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Jun 25 2012 Ted's Photography... Latest from the Darkroom Dear friends,   Here, for your enjoyment, the latest fruits of my kitchen based photographic lab. Almost all of these […] View all News

Dear friends,

 
Here, for your enjoyment, the latest fruits of my kitchen based photographic lab. Almost all of these shots where taken on the Rolleiflex except the two 35mm pics which where taken with a compact Yashica I am encouraging myself to carry at all times. It’s always when you’re without your camera that the best photographic opportunities present themselves. The shot of Rambo (the dog) running towards the camera was taken on a Pentacon Six. I bought the camera for £100 on eBay and if you are thinking of diving into the world of medium format photography then I couldn’t recommend this camera highly enough. 
 
Just a quick bit of darkroom chat and I will endeavour not to geek out on you too much. The long and the short of it is, getting your 120 film developed can be very expensive and doing it yourself at home is very easy. There is also a lot of fun and experimentation to be had, as well as the joy of mixing chemicals in the kitchen and pretending you’re an evil genius. I digress. My latest experimentation has involved refrigerating the developer and conducting the first stage of development (usually 9mins @ 20oC) over up to two hours at 10oC. By reducing the temperature the process is slowed with the aim of increasing the detail without loosing too much contrast. I will try and assemble some test shots for your consideration and if anyone has any experience or advice on this kind of thing then please do share. 
 
Our last few months have been spent finishing the album and as we make our final preparations to release it into the wild I must say, the mood here is one of tangible excitement. We are getting ready to hit the road hard over the next year or so, so with a bit of luck we’ll see you soon. Until then, much love and happy snapping.
 
Ted xx
 
PS. The next post will focus a spotlight on the Widelux, one of the most interesting cameras I’ve stummbled upon.