My passion of photography started in high school. I took it as a freshman, junior and senior. I loved it! We took and studied black and white photography. Ansel Adams was of course one of the artist we studied a lot.
Not only did we learn how to take pictures, but we also had to develop our own film, and prints.
I still have my 35mm Canon Rebel. It took me months to save my tips from my restaurant job to buy it. I just can’t give it up. It still has film in it I need to develop.
There is this place at our dump called the Last Chance store. You can drop stuff off and they resell it. It’s a popular place. My oldest and I call it treasure hunting because you never know what you’ll find.
But when I spotted this beauty, it was like seeing an old friend.
Yes! It was an enlarger. The artist inside of me was like, “Buy it!”
Oh the memories of being in a dark room. Making a contact sheet. Finding the right exposure. Enlarging, dodging, over exposing. It was such art! I felt so creative. It was awesome to see one of these. I wanted to take it home and make a dark room. But its just not practical.
How technology has advanced photography. Anyone can make a good picture. Anyone can take a good picture. There was no delete with film. You had to have an eye. To see the potential of what a beautiful photograph you may have taken.
It would be at least 3 days until I could see my photographs. Now it’s instant. Oh don’t like that, delete, retake. More light, less light, get my flash out. Amazing how times have changed.
I asked my husband if he knew what this was. He said, “yes! It’s a microscope?” I then schooled him on how it worked. It sparked a passion in me about photography. Just made me want to go out and shoot some pictures.
It was great seeing you old friend. Maybe one day I’ll have a dark room to create such art again. Until then, there is a filter to turn any photograph into black and white.
NutraTina 