Darkroom at Makerspace?

My daughter asked… “Is there a darkroom at Makerspace?” Photography isn’t my thing so I don’t remember seeing a darkroom. She has built a pin hole camera and needs a place to work with it.

No, there isn’t. I suspect there’s a history of one, but nothing currently.

There was one in the 'Space at Ladybird, but never has been one at Monetary. With the migration to digital, it was deemed too much of a space hog for the benefit, which is not to say no one is interested.
There were some members involved in photography work that would offer to do developing for folks, if I recall correctly, but I don’t know where that all stands, or if that would be helpful (not sure what is needed for “work on it”).
I think @pandabob was one, but I may have it wrong. I think there were others…

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“There were some members involved in photography work that would offer to do developing for folks, if I recall correctly, but I don’t know where that all stands, or if that would be helpful (not sure what is needed for “work on it”).”

She said she doesn’t need developing chemicals, just a dark room for handling the photo paper. I’m not really sure either since I have no photography experience.

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No. Not really. I used to stuff a towel under the bathroom door and call it dark. Work 40 years ago! But we don’t have a dedicated place right now at DMS.

Sorry.

There’s kind of a renewed photography interest so you never know what the future will bring, but as it stands, I can’t think of any dry place at the space that is darker than what I could do at home.

Is she just trying to load the camera?

A dark closet with the seams around the door blocked off and a red light would work. It would only take a couple of minutes to tape the film to one side of the camera.

You could also try making something like a film changing bag , though this may be more challenging with a pinhole camera than a traditional camera.

If I got the conversation correctly, it was (you say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to) deemed too much of a space hog for the level of interest. By the end of our lease at Ladybird usage for that space was minimal.

Not really much of a difference that what you’re saying; I note it only because both here and more generally speaking, there does seem to be increased interest in that sort of thing lately. Probably just something to keep in mind for some future point when we are closer to making firm “more space” discussions.

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There are many things here that are driven by the efforts of one person. Many people want to participate and it seems like it has a life of it’s own. When the one person driving it doesn’t spend the time to keep it going and no one else takes over it goes away. I understand this is basically what happened to the darkroom.

Which doesn’t mean that it can’t be brought back. If there is one person that wants to bring it back and the can get enough supporters they can try to bring it back. You just need to understand the hurdles you have to clear. The biggest hurdle is having a committee to provide space to do the darkroom work in. If you can find a space that is sufficient for your needs you can ask the board to allow you to create a new committee. Or find an existing committee to allow you to use their space.

I’m not trying to discourage you from trying to get a darkroom, I’m just trying to show you the road to your goal. @merle if you want to talk about this more you can PM me and I will be happy to share my experiences along these lines.

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Maybe we really do need a Room of Requirement.

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Seems like we’re in agreement that interest, or lack thereof, tends to drive these matters.

But just to be clear, I wasn’t the one trying to get the darkroom back. Just clarifying a bit of the history of the tail end of Ladybird, as I received it. (And again, noting that none of this is likely to be very viable before we move – unless, of course, we want to repurpose the unisex bathroom as a darkroom) @StanSimmons lolol

hahahahaha… NO!

:wink:

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That’s just spooky. I had actually typed the very same thing, but erased it. :wink:

Hi! I am a new member here at DMS but I just stumbled across this thread. If anyone still has a need for a darkroom for short or long term use I can help to an extent. I own a professional photo lab/Darkroom here in Dallas called Lone Star Darkroom and we do film processing, traditional printing, scanning, etc.
Feel free to message me through the website (www.LoneStarDarkroom.com) or on here and I’ll see what we can work out to lend a hand.

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