Fixing an Image
Noel Laflin
10-24-24
There was a
time when photography involved viewing negatives before you went to cut, develop
and print a picture.
A fellow photographer gave me this capture while I
was in the photo lab of the old FJC Journalism classroom, circa 1972. I
am grateful to still have a copy.
When I had the darkroom all to myself and was
caught up on school paper assignments, I was frequently processing and printing
out pictures of Camp Ahwahnee life - the building of the old log cabin, in
particular. I was shooting the photos on a 1912 Kodak camera my father had
found and I absconded with shortly thereafter. The negative size was
huge, compared to anything shot on a 35m. camera, and was great to work with
when it came to viewing and processing.
We had a dark room at camp during summer months,
and I even installed a small darkroom in a closet at home during the
off-season.
Consequently, my fingers were always a brownish-yellow color from grabbing photos out of the fixing tray and my bedroom reeked of processing chemicals. But it was a good time in my life, bringing an image to life, learning how to crop a shot, cursing when a potential keeper was blurred, but delighted when one or two turned out just right.
Times do change, however, as digital cameras now
rule, and the youth of one's yesteryear fade away, despite the best attempts at
fixing an image.
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