i took some pics of the darkroom with my crappy digital camera. image quality isn’t that great, but good enough to give you an idea of what the room looks like…

below’s a picture of the wet side of the darkroom. the walls aren’t really in the “traditional darkroom colors”(black, red, grey, …) though. i first wanted to test whether the current colors(in combination with the safe light) caused any fogging. after doing some tests, it appeared that no fogging occured(not even after more then ten minutes, so i should be safe). no need to have the walls repainted then…

at the moment, i’m using this part for drying my prints, but that’s just temporary. later on, i’ll have a complete drying rack underneath the sink…

“zé chemikals!”. looking forward to experiment!

the sink is completely made out of wood. metal cools down chemicals pretty fast, so i opted for a wooden sink painted with epoxy paint(the same paint is also used for boats).

on the other side of the room is my brother’s old desk, which i’m using to put my enlarger on;
a lovely Omega enlarger.

never liked color enlargers before, but i’m definitely lovin’ this one!

so, now i can finally print my negs again… that’s a pretty big motivation for me! this room will definitely be my new home where i’ll be spending entire weekends…

-bert

You can already take a peek at the new layout(which is still a work in progress) for the time being ;)

i’m including an old picture from the archives. mind you… the brightness and contrast of this picture may look completely fucked on your computer screen. i still don’t know how well my computer screen is calibrated.

new updates soon…

cheers.
bert

hmm seems like my blog has suffered a near-death experience, so i’m going to post a quick update on what i’ve been doing lately… just to let this blog rise from its ashes somewhat.

so.. what have i been doing lately? i’m mostly a code monkey sitting in front of his computer all day long while developing Firefox extensions and intranet websites.
interesting shit, yeah! *cough*

photography-wise, i’ve been doing a very long winter sleep. it’s been quite a while since i felt like doing some (serious) photography. a bit of a burnout i guess…
nevertheless.. i did invest quite a lot in new photo equipment lately. i finally bought a Mamiya Sekor C 50/4.5(equivalent of 25mm in 35mm format) for my RB67 Pro-SD. lovely wide-angle lens with a minimal amount of distortion. just love it!

i also bought a Minolta Auto Meter VF(hurray! finally accurate light measuring when shooting with the Mamiya, instead of having to measure the light with my Nikon camera), a Metz CL4 flash and a NPC polaroid back for my Mamiya. to be honest, i’m not too fond of polaroids because of the “cool” and “(f)arty” label many people tend to attach to it(not to mention the complete idiots that put polaroid borders ’round digital photographs… just to be cool *sigh*). i’m not going to use polaroids to be “cool” whatsoever, but rather to make proofings before i shoot with film. it’ll be handy in some situations to check on exposure, dof, composition,… in advance. i’ve already seen results of polaroids used with medium format(a great set on Flickr – both 4×5 format and 6×7 format) and i must say.. i’m really impressed by the overall image quality of polaroids.

when i woke up this morning, a USPS package was already waiting for me on the table. it was the polaroid back! i immediately cleaned the rollers and then popped some Fuji FP-100C in the polaroid back. so hereby, my first “cool” *slash* “(f)arty” polaroid!
(damn i feel sooo on top of the world now.. almost orgasmic really *cough*)…

Mamiya RB67 Pro SD w/ 50/4.5 lens and Fuji FP-100C(expired; 01/2005)

talkin’ about film… in the last few weeks, i’ve found myself a new hobby: stashing up (expired) film in my fridge (and freezer). i found sooooo many great film bargains on Ebay recently. well, see for yourself… as you can see, i’m much of a Kodak fan boy :p

this picture was taken a few weeks ago, so it isn’t up-to-data anymore.
meanwhile i received another:

- 10 rolls of Ilford FP4(220 format),
- 15 rolls of Agfa XPS160(220 format),
- 10 rolls of TMax(120 format.. don’t like TMax, but i’m going to give it another try :p),
- 5 cartridges Fuji FP-100C(Polaroid)
– 2 cartridges Polapan 100(Polaroid B/W).

i’m seriously considering a dedicated film fridge now, ’cause some people at home aren’t too happy with the fact that there’s more film in the fridge than food :’ )

oh well… guess i’m all set for a new photography season now. maybe the last thing i still need is a tripod. i don’t know much about tripods, so suggestions are always welcome ;)

there, my first (not so interesting) post after a long period of interactivity is a fact! if you really read this blogpost from start to finish, you’ve just earned yourself a virtual lollypop. enjoy!

(a more serious photo blogpost will follow soon. i’ve recently switched to a lcd monitor and i’d like to have my moniter calibrated first ’cause the blacks aren’t too black imo…)

cheers,
bert