Going to develop film with my daughter tonight

Jeremy Z

Jeremy Z

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She's 7. I've got her all cranked up about it. Told her we have to load it in the dark, mix chemicals, stir it up.

Last night, I picked up a Canon FTb from Facebook Marketplace. $80 w/ 50/1.8, 135/3.5, a Vivitar 225 auto thyristor flash, and a nice US-made Tamrac bag. I hope she likes it.

If you have some tips on how to introduce her to film photography so that she is forever hooked, I'd love to hear them. ;)

Here are a few pix of her from two weeks ago. (Rollei 35, Tri-X) You can see she's already used to carrying a camera, (Pentax MX-1, in that case) and playing with light & shadows, which I think is a good start.

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Darkroom printing is the photographic equivalent of crack cocaine - once they see that print start to emerge from the surface of the paper, they're hooked!

Adrian
 
Muggins said:
Darkroom printing is the photographic equivalent of crack cocaine - once they see that print start to emerge from the surface of the paper, they're hooked!

Adrian
Click to expand...

Oh, that's gonna have to wait, I'm afraid. I'm only set to develop the film, for now. The rest happens digitally. I'm thinking of signing up with a photography class at a local college, just to be able to use their stuff...

Might be worth taking it every semester, hehehe.

By the way, that was your 1,000th post. Happy anniversary!
 
Smaug said:
She's 7. I've got her all cranked up about it. Told her we have to load it in the dark, mix chemicals, stir it up.

Last night, I picked up a Canon FTb from Facebook Marketplace. $80 w/ 50/1.8, 135/3.5, a Vivitar 225 auto thyristor flash, and a nice US-made Tamrac bag. I hope she likes it.

If you have some tips on how to introduce her to film photography so that she is forever hooked, I'd love to hear them. ;)

Here are a few pix of her from two weeks ago. (Rollei 35, Tri-X) You can see she's already used to carrying a camera, (Pentax MX-1, in that case) and playing with light & shadows, which I think is a good start.
Click to expand...

Awesome, and great photos! My son is 6, and for his last birthday, we got him a Fujifilm FinePix XP120, one of those waterproof, shockproof cameras. I haven't tried giving him a film camera yet, but it's interesting to see photos from his perspective. Doing some film development together might be a fun next step.


2019.03.24 Roll #199-03454-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

On a humorous note, here's a tutorial about photography with children. :D
https://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2013/06/photographing-with-children-tutorial.html
 
She's lucky!
Get her a 35mm or wider lens. When I was a kid, using a 50 was very hard. It requires too much abstraction to make good pictures. It's neither wide enough to get in all you see nor long enough to easily isolate interesting stuff, and the 135 may be too long to get anything without motion blur...

And if she shows a bit of lasting interest, keep at it! I wish my dad had supported my early photography attempts more seriously. Kids need some support to find and follow interests.
 
dourbalistar said:
Awesome, and great photos! My son is 6, and for his last birthday, we got him a Fujifilm FinePix XP120, one of those waterproof, shockproof cameras. I haven't tried giving him a film camera yet, but it's interesting to see photos from his perspective. Doing some film development together might be a fun next step.


2019.03.24 Roll #199-03454-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

On a humorous note, here's a tutorial about photography with children. :D
https://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2013/06/photographing-with-children-tutorial.html
Click to expand...

I got my daughter one of the waterproof sports cams too! A less expensive Panasonic. Now she also has my old Pentax MX-1, which is her favorite, at the moment.

Time to upgrade to film now. :)
 
Muggins said:
Darkroom printing is the photographic equivalent of crack cocaine - once they see that print start to emerge from the surface of the paper, they're hooked!

Adrian
Click to expand...

I still remember my first print, I was in the seventh grade at grammar school. When I think back I can't believe they had a darkroom that was in 1955 in a rural community. It was magic.
 
I've supported my three kids whenever they got curious about photography, I supplied cameras as they themselves thought might be useful. With two of my kids, they don't take many pictures, and the cameras on their phones are entirely adequate for their needs. My oldest daughter expressed interest in a Minolta Hi-Matic 9, which she used for several years until its shutter failed. She was so distraught, since that camera was her main tension killer during stressful language training in the military. I gave her a Konica Auto S2 to salve her hurt, but she's been so busy after graduating from language school that I don't know if she's had time to use it.

My advice: focus on the fun, and on the rewards of making a beautiful picture. Don't put too much stress into the technical details that we nerd out on. Let them discover how to play with depth of field, composition, etc. as they grow into being aware of them.

It sounds like you're on the right track. I remember being 4 or 5 and being in the darkroom with my dad as he printed his photos. Those are fun memories.

Scott
 
i still remember when I was more or less that age the times my father brought me in the darkroom which was set for a few hours in our bathroom to print photos.

It mas magic !
 
Update: Well, it didn't go that well. She hadn't gotten much exercise and couldn't focus for more than 10 seconds. Oh well, she's 7, after all. She did like stirring the tank, and the look of the negatives.

We went upstairs later and edited a couple digital photos to send out for printing, which she REALLY enjoyed. She apparently likes sepia-toned color that's over-sharpened. :-\
 
You are a great Dad to even attempt it. Whatever the outcome, the time together will be what she remembers. And when she's 8, who knows?
 
That MX-1 is a surprisingly good all around camera. She can do a lot with it. Make sure she tries macro with it.

At that age to hook her on film based methods try Instax. Watching the print develop tends to amaze kids.

Shawn
 
I was also trying to get my daughter (age 5) interested in photography this weekend. My approach: contact printing on "Sunprint" paper. She chose the negative. The process held her attention for a few minutes, which was something, I guess! The effect was less dramatic than I had hoped, because there really isn't a latent image, as in darkroom printing: the image is fully visible on the paper after exposure, but "development" in water has the effect of reversing the light and dark areas, which my daughter thought was neat. My son (age 2) was completely uninterested in the whole thing.

Here is our best attempt:

 
dourbalistar said:
Awesome, and great photos! My son is 6, and for his last birthday, we got him a Fujifilm FinePix XP120, one of those waterproof, shockproof cameras. I haven't tried giving him a film camera yet, but it's interesting to see photos from his perspective. Doing some film development together might be a fun next step.


2019.03.24 Roll #199-03454-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

On a humorous note, here's a tutorial about photography with children. :D
https://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2013/06/photographing-with-children-tutorial.html
Click to expand...
Great pic, dour.

Funny article too. Thanks.
 
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