Pictures

For Wordless Wednesday and bloghops various!

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i-attempted-to-set-up-a-darkroom-v0-mb3xhb29ft6a1The other day, Sadje posted a piece called Taking a Good Photograph and when commenting I mentioned that in my (much) younger days I used to process my own pictures in a darkroom. I would start by developing the roll of film in a little round tank, then with the red light turned on, I’d project an image onto some photo paper using a machine called an enlarger, put the paper in a dish of developer liquid then watch with baited breath as the picture began to appear! Rinse, dip in a bath of fixer, rinse again then hang it from a sort of mini-washing line until it was dry!

This morning I dug out a few of them, and as I was lost for something to post this week, I thought I’d copy a few and let you take a look.

 

 I took these these on a canal boat holiday about 45 years ago.

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…. and no, this wasn’t the boat at the end of the week!

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I took these at Brand Hatch motor racing circuit..

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… and this moody one is Margate Harbour at low tide on a misty morning in 1963.

I’m not normally one for selfies, but I thought I’d leave you with this one of me aged about 17 just to prove I was a cool dude once!

Mister Linky is waiting for you right here!

47 thoughts on “Pictures

  1. Dale's avatar Dale February 20, 2024 / 15:45

    What a wonderful gallery of photos, Keith. You’ve reminded me of the photo class I took way back and we developed our own photos, too. Was a very cool experience. I’ll have to dig up a few of mine one day 🙂

    I’ve no doubt you were and are a cool dude!

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 20, 2024 / 16:50

      Fun, wasn’t it? I started by joining the photographic club at school and went on from there.

      I still have the occasional doody moment!

      • Dale's avatar Dale February 20, 2024 / 16:52

        It was great fun.
        What’s a doody moment?

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 20, 2024 / 17:16

      Haha, it’s when I’m bein’ a cool dude, man! Perhaps I should have spelt it dudey, Daley!

      • Dale's avatar Dale February 20, 2024 / 17:34

        Ummm okay then!! 😉

  2. Sadje's avatar Sadje February 20, 2024 / 15:52

    Classic photographs Keith. You haven’t changed much from those days. Great share. Thanks.

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 20, 2024 / 16:51

      Thanks so much, Sadje. You say the nicest things!

      • Sadje's avatar Sadje February 21, 2024 / 00:37

        You’re most welcome 🙏🏼

  3. Suzette Benjamin's avatar Suzette Benjamin February 20, 2024 / 15:53

    Great photos Keith! Nostaligic mood well captured in the frames. And a wonderful photo of you with guitar too!! Awesome share.

      • Suzette Benjamin's avatar Suzette Benjamin February 20, 2024 / 18:44

        Oh that’s amazing that you still have the guitar. It is more than a keepsake then.. and moreso a cherished part of your personal story. That makes your sharing even more special Keith. Thank you!

  4. Denise Hammond's avatar Denise Hammond February 20, 2024 / 15:57

    Thank you for sharing these, cool dude!

  5. Patricia's avatar Patricia February 20, 2024 / 16:44

    The one of you and the guitar made think of Elvis. And the one of you on the Happy Time is too cute.

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 20, 2024 / 17:07

      Uh-huh!

      Actually, that’s my little lad on the boat, Patricia – he’s not so little now!

  6. stevebethere's avatar stevebethere February 20, 2024 / 20:49

    I enjoyed these Keith love old black and white photos it gives them an atmosphere and you have proved you was a cool dude heheh! that is a good shot, I used to watch my dad develop our photos too when I was a kid it was interesting watching it as you described 👍

    Have a nostalgictastic week and thanks for sharing 👍

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 21, 2024 / 17:39

      I like a bit of black and white! Cheers, Steve.

  7. messymimi's meanderings's avatar messymimi's meanderings February 20, 2024 / 21:45

    You most certainly still are a cool dude. This is a wonderful trip through memory lane with you!

  8. beth's avatar beth February 20, 2024 / 22:27

    I love these, especially the moody one and your young cool self!

