[Leica] Learning to develop and print for myself

["Dan Honemann" <ddh@home.com>]

Gang,

My first ever photography class (just a weekend seminar, but lots of
hands-on experience) has come to an end, and boy was it ever an eye-opener.

First and foremost, to all those of you who encouraged me to learn this end
of the process, thank you!  And you were absolutely right.  It has already
begun to shift my perspective in taking photos.

It has also revealed that half--if not more--of the art of photography lies
in processing and printing.  It's simply unbelievable how much variance and
flexibility there is in printing the same negative.  And, having said that,
it's also clear just how important it is to capture as much information on
that little negative as possible at the time of exposure.

These fledgling experiments with processing my own negatives and printing a
few 6 1/2 x 9 1/2's have already proven how much better I can do than any
lab--even the so-called pro labs--as I'm the one who visualized the photo
when I shot it.  If I depend upon a lab to do the printing, I get someone
else's visualization.

Finally, I've learned that this end of the equation is as much fun as the
other; time seems to evaporate in the darkroom the same way it does when I'm
street shooting.  There is no one shooting or printing, no subject being
photographed and no photograph being created--there is just the seeing and
the expressing, the emerging images--of life, beauty, art--call it what you
will.

I'll call it joy.

Dan