Flashes of Gold! errr...Sepia

Obviously I have been excited at the prospect of renovating an old Victorian home! And, on an almost intangible level, I have been excited about what this house has potential for in the town, and for anyone who so chooses to get involved. All of this has been on a grand scale though. I mean, I knew that we're going to have a darkroom (among other things), but I guess I really didn't understand what that meant. I mean, I definitely have an interest (keen interest) in photography, and I knew I wanted to see what the dark room experience was all about, but it's something I know little about.

A couple of things have happened in the last two days that have made this intangible thing become much more real for me. The first was a rather comical chat with my dad last night concerning an old SLR camera of his. I'll give a run down of how it went.
"Hey Dad, do you ever use that old camera of yours?"
"No, do you wanna borrow it?"
"Yeah! That would be great dad!"
"You know dear, it takes film."
"Yes dad, it's older than I am."
"I bought it in 1981. It's a Pentax K1000!"
I swiftly looked it up online. That was step one in the quest for tangible excitement.

The second event was an impromptu trip to Presque Isle with Laurel for her photography class tonight. She and Geoff had used the darkroom there yesterday, incidentally developing photos of 702 MAIN!!!! This is EXCITING in itself!! BUT, it gets better. In Laurel's class, she learned how to turn black and white prints into sepia prints, and I got to watch!! It hit me like a tonne of bricks (or should I say ton given that we were in the U.S. of A.). I, me, Katelin Dean, am going to get to process film!! The chemicals smelled disgustingly wonderful, and the finished photo was outstanding. I mean, I was there when these photos were taken. I saw them the day after they'd been developed, and I saw them transformed, before my eyes. I know it's a process that's been around for a long time, but it's freaking MAGIC!

I'm realistic in knowing that we have lots of work to do before getting to this point. Today made it even more worthwhile than it already was.