Stick to the topic people. Skip the political. Thanks.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
We live in interesting times and never before in my life have I had so many opportunities to try out new things - and also to plan to conserve as much of our fast-disappearing ecology as I can, environmentally and photographically.
I've tried to be eco-friendly in my darkroom for several decades. With some success, mostly in small but I like to think significant ways.
Sadly in some ways, I nowadays no longer process the amount of films I did in my heyday. I miss the GODs (good old days) of my film photography but my digital Nikons have made a lot of what I used to do, so much easier.
I don't 'soup' as much film as I once did, also I no longer print with baryta papers. Now everything is scanned and I've not even made an inkjet print for a long time. So in that sense, I'm saving trees...
In our community we can recycle chemistry. The small quantities of developer and fixer I use are taken to the depot to be disposed of - I've not asked what they do with it. Am tempted to but somehow never get around to mentioning it. Maybe I don't want to know.
Film I now never buy as I have enough B&W and some color in '35 and 120 to see me through. All safely chilled in a darkroom fridge. Also a carton of FB papers including some gorgeous old Kodak brands from the '70s and '80s and a stash of Ilford Galerie 11x14" and 16x20" I bought in 2000, all still sealed, the boxes unopened and well wrapped, 'vintaging' in a more or less temperature stable room in our house.
I doubt I will ever use the paper but I try to make do with the film I still have, especially the bulk rolls of now-rare Kodak films. Every now and then I fill a film loader and do up a dozen cassettes which I then force myself to use in a Contax G or a Nikkormat or a Leica iig. For 120 rolls I have four Rollei TLRs, a Voigtlander Perkeo II kit and a Zeiss Nettar circa 1950 folder with one of the sharpest lenses I've ever used.
One by one over the years since I retired I've sold off film gear as offers came my way, so another way of recycling there.
I've not bought any premixed chemistry for some years as I have enough basic chem at home, plus two sets of scales and all the mixing pitchers, stirrers etc I need. I've used this since the '90s. The only liquids I now have are a bottle of stop bath I was given about 20 years ago but still haven't entirely used up. Also several bottles of Agfa and Kodak liquid fixers, old as anything but they still work. I stopped using toners many years ago, still have a bottle of Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner I bought so long ago, I can't remember when that was. It's about half full. I must leave it to someone in my will as I will never finish it. Ditto the stop bath. Imagine those as heirlooms, ha!
My way of working is to save up enough film for a (so-called) 'bulk' processing session. I then mix enough chemistry to process that amount of film, in quantities of half liters. Use it up and then dispose of it.
I 'recycled' about half my darkroom during the Covid lockdown in 2020. I had two enlargers, one (a Leica 1c with a multigrade filter head) was sitting idle in our second bedroom, and a good offer came my way for it and I sold it. Also one Job (I had two), easels, trays, some chemistry and odd bits and pieces I had accumulated over the decades. The friend who bought the lot still hasn't worked his way thru it as he later got interested in 'D' and went into Nikon D700s.
At the end of this year I will do a more long-range trip than my usual forays to Indonesia and Malaysia, next time to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, with maybe a first-ever trip to the Philippines. Four or five months away, more travel than I usually do. While I still can. I will take a 120 folder kit - one camera (Voigtlander or Zeiss), a lens hood, two filters, a Weston Master meter and of course film, as much of this as I can safely carry. I tend to photograph mostly architecture but I'm now pushing myself to do more candids of people. 120 isn't the ideal medium for street work but it will be fun to work with MF. And use up some or all of the 120 I still have in my film fridge. So yes, another form of 'recycling' here...
Most photographers I know who are of my 'vintage' (70s) tend to work much the same way as I do. We are all in a stage of our lives where we have everything we need at home and rarely venture to buy anything new unless something breaks down. Our kitchen fridge lasted 27 years before it broke down in 2023 and I bought a used one for < UD $150 from a local charity, it's made in New Zealand and like new and it works as well as any fridge will. Our car is 34 years old, German so built to last, in fact like a Panzer tank. My partner is younger than I am and still employed in a professional capacity, so fashion is important but even then our local op shops provide 90%+ of what we need.
Photography for me is now entirely for my own pleasure and my ways of seeing and photographing are changing and evolving. Digital Nikons have made the post processing much easier and chemistry-friendly, one of the (many) good things about the post-film era.
I've tried to be eco-friendly in my darkroom for several decades. With some success, mostly in small but I like to think significant ways.
Sadly in some ways, I nowadays no longer process the amount of films I did in my heyday. I miss the GODs (good old days) of my film photography but my digital Nikons have made a lot of what I used to do, so much easier.
