From Darkroom to Digital

Trinidad and Tobago. Photo credit Helen Ries

When I was in high school I bought a second hand camera and joined the yearbook committee as a photographer. 

Our high school had a full dark room and the photographers were free to use it as they needed it. I was paired up with another student photographer to learn how to use the dark room. He wasn’t a very good teacher, he mostly used time in the dark room to polish off the 26er of vodka he had hidden among the chemical supplies. Self-taught and lacking patience, I don’t think I was a very good photographer but I loved it. 

I can’t remember why I eventually sold my camera, probably to help pay my university tuition. I never really took up photography again until a year of Studio Photography at the Ottawa School of Art.

I absolutely loved this class. 

I had the chance to get back in a dark room and learn from a sober, competent and highly experienced instructor. Although I feel I am still only scratching the surface, I had a chance to learn about my SLR camera and the infinite possibilities beyond the “auto” setting. I learned the awesome power of post-processing which is certainly its own art form. It was really fun walking around the city in search of images.

I am sorry this class is over.