blur is very noticeable in most of the shots. The film drags along the 2 1/4 film window and massive drag lines appear. There is no way in this great earth that could reproduce  the results achieved from this camera. No shop program could duplicate the results, that's one the remarkable things about shooting in film format. Plus with this being my first ever roll of 120 developed with Kodak products. Take a look at the shots and look for those crazy little imperfections. I am on the hunt for an enlarger and then back to buy some Ilford paper to make  prints.

Imperial'ist test time and broken virginity's

        After spending 40 dollars at Creve Couer camera in Edwardsville for developer, fixer bath etc.... I called Ed Crimm of STLPA.COM and asked if he would help tear through my virginity on developing 120 film. Ed had his own film company for awhile and so he had to get everything out of  storage. Any way we are at his his studio on Hoodiamont off the Delamr Loop. He got everything mixed, conquered the first roll with results. I did study every move he made. I got in the black box, looped the spool, grabbed the steel tank and went to mixing. We concluded 70 degrees and 10 minutes would suffice. I am super duper stoked on doing this,  crap'ola I get result. I am so glad that Ed was kind of enough to take time out of his day for schooling on developing film. I thought he said  it was years last time he had done this, like that poof  Jedi sense was there between student and master.

The Negative from the first roll.

  I have shot many of 35mm film and always out for to be processed by someone. When I got this Imperial Reflex I knew this was a must do by hand. So my cherry got POPPED on developing, so hooked.  The smell of the fixer reminded me of Maritz lab's in  Fenton,Mo. My mom worked in the developing department for their film, huge giant machines with pools of chemicals. A smell you can't forget.

Negatives inverted.

        I took the negatives to Creve Couer Camera to be scanned, suck's that I must wait about week to get them back but hey, this project is coming along. When I get the Digital back, we post it up on here.

The Imperial'ist Reflex went to the streets...

    Got my 120 film loaded and working quite nicely, if I say so myself. On May 5th I headed to the street of St. Louis #STL on Washington . I started off very eagerly and remembered hey "you ain't no digital cam". Slow and steady I went looking for that shot.
    I manage to fill the roll with enough eye candy that when the roll will be developed, it will be shit or great. I like to call that the craptastic theory in shooting film. Sometime this week the the roll will be sent out . Until then, waiting will drive me off to another project. As soon as the prints are back I post up the Imperial'ist reflex photos'. Here is a street shot from my Canon T1i for now.

The St Louis Metro Station