negatives

I developed a roll in my brother’s wardrobe on Sunday. I also used developer which was gone off…so it was a seriously ghetto situation. I was being kind of lazy and just spontaneously decided to develop the roll—I don’t know why but I’d been putting it off for ages—so for some reason I thought that getting into and blacking out the wardrobe would be easier than blacking out the bathroom which is what I usually do.

It wasn’t.

Wardrobes are small. And it was damn scary, mainly because I was convinced Eoin would lock me in there and not let me out. Can you develop claustrophobia? I totally think I have. Anyway it can’t have been that bad because I didn’t panic, got the film on the roll first time and then (after locking the tank obviously) burst out in the brightness. I realised once I’d opened the developer it was off (and to be honest I was kind of expected it cause I’d heard it didn’t have a great shelf life) because it was yellow…but it was kind of too late to back out so I just went ahead anyway and didn’t expect anything. The negatives came out perfect—or as perfect as I can tell anyway. I don’t know what happens when you use crap chemicals, but I’m going to get them scanned lickety splick in case they start to deteriorate.

I love developing—it is still such a magic moment when I see that the process has worked. The images are there! It’s crazy stuff and I don’t see myself getting tired of it any time soon. A darkroom is something that I will definitely have one day (sooner rather than I hope)

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