  9. Sandee's avatar Sandee February 20, 2024 / 23:22

    A walk down memory lane. I love all the photographs and you were most handsome at 17. I love black and white photography.

    Thank you for hosting the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday and rest of the week, Keith. :)

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 21, 2024 / 17:46

      You’ve made me blush! I love monochrome too, I really should use it more.

  10. Lydia C. Lee's avatar Lydia C. Lee February 21, 2024 / 04:42

    I love everyrthing about this post – that you used to develop them yourself, the brand hatch photos and the margate one is fab. LOVE 17 year old you! Is it a bit like looking at another person? A freind put up an old pic of me and I look so different it was like a different person…

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 21, 2024 / 17:48

      I’m so pleased you liked them, Lydia. I know what you mean about hardly recognising yourself in old pictures!

  11. Sognafaret's avatar Sognafaret February 21, 2024 / 10:00

    I love the old black and white world

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 21, 2024 / 17:50

      Back and white can have so much more atmosphere than colour. We should use it more often.

  12. Maria Michaela's avatar Maria Michaela February 21, 2024 / 10:05

    I love your photos Keith. Developing your own photos is so cool. That’s something I always wanted to do. Also, look at that cool chap 😊

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 23, 2024 / 14:10

      Oh, spare my blushes!

      It was enormous fun. I never made to colour photography though.

      • Maria Michaela's avatar Maria Michaela February 23, 2024 / 14:23

        The black and whites make a dramatic effect 🙂

  13. Memories of Eric and Flynn's avatar Memories of Eric and Flynn February 21, 2024 / 11:17

    I love black and white photos, they are so much more atmospheric. My uncle was a keen photographer and had a dark room. I used to watch him develop photos when I was a child. I was fascinated when he developed my first roll of film and I saw the images appear.

    Thinking back I think that dark room could have been a large cupboard under the stairs! It did the job though.

    https://allatseawithme.blogspot.com/2024/02/wordless-wednesday-glendalough.html

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 23, 2024 / 14:15

      It was so much more satisfying than the click/download/print way we do things today! I totally agree on black and white. I still use it quite often today.

  14. My GBGV Life's avatar My GBGV Life February 21, 2024 / 11:37

    Photography has changed so much and for the better. Mom never developed her own film, but remembers waiting for the photos to be developed and then the disappointment at the ones that didn’t turn out. It was expensive. Now you can do so much with photos not only with camera settings with editing. It is wonderful. We have tons of old albums upstairs but the last 20 years or so are all on the computer. It is amazing!

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 23, 2024 / 14:33

      How things have changed. Today you can take loads of pictures on your phone and just choose the ones you want to keep. In the days of film, you just pointed and snapped once, then crossed your fingers when picking up the prints

  15. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz's avatar Deb Nance at Readerbuzz February 21, 2024 / 12:06

    I was on the staff of the high school yearbook. We took our own photos and developed them in our own photo lab. I spent many hours taking and developing photos.

    Thank you for sharing these photos from your own days of doing your own photo processing.

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 23, 2024 / 15:01

      My pleasure. How interesting! I started off in the school lab, I belonged to the photography club.

  16. CatSynth's avatar CatSynth February 21, 2024 / 16:15

    How great to have these old film photos. They capture both a time in the image and the process of making them!

    And it’s fun to see the younger you “rockin’ out” 😺🎸

    • Keith's Ramblings's avatar Keith's Ramblings February 23, 2024 / 15:03

      Yea man! I have loads of them, it was great fun.

  17. csuhpat1's avatar csuhpat1 February 21, 2024 / 20:13

    WOW, those are art gallery quality photos. So very cool. Thanks for sharing them.

  18. clickr62's avatar clickr62 February 25, 2024 / 09:09


    These photos are like time capsules, each one telling a story of a moment frozen in time. It’s wonderful that you still have these memories captured so beautifully.

    Love that cool photo of you with the guitar.

    Happy Sunday, Keith!

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