8/31/09 I love photography.

I love photography, which I learned in high school. Students were separated into different levels based on experience. Photo 1A was for the beginning student. Photo 1B, the next level, was for students to begin with basic assignments. Photo 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, and 4B completed the eight semesters of class. Upon completion of 1A and 1B, I moved on to 2A, and so on, until I finally completed my high school career with 4A. As I moved up into the higher levels of the class, the projects become more difficult and technically challenging.

I learned about the camera and its parts, developing film, and picture printing in 1A. There were four exams that measured my knowledge; in these exams I scored no higher than a B- and my lowest score was a D+. Fortunately, these exams didn’t affect my semester grade; I easily raised it with my projects.

Some of the different assignments included: worm’s eye/bird’s eye (1A/B); panning, frozen-frozen, action photography (2A/B); 3-D juxtaposition and sepia tone (3A/B); color photography and bar relief (4 A/B). Levels 1, 2 and 3 were dedicated to black and white film and prints. Fourth level students were given the privilege to develop color slide film and print color images. The processes for B&W and color are very different; processing color film and pictures is regulated by the state because of the chemicals.

Developing both B&W and color negatives is a very precise activity. The chemicals and wash baths must be a specific temperature. The process for developing film is: developer, water bath, fixer, water bath, permawash, and photoflow. Afterwards, the film is removed from the tank and hung up to dry.

Once the film was dry, I took the negatives into the dark room to print pictures. I first made a contact sheet, which shows positive images of the negatives in the 35mm size. After consulting with Mrs. Record about which image best satisfied the assignment, I went back into the dark room to make the print.

Being in the dark room is like being on a different planet. There was an orange colored safe light; any photo paper that was exposed to it would not be damaged. Looking around the dark room, everything looked gray. It is very different from a white light world. In a white light world, you can see all sorts of colors, but in this room, every color was a different shade of gray.

After putting the negative in the enlarger, I put the paper in the easel, and exposed it with my image using white light. I put the exposed paper into the developer tray and suddenly the image slowly started to appear on the paper. I can’t tell you how fascinating it was to watch my image appear. At first the paper was blank, but then all of a sudden, my image was there; it was just like magic. After two minutes, I put my picture into the fixer, the permawash, and water wash. At this point, the picture was ready to dry.

After all of the assignments were mounted and displayed on the wall, Mrs. Record required oral critiques. This was an opportunity for each student to explain their project and all that went into completion of the assignment. Then each presenter critiqued two other different images, describing what was good about it and what they might have done differently. Unknown to me at the time, oral critiques were an opportunity for the students to teach and to learn from their peers. As my experience increased with oral critiques, I volunteered to critique first, to show to the other students what was expected.

I love film photography better than digital. With film, as an artist, I can be as creative as I want to be. Film manipulation can be done when the picture is taken or in the printing process. Print processing allows me to be flexible and creative with how I manipulate my images. To me, these advantages make film photography superior to digital. Film photography is a form of art and expression.

My vocabulary words:
Foibles: a minor weakness in a person’s character. I found this word in an online article about Senator Kennedy shortly after he died.

Ambivalent: conflicting feelings. I found this word several times in a textbook.

Benevolent: kind and charitable. I find that I’m now confusing the definition of ambivalent and benevolent frequently.