[pentaxpete]

Hallo fellow Film and Darkroom Users ! I found mention of the site in the Leica Forum yesterday so I just HAD to investigate as I am a confirmed 'Traditional'snapper! I first started at the East ham Grammar School in 1951 when a friend got me to visit the School Photo-Soc in the Chemmy Lab,run by 'Gabby' Heyes the Chemmy Master. I entered a half-dark room where boys were going up to Gabby and he was handing them a sheet of blank white paper; they then went over to a bench where they put the paper on top of a box camera size negative in a little thing like a picture frame,then over to a retort stand and holding it under a 60W lamp for several seconds, then go to a sink where they took out the white paper and placed it into a dish with some liquid, whereupon a 'Miraculous Event'took place- the paper darkened and an IMAGE appeared !!!
Well, you can imagine I was HOOKED ! I rushed home,asked my Mum to find her Brownie Hawk-Eye Box Camera, mended it with pins and brown paper, cycled 4 miles to a wonderful emporium in East London that sold ex-RAF films, spent 6d of my 2/6d pocket money and I was away on this Photography Lark !