Dark Circles

While I was finishing my Associates degree, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to major in for a Bachelor's. I was into photography and I was thinking about doing photojournalism. Luckily for me, there was a class being offered on that very topic. So I signed up.

I then needed to figure out what to do about my final class. I noticed there was an opening for Film Photography, black and white. Sure. Why not?

My photojournalism class was a digital based class, so I bought a Nikon. My film class obviously required a film camera, so I bought a Phoenix.

I learned how to use Photoshop in my digital class and a dark room for my film class. The two are polar opposite from one another. I believe the dark room ruined me for digital. Something about the dark room just clicked with me, and the teacher was incredible. Her teaching style catered to my learning style in a way my photojournalism teacher couldn't compete with. I couldn't figure out how to adjust my digital work, but I could spend hours in the dark room without even realizing it; I loved being there.

It takes a lot of time to print a quality photograph in a dark room. I would look at my clock and think, hey! I've got a couple hours. I can print my assignment for next week's class and have time to see some friends before bed.

I would then proceed to spend upwards to 6 hours in the dark room thinking I had a lot of evening left to do other homework. I would pop in my iPod and get lost in the dim red glow and chemicals swirling around the air. My pictures turned out pretty good, but the rest of my homework was pushed to the back burner.

Now that I don't have a dark room at my disposal, I miss it terribly. I still shoot with my Nikon, but I've lost the affinity to shoot film if I have to let someone else print it for me. I probably could find a dark room somewhere in Minneapolis, but my schedule just doesn't allow for it. Maybe when I'm rich and famous I can build a dark room in my mansion on top of a hill. I'll keep you posted on how that works out for me.