Re: [Leica] home b&w processing

[Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>]

I spent 10 years doing fiber 8x10's in a 5-foot by 7-foot bathroom.
Paterson made (maybe still does) a wire rig that allowed 3 trays to be
cascaded diagonally above one another, so that you could put developer
on top, stop in the middle, fix on the bottom, then move to the wash.
After they were all in the wash I would turn on the lights and do the
remaining processing, which for me was usually 2nd-fix, rinse,
hypo-clear, and wash.  The whole rig of 8 trays fit on a 36-inch-wide
by 19-inch-deep board that sat on top of the bathtub. The enlarger went
on cinder blocks that straddled the toilet. 

Now that I have a real darkroom, I also have 4 kids and I don't get
into the darkroom as much as I did when it was a bathroom. I've
developed 8x10's in a pup tent set up on a picnic table in a national
park campground. I've developed 8x10's in the back of a Volkswagen Bus
with a canvas tarp thrown over the windows to darken it more than the
night did. It's hard to learn how to do it under such conditions, but
it can be done. Just 5 years ago I did a fundraiser for my local
elementary school at which I set up a darkroom in a tent inside another
tent at the school playground and did "while you wait" B&W portraits
for $75 each. (I used a Speed Graphic and developed the film
individually rather than messing with rolls.) I must confess that I
used RC paper for that stunt and I gave people their portraits still
slightly wet. 

Brian