No explanation required.

OM-3Ti with Motordrive 2, Zuiko 35-80 F2.8 and T45 Flash.

OM-4T with Motordrive 2 and Zuiko 35mm Shift

Nearly two years a go we moved into a condo which lacked space for a darkroom. I used the garage for the darkroom by setting everything up on my workbench along one wall. The challenge there is light leakage through the cracks in the garage door and the total lack of temperature stability. With winter arriving, this is a serious concern. My plan has been to build a dual-purpose darkroom and tornado shelter in a corner of the garage, but that has yet to materialize.

My battle is not atypical of most photographers wanting to print and process their own B&W prints. Fortunately, in my case I was able to finally figure out a solution...

I've been in hog-heaven shooting Fujichromes again, but I discovered an old curse that has reared its ugly head again.

The Gotcha of the Great!

A good 'chrome, such as Velvia or Kodachrome is expensive to shoot.  The per-shot cost is very high, and when combined with larger-formats, is difficult to justify.  This was true before, and it's even more true today in the world overrun by digital.

This is only one side of the equation, though.  The reason to shoot Velvia or other high-quality 'chrome is for the quality of the images it results in.  You know, for example, how well Velvia enhances colors during the "golden hours"--it takes what is beautiful and extends it into another dimension.

But this comes at a price--not just monetory, but psychological.  You end up not shooting pictures because you are constantly asking yourself: "Is this Velvia-worthy?"  Because of this questioning, you end up NOT taking the picture because you know in your heart that the picture just isn't good enough to commit to a film of this quality. As a result, you miss many photographic opportunities through this "pre-edit" process.

A massive advantage of digital over great film is that you are more likely to take pictures of things that you'd never commit a frame of expensive film to. Granted, nearly all of these pictures are "tossers", but once in a while one of these "also-ran" photographs is a winner.

The key to survival in the film world is to be willing to waste photographs on experimental or secondary pictures. If you can't get beyond the "Gotcha of the Great", then it may pay to have a second camera loaded with low-cost film or even a digital camera.  Save the expensive film for the "I'm making a statement with this photograph". This way, by using dual cameras you won't miss out on the low hanging fruit while you reach for the highest apple.

This is a comparative test of a scan of a extreme high-contrast Fujichrome 50 slide in the Nikon Coolscan V-ED with NikonScan and VueScan.

Digging into the files looking for images never printed has occasional rewards.

 Slim's Groc., Highland County, Virginia - Olympus OM-2S, 35/2.8, Fujichrome 50, Desaturated