Darkroom Workshops, Summer 2012

It's been one heck of a spring so far here in Findlay, OH, and even after several photo contests and a solo exhibition, the darkroom is only getting warmed up!

If you're looking to add a few new darkroom skills to the arsenal, or are just looking for some experienced darkroom coaching, be sure to check out my latest series of Summer 2012 Darkrom Workshops. As of right now, I'm offerring:

• One-on-One Workshops
• Carbon Printing
• Intro to the B&W Darkroom

 All workshops include use of the darkoom facilities, chemistry, supplies, paper, everything you need to carry out the processes I'm teaching. In the case of the all weekend carbon printing workshop, I'm even including lunch at a great local restaurant!

That's pretty much it, get out there and shoot while the weather is great, and once the "Dog Days" of summer start rolling around, have your calendars marked, film exposed, and head on down to Findlay so we can have some fun in the darkroom (see below).

Happy shooting, and long live film!

Darkroom Daze

Whew! Another day, another step closer to getting the upcoming show ready.

One thing that separates darkroom printing from any modern inkjet equivalent is the extra calibration and control needed to achieve a consistent, cohesive series of images. "Dapper", being my largest solo exhibition to date, I was even surprised just how unprepared I was, for hand printing 30 images of varying size and exposure. In the end, it'll be the quality of the prints that will count, and boy will they have it! All prints are being made on double-weight fiber base silver gealtin paper. After exposure, some requiring some intense dodging and burning, the paper is developed in Kodak Dektol, fixed, washed, selenium toned, and washed again for archival permanence. Another one-up on digital, these prints should see their way through to my nineties, assuming they're cared for reasonably.

When I've got the last round of 8x10's printed and dried, I'll be posting a quick how-to video on selenium toning prints for aesthetic appeal and archival permanence.

P.S. Silver gelatin papers aren't cheap, just check out what they're going for right now! >__<