Kitchen Sink Photo Processing

I grew up with a darkroom in our basement laundry room because my mother was a freelance photographer. I spent some of the happiest hours of my childhood and teen years cooped up in that creepy little cobwebby room with my mom, friends, film and chemicals, damaging more than a few brain cells in the process, I'm sure. I wouldn't take those brain cells back, though. The smell of photographic fixer makes me extremely happy, and I get a little jolt of excitement whenever I walk into a photo lab that still (omg) processes film. Sadly, Mom's Photo Lab was dismantled to make way for the new millennium, and a new, much nicer, less cobwebby basement.

I recently got back into shooting film, and I'm feeling underwhelmed by the negatives I've gotten back from a few places. So why not just do it myself at home? I've done it before, probably hundreds of times, and sure it's been 14 years, but there's no reason I can't do it again, right? All you need are a few pieces of equipment, and you're good to go. You can't find a lot of this stuff easily anymore, but thanks to internet shopping - namely B&H (I love you!) - it is still available, and even if you live in Canada, it arrives in your jonesing hands four days later. So, I got a tank just like the one I used as a kid and a pile of chemicals. Oh how I itched to use it all right away, but there was one crucial element I didn't have: a roll or two of exposed black and white film to process! So, I dragged my daughter, my friend and her kid down to the lakeshore, and my husband the next day. I shot a roll of Ilford Delta 400 on my Nikon FE, and a roll of Ilford Delta 100 on my Mamiya C220, so I'd have a roll of 35mm and a roll of 120 to play with. Hooray!

Processing the film was super fun. It took me forever to mix everything up and get my developer (Kodak D76) the right temperature, using a fussy tea thermometer (proper photographic thermometer = better idea).



I made a big mess. I later wrote, "Fixer! DO NOT DRINK!" all over the Bacardi bottle, just in case somebody in the mood for a little tropical island getaway stumbles upon it some Friday night, thinking they've discovered my secret stash. It's probably not the best storage container, but until I get more fun brown bottles from B&H, it will have to do. I mostly just wanted to show off my awesome kitchen styling in the above photo. My set-up is probably a perfect illustration of how not to do things, now that I look at it.



Pulling my processed negatives off the reel was magical. As a kid I loved that moment only second to the one when an image slowly started to appear on a white sheet of photo paper sloshing around in a tray of developer. That best moment has been replaced by a negative scanner and my Mac, but hey, there's still something magical about it.









Now I'm starting to think about processing my own color film...

Birth NIght

Last night I had the most amazing experience photographing the homebirth of my friend's third daughter. This is the same child for whom I am making the quilt.

My friend's husband called me at about 2:45 a.m. to tell me I should come over, as my friend was already 8cm dilated. I had my cell phone tucked under my pillow for almost two weeks waiting for this event, and I was shaking with excitement as I dressed in the dark, gently woke my husband to tell him the baby was coming, grabbed my equipment and literally ran the few night-silent blocks to her house. I arrived just as the backup midwife came in the door behind me. Labor had apparently gone very quickly to this point, and I barely got there in time.

I felt timid at first, as this was my first time photographing a birth, not to mention my first time attending a birth other than my own daughter's! I didn't want to bother my friend by clicking away, so I just helped bring hot water and woke up the eldest daughter so she could see her baby sister born. At some point, my friend felt like pushing, and the midwife said to me, "Put that camera in front of your face and just keep clicking as the baby comes." I didn't realize she meant right then. The baby wasn't even crowning, but sure enough, one push and out she came into her father's hands. Luckily, I caught a couple pictures of her being born, but a flurry of activity (understandably) made it impossible for me to get a picture of her dad catching her - my only regret.

I took an entire 8GB worth of photos from then on. It was the most rewarding photography experience I think I've ever had. It was such an emotional, amazing time in this family's life, and I felt blessed to be a part of it.

I've been on a high ever since. I feel like I could totally do this as my work. Or if nothing else, it showed me that lifestyle photography may be more up my alley than the beautiful, but polished boutique-y style I was originally planning to pursue. I've had my doubts about that avenue lately, and photographing this birth definitely showed me that I perform better off the cuff. I've always loved a more photojournalistic style, even as a young teen who loved photography, so it's not surprising that it still has a pull over me.

And can I just gush about my camera for a minute? I love my D700. It is brilliant in low light, and my little bounced SB400 speedlight made for beautiful, natural looking images. I love that even though this is state-of-the-art equipment, it can still feel stripped down in my hands, and doesn't encumber me in any way.

Quilt-Making

I've started a couple quilts now, but haven't had a chance to complete them. This is the first one that I have a deadline on, so I've been working consistently on it. I'm making the quilt for a good friend's third baby, due pretty much imminently. This is a baby who is near and dear to my heart for various reasons, so I wanted to make her something special. I based the design on Rae's Storytime Squares Quilt, but I used different fabrics as I wasn't able to get my hands on enough Far Far Away II in time.

Once all the fabric had been cut, The Poppet helped me lay out the squares on our livingroom floor. The new baby's older sisters are good friends of hers, so I thought her contribution would add a special element to the quilt. I let her lay the squares out exactly as she wanted to, with only a couple fussy edits after she got distracted by something else. Later she came back and used my roving selvedges as pretend bandages to bind various "injuries."



Considering this will technically be my first completed quilt, I'm curious to see how it turns out.

Hello

I don't know why I am going to keep a blog. This is something I've tried before, and failed to continue. I think I mostly just get tired of the sound of my own yammering, but this time around, I figure I have a few things to blog about, for myself, if for nobody else to read.

This will be a blog about being a mother who loves her three-year-old, but also loves photography, sewing, reading and daydreaming about sometimes strange, sometimes mundane things. My daughter is the center of my world, but that doesn't mean I've felt a loss of identity since becoming a mother. I'm grounded in who I am, even if I sometimes struggle to share that outwardly with the world. Knowing who you are doesn't always preclude insecurity, and I can be shy, reserved and suspicious with others at times. Writing has always been the way I can best express myself, even when it comes to the small things I might need to express.

Expect a random assortment of topics. I don't think this blog will have much of a theme. I don't even know what the title means, but that line in the children's song has always amused me. I think it's even more amusing to consider the potentially profound implications of those four words. Why does the cheese stand alone? Why doesn't it take a cracker, or a big hunk of warm baguette, for instance? And wait, what happened to the mouse? Is there a metaphor here?

Anyway. That's my blog.