Now in 2016 my darkroom is the bathroom in the guest room upstairs. It is not very dark so I must use a changing bag to transfer my 35mm and 120 film into reels and from there in a Unicolor processing drum I have been using since 1976. There is no room for an enlarger or for printing my negatives onto photographic paper. My wet darkroom is gone. I have now entered a new stage with a Canon Pro-1 Inkjet Printer.

I processed four rolls yesterday. Three were Kodak T-Max 100. The fourth roll, Kodak Technical Pan in 120 (long gone into discontinuance many years ago) I had to process in a Nikkor stainless steel tank. Technical Pan which is inherently a high contrast film would become even more contrasty if processed in the Unicolor tank which revolves on a motor base.

Fuji FP-3000B b+w Instant Film - scanned peel

The first problem I encountered is that the motor base did not work. I thought of the consequences and how friends would say (damn them!),”Have you tried E-Bay or Craig’s List?” But the wrinkle was a small one. I had to press the button on the razor adapted outlet. It worked.

The second problem is that in my move I have misplaced the Unicolor instructions for the minimum chemistry requirement for each roll of film and subsequent extra rolls. Luckily the internet had that information posted.

Fuji FP-300B Instant B+W Film - Scanned print

The third problem was that none of my four faucets (kitchen and three bathrooms) had a tap that fit my tall archival negative washer. I found that the kitchen nozzle could be removed and Coe’s Lumber on West Broadway had plastic adapters.

With the problems all solved I can report that my negative look pristine and I can see myself doing more of this.

Fuji X-E1 Digital Camera

To illustrate this blog I will place here photographs I took of my friend Nicole in my Mexican department store (Puerto de Liverpool) pin-striped suit jacket.

It will illustrate my preference for using more than one camera on any given photographic session and when possible to use different film stocks plus my digital Fuji X-E.I previously wrote about this here.

Kodak Portra 160 Colour Negative Film

I believe that when I pick up another camera my subject shifts a bit, rests a bit and then looks at my lens with subtle differences.

Kodak T-Max 100 Film