Back to the Darkroom

Early on the morning of July 21st, long before the rest of the household awoke, I headed down to the darkroom to work on some printing.  It has been quite some time since I have done any printing.  This time around I made 15 prints, 11" x 14", from six different negatives.  All were portraits, and Margarit has been bugging me for quite some time to get around to printing some of them.

The first one is actually from the Beer Parlour Project.  This was BP 3.0 in September of 2022.  We visited the Elk River Inn in Hozmer, British Columbia.  This is Len Vaness, the owner.  A short time after our visit Len passed away, and the establishment was closed.  I plan to send this print to his family.

The next one is a portrait of Helena, taken in our backyard in the fall of 2017.  She named that stuffed bear Fizz.  It was given to her at the Stollery Children's Hospital when she was very young, and attending appointments dealing with her heart issues.  She would have been about 8 or 9 years old at the time.  This print has been a long time coming as Helena just turned 16 last week.  I'm pretty sure that Lena still has Fizz, but she doesn't carry him around nearly as much as she used to.

The next one is a shot of Margarit and her 1972 Volkswagen Beetle.  I did a few shots of her last summer.  She doesn't like any of them very much, but I do, so I printed these mostly for me.

After that there are two shots of Hailey and Annelise.  These were taken way back in 2012.  We were down by the Red Deer River, camping at one of our favorite spots, the TL Bar Ranch.  The Ranch is still owned by the same family, but is has been shut down for camping for many years.  We have lots of fond memories of staying there and going horseback riding in the badlands.  Hailey would have been about 10 or 11 years old in these shots, and Anna about 7 or 8.  This one has been even longer in getting printed as the girls are now coming 22 and 19.

The last one is another shot of Margarit and her Beetle from last summer.

Early on the morning of the 22nd, when these snapshots were taken, I finished up the prints.  They were held in a water bath after I finished the actual printing part on the 21st.  The next day they got a second fix, a clearing bath, toning in selenium, and then hit the print washer.  Today the prints are still washing and I plan to pull them and hang them to dry later this evening.