Film: Self developing black and white film at home

I’ve had the darkroom gear that I have needed to do my own processing at home for over a year now, but I never really gave it much of a thought until just last week when I finally picked up some chemicals and decided I would do it myself. Realistically, once you get over the fear that you’re going to mess up your images, its as simple as can be.

Beyond simple actually. Just a little measuring and mixing and you’re gold. I figure I will share a few frames from the first three test rolls I shot and processed.

This very stylish lady with her family reminded me of New York

The corner of Granville and Howe is probably one of my favorite places to shoot. It’s wide open so there is lots of light, there are lots of pedestrians, and the street scene seems to revolve around it.




Dozens of pigeons flock to the corner because there are plenty of people with bread and seed coming by every day.


I’ve always loved photographing people looking at maps


A bit of a straggler, following far behind his family.




Bryan with his take from the Vancouver Public Library. Two Meyerowitz books, among a few others.

Stripes on stripes. Bryan and I saw this lady from across the street and had to make a frame or two each.




Before Smartphones.


Taking a page from Herzog’s book, shooting into storefronts.

For those interested, the above images are from two rolls of Kodak Tr-x and one roll of Fuji Neopan, both shot at 400

Developer: Kodak D76 1:1 for 9.5min

Copyright 2007-2013 Scott Alexander.