I don't 'soup' as much film as I once did, also I no longer print with baryta papers. Now everything is scanned and I've not even made an inkjet print for a long time. So in that sense, I'm saving trees...
In our community we can recycle chemistry. The small quantities of developer and fixer I use are taken to the depot to be disposed of - I've not asked what they do with it. Am tempted to but somehow never get around to mentioning it. Maybe I don't want to know.
Film I now never buy as I have enough B&W and some color in '35 and 120 to see me through. All safely chilled in a darkroom fridge. Also a carton of FB papers including some gorgeous old Kodak brands from the '70s and '80s and a stash of Ilford Galerie 11x14" and 16x20" I bought in 2000, all still sealed, the boxes unopened and well wrapped, 'vintaging' in a more or less temperature stable room in our house.
I doubt I will ever use the paper but I try to make do with the film I still have, especially the bulk rolls of now-rare Kodak films. Every now and then I fill a film loader and do up a dozen cassettes which I then force myself to use in a Contax G or a Nikkormat or a Leica iig. For 120 rolls I have four Rollei TLRs, a Voigtlander Perkeo II kit and a Zeiss Nettar circa 1950 folder with one of the sharpest lenses I've ever used.
One by one over the years since I retired I've sold off film gear as offers came my way, so another way of recycling there.
I've not bought any premixed chemistry for some years as I have enough basic chem at home, plus two sets of scales and all the mixing pitchers, stirrers etc I need. I've used this since the '90s. The only liquids I now have are a bottle of stop bath I was given about 20 years ago but still haven't entirely used up. Also several bottles of Agfa and Kodak liquid fixers, old as anything but they still work. I stopped using toners many years ago, still have a bottle of Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner I bought so long ago, I can't remember when that was. It's about half full. I must leave it to someone in my will as I will never finish it. Ditto the stop bath. Imagine those as heirlooms, ha!
My way of working is to save up enough film for a (so-called) 'bulk' processing session. I then mix enough chemistry to process that amount of film, in quantities of half liters. Use it up and then dispose of it.
I 'recycled' about half my darkroom during the Covid lockdown in 2020. I had two enlargers, one (a Leica 1c with a multigrade filter head) was sitting idle in our second bedroom, and a good offer came my way for it and I sold it. Also one Job (I had two), easels, trays, some chemistry and odd bits and pieces I had accumulated over the decades. The friend who bought the lot still hasn't worked his way thru it as he later got interested in 'D' and went into Nikon D700s.
At the end of this year I will do a more long-range trip than my usual forays to Indonesia and Malaysia, next time to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, with maybe a first-ever trip to the Philippines. Four or five months away, more travel than I usually do. While I still can. I will take a 120 folder kit - one camera (Voigtlander or Zeiss), a lens hood, two filters, a Weston Master meter and of course film, as much of this as I can safely carry. I tend to photograph mostly architecture but I'm now pushing myself to do more candids of people. 120 isn't the ideal medium for street work but it will be fun to work with MF. And use up some or all of the 120 I still have in my film fridge. So yes, another form of 'recycling' here...
Most photographers I know who are of my 'vintage' (70s) tend to work much the same way as I do. We are all in a stage of our lives where we have everything we need at home and rarely venture to buy anything new unless something breaks down. Our kitchen fridge lasted 27 years before it broke down in 2023 and I bought a used one for < UD $150 from a local charity, it's made in New Zealand and like new and it works as well as any fridge will. Our car is 34 years old, German so built to last, in fact like a Panzer tank. My partner is younger than I am and still employed in a professional capacity, so fashion is important but even then our local op shops provide 90%+ of what we need.
Photography for me is now entirely for my own pleasure and my ways of seeing and photographing are changing and evolving. Digital Nikons have made the post processing much easier and chemistry-friendly, one of the (many) good things about the post-film era.
JohnWolf
Well-known
I enjoyed you post. I don't know a lot about sustainability, but reading your piece got me considering how complex the sustainability equation must be. I'm thinking of the carbon footprint of developing, manufacturing, transporting, and whatnot of the digital camera industry and the life-cycle of its products vs. the recycled chemistry associated with using your old folder kits. On the surface my M10 feels more eco-friendly than my M2, but in the big picture is it really?
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Freakscene
Obscure member
It mostly depends on how much you use it. The more frames you take, the more likely the M10 is to a better deal and lower overall impact.
I have done lifetime/lifecycle carbon and total resource assessments since before they were a ‘thing’.
Marty