A bit of history,
Six decades ago when I was a little boy, a friend of my father introduced me to magic.
They took me into his darkroom where Dennis worked in the dim red light with a machine I didn't understand. It made a flash of light and then we were back in the red light. Dennis took a piece of paper from under the machine and put it in a tray on the sink-top.
I was told to stand on an old wooden milk box and rock a tray of liquid while a sheet of white paper floated in the water. Phil, rock it back and forth carefully, don't spill the "water"m my father told me.
So I did....
It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the dim red light which seemed like forever, something magical happened.... the white paper changed into a B&W image of my father. As the image began to appear on the paper.. I was amazed, I had a million questions. Dennis began to explain to me that the special water changed the paper..
I was hooked. I had to figure out what he had done to get the picture on to the paper. I became his shadow every time we went over to his house. It's been a long trip. Endless bad pictures. Learning from my mistakes. Studying every photo book and magazine I could get a hold of. Doing photography in High School. Majoring in Photography in College. Earning several Degrees, Working as a photographer while working in camera stores. Getting numerous opportunities to do different kinds of work and finally going to work for Braun North America representing Hasselblad, Agfa, Varta and other professional photographic items. From BNA, I started my own Professional Representatives business. It ran across many different fields until I retired in 2018 for health reasons. But this "retirement" has opened up my time to return to doing Photography.
Six decades ago when I was a little boy, a friend of my father introduced me to magic.
They took me into his darkroom where Dennis worked in the dim red light with a machine I didn't understand. It made a flash of light and then we were back in the red light. Dennis took a piece of paper from under the machine and put it in a tray on the sink-top.
I was told to stand on an old wooden milk box and rock a tray of liquid while a sheet of white paper floated in the water. Phil, rock it back and forth carefully, don't spill the "water"m my father told me.
So I did....
It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the dim red light which seemed like forever, something magical happened.... the white paper changed into a B&W image of my father. As the image began to appear on the paper.. I was amazed, I had a million questions. Dennis began to explain to me that the special water changed the paper..
I was hooked. I had to figure out what he had done to get the picture on to the paper. I became his shadow every time we went over to his house. It's been a long trip. Endless bad pictures. Learning from my mistakes. Studying every photo book and magazine I could get a hold of. Doing photography in High School. Majoring in Photography in College. Earning several Degrees, Working as a photographer while working in camera stores. Getting numerous opportunities to do different kinds of work and finally going to work for Braun North America representing Hasselblad, Agfa, Varta and other professional photographic items. From BNA, I started my own Professional Representatives business. It ran across many different fields until I retired in 2018 for health reasons. But this "retirement" has opened up my time to return to doing Photography.
Phil's remembrance of a close friend
In 1974 I went to work for Brooks Cameras in San Francisco. At the first all hands meeting, I met a fellow salesman who worked in the Palo Alto store, Dan Avila, aka "Darkroom Danny". By the end of the meeting we were friends. Dan went on to become a fantastic wedding and portrait photographer, admired by his fellow photographers for his skills and whit.
Two years ago Dan's career ended. He was diagnosed with Esophageal cancer. Kaiser Hospital did their best, but after a short reprieve, the cancer returned with a vengeance.
Dan died in the early morning of May 7th, surrounded by his loving wife Evelyn and friends. Dan was more than just a 'friend', he was my brother from a different mother. I love you my brother, and I will miss you so much......
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