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Black and White Darkroom

My first darkroom was extremely minimal. The equipment was crude. The darkroom was above a garage in Puyallup, Washington.

My first darkroom

I eventually started using an advanced  enlarger, a Beseler 23c I acquired from a camera store I managed in Lacy, Washington.

Beseler 23c enlarger

Photo Lab

J. R. at Ray's Cameras with Miranda SLR

One of my accomplishments in photofinishing was an 8 foot by 10 foot image of a slalom skier.  The skiier in the image is Bob LaPoint and standing by is Jeff Jobe, founder of JobeSports. The image served as a backdrop for their tradeshow booth.

The image was extracted from a 35mm black and white negative. I created a 5x7 inner negative from the original, then printed it on a wall in a loft using a 5x7 enlarger. Each of three strips of photo-sensitive paper took 1/2 hour exposure time. Including development time, the whole process took about 4 hours.

The photo lab, Trayberg, was next door to the Bellevue Square mall, the site of which is now a park. We processed hundreds of poster-sized prints daily in the 1970's.