I wanted to write about something totally different today. But I spent quite a lot of time in darkroom yesterday, and it was not the easiest session (a lot of paper got wasted), it really took me long time to get all the tiny little details right in final prints. It was hard work, but when I came today to pick up the dry prints I could not believe how well the prints turned out. The hours of work really paid off. The prints look really great! I really enjoy the incredible scale of gray tones and their smooth transition, which in my opinion makes silver gelatin prints very special.

Here is the scanned version of one of the two prints

*Title: Expectations, Camera: Ebony RSW 45, Lens: Schneider 90 mm, Filter: Lee Big Stopper, Film: Kodak T-Max 100, Exposure: 240″ , f 16, Vik, Iceland, 2012*

Due to this experience I would like to share today some inspiration I have discovered over last few years. As you know, I am not the biggest fan of internet and social networks (but at the end Marek forced me to join google+ anyway). I still prefer to go out to take photographs, to develop negatives, spent hours in darkroom, rather than sitting home behind computer screen. However, there are also some great things about internet. The main benefit of the internet is the incredible amount of inspiration one can find there. Since I am self thought photographer, internet have provided me a lot information and help over the years. Thanks to internet and all the people contributing to forums and blogs I have discovered a lot of little tiny details about the traditional black and white process, which makes a big difference in quality of my negatives and silver gelatin prints.

Therefore, I would like to share with you some of those resources, which are in my opinion very interesting and inspiring. I hope that not only darkroom users, but also digital photographers find them interesting. I personally think that everybody should see from where current photography came from. You will see the original “Photoshop” in action:) So sit down, turn off the lights and enjoy the magic of analog photography!

Fist of all I would like to share link to one of the best blogs related to traditional darkroom The Online Darkroom

In the first video you can see the master photographer and printer Clyde Butcher:

Second video featured one of the best darkroom printers on this planet Robin Bell, this is just a trailer for the whole movie, which you can buy here and I strongly recommend it.