Recommend - community darkroom Sheffield - no 5x4 yet.

[YorkshireBloke]

Hi all,

I had the most wonderful evening on Wednesday 23/08, printing 35 mm negatives from when I was 20 y.o.!!

Community darkroom in Sheffield, a real down to earth, friendly, artistic place - "light@thesheffielddarkroom.com" - £40 for 4 hours and the contact guy, Chris, who was more than generous with his time, helping me.

This may have been a one-off ', 'cos Chris and I are "of the same vintage" and chatted about music and life until he forgot he was supposed to be working on his OWN stuff!

I ended up "rough printing" 2 x 35 mm frames on very o.o.d. Ilford 10x8 RC paper, 1 with me as a 20 y.o. wearing the same wristwatch I cherish to this day and another of Clive, the bass player in the rock band I played drums in... Clive died when we were just getting established:- he was 26... I felt like I was travelling in time...

Sorry for the emotional content - but why else do we do this stuff...

 

[Dave_P]

This sounds good, could do with this sort of thing in town. Do they have plans for a 5x4 enlarger at all? What's their biggest format, 6x9?

 

[YorkshireBloke]

This sounds good, could do with this sort of thing in town. Do they have plans for a 5x4 enlarger at all? What's their biggest format, 6x9?

Hi,

presently 6x7 using 2 x Durst enlargers - I "strongly suggested" 5x4 when a planned expansion is started - still early days - they want to have space for multiple delegate learning sessions - now only 1-1, not efficient.

Best thing is the friendly vibe, open minded and seemingly stable business plan (from a very brief meeting!) - £10 p.mth. subscription and £40 for 4 x hours,- I cannot justify setting up my own darkroom at those rates...

 

[YorkshireBloke]

P.S. - £40 session allows a guest too - happy to coordinate my next visit with someone else - you may be able to help me if you're experienced - or I can show you the magic of tray development of you haven't had chance to see for yourself.

Two guests might be a bit tight...

No charge - I would be paying anyhow.

 

[Dave_P]

Sounds good. I think there is also darkroom of some description at the University's Photo Society, but I've never managed to establish if this is just open to students or if anyone can join to access it, and my students days are a quarter of a century in the past now, and at a different establishment. They may well allow non-student members though, wouldn't be unheard of.