Darkroom Madness

So here it is the 19th already and I've only had one post on my blog 2011! That's not good. I have been working feverishly in the darkroom, perfecting my prints and the whole 'process' at the same time! It's madness. It's all about the learning curve, trusting yourself and keeping doubt out. It's hard, it's stressful (especially with a deadline), but it's rewarding too. Ron keeps me in stitches when I come out and ask him if he would come and look at a print. He likes me in my apron, pencil behind my ear, and lately me wearing masks. He says I look like a scientist! I was having problems with the chemicals - they were starting to get to me, even though the exhaust fan was on, it wasn't enough. The masks seem to be doing the trick.

Working out the process included, rechecking my enlarger for it's alignment, reading books and my notes from my previous classes and searching on the internet for 'how-to's' when I had unanswered questions on the whole process. I purchased a used commercial seal press which ended up weighing 60 lbs!! Ron is building me a table to perch it on. Buying release paper and tacking iron - hadn't done that yet. And then realizing I should be using an amber light (for multigrade paper) v. the red light. Although, in classes we used a red light - nothing was ever mentioned otherwise. However, I noticed some of my prints looked 'muddy' and the contrast wasn't quite there. I knew about dialing in magenta and/or yellow on the colorhead enlarger, but finally figured that one out: M = more contrast; Y = less contrast.

To take care of the muddy affect, and while waiting for the amber light to be delivered, I just worked in the darkroom - IN THE DARK! I know my way around the darkroom well enough to do this - not to say it wasn't easy, but it went well. And the difference wasn't major, but it made for a much better photo. I could see the difference in the contrast and the muddy look was gone.

In the meantime, I also ordered and picked up my frames for the whole series and put them together last night just to make sure they were all there and there weren't any damaged ones. Now I need to start cutting the mats and dry mounting the prints. Will try harder to keep the blog up in 2011.