Hello Everyone! It has been a hectic and exciting two weeks of school and already fun photography assignments are beginning! In one of my classes, Advanced Black and Black Photo, we will specifically be photographing with different film cameras and process our film in the darkroom! The last time I had ever taken photos on film and processed them was my Junior year of High School.
Last weekend I got film and tested out my film camera that I used throughout High School until my Junior to see if it still worked.
It was a test to see if the camera still worked and if I need to get it fixed.
~Caitlin Ryerson
The camera shown is a Mamiya nc1000s. I got this camera my sophomore year of High School from my father’s boss. I loaded my camera with Kodak TRI-X 400 FILM. Fun fact: I use that exact film when I did my classes in High School. So, for testing to see if it stills function I walked around campus photographing the random things like flowers, buildings, the sitting sculptures in the Art Field. I was very excited to see these images.
In the next class, my teacher and I proceeded the film together. Here is the equipment that I used to go unload my film into. A plastic reel and a developing tank. To unload the film you have to be in a complete darkness; even a small shine of light can damage your film.
Down below are some of the steps the film goes through to make it light sensitive and to see your film. In image 1 is the Developer that was not diluted yet, but it’s a chemical solution that converts the latent image on a film to a visible image. Image 2 is fixer, image 3 is rapid fixer, and image 4, the last image, is photoflow. I have missed photographing a few steps like the bath wash and perm wash because I had wet hands and was busy activating the chemicals in the containers.
Once you have done all the steps and activation you can finally see your images! And the results……..
Nothing! and that’s okay! It was a test to see if the camera still worked and if I need to get it fixed. I was a little upset that I didn’t get any images but I just laughed it off and went on with my day.
I wanted to share this because I never seen or rarely see people or photographers show the other side of film photography. I know it’s sad that you know you Photographed these amazing images but you actually didn’t. And I want to say it’s okay. It’s a learning process.