In August, I went to a workshop at the Lomography store on W 8th. As a group, we’d borrow cameras and trek up to the Bronx Zoo and take pictures. It wasn’t exactly the workshop I was expecting, in fact it wasn’t really a workshop at all. Everyone congregated in the main room to pick their cameras, and once everyone bought film and loaded their cameras, we were on our way.
My camera of choice was a fisheye camera, which was the essence of a point and shoot. Very rudimentary but I’m pleased with how things turned out. A bit of the lens blocked the viewfinder, but after a while, I got used to it. There wasn’t a way to focus, check lighting, or zoom, all of which were frustrating. All I could do was hope for the best. Most pictures came out; here are a few of the better ones:
Confession, I bought a roll of color and a roll of black and white that I used on that Wednesday. If you noticed, there aren’t any B&W photographs. Why? Because I have too much hubris. I decided I was going to process the film myself, I booked a darkroom in a studio and everything. I haven’t been in a darkroom in ages but was sure that I remembered all of the steps.
Yeah, I didn’t. I left the safe light on. The film came out all black. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but I was trying to show off to a friend who never did this before.
What even made it worse was when the dude working there asked about our experience. I wasn’t going to say a thing, all I wanted to do was pay and run out, keeping my shame to myself. Of course, that didn’t happen. The look on his face was a combo of amusement and disdain. I could’ve went through the floor. Won’t be going back there again.
Lesson learned: leave film processing to the professionals.
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