Christopher Walrath

So this customer of mine (drummer, laid back kinda dude) comes in Friday. Haven't seen him in a while so we strike up a conversation. How ya's and nice holidays and all that.

He asks how me photography is going? Well, I tell him how it's been slow this year. Not shooting much 35mm anymore, all large format. Take him in the other room and show him the Beseler enlarger I've got kept at the store. He asks if I would be interested in an enlarger? I say, HECK YEAH! So what is it?

He doesn't know. His wife, Lori, got it from a friend of hers a few years ago when she went digital. She wanted to get into film darkroom stuff and never did for kids and room and whatnot.

I then did a complete 180. I encouraged him to keep it. At some point she would want to get into it and it would be best if she did not have to chase down an enlarger at that time. She'd already have it. I told him to find a clean dry place to store it and cover it. So that's exactly what he's gonna do.

Now, I have recently ordered some books on Amazon and the first one showed up in the post at work today. About ten minutes before Bobby came back in this morning. And the book was 'The Art of Black and White Enlarging by David Vestal'. So, what's a guy to do. Bobby came in and I took the book out of the envelope and handed it to him and told him to give it to Lori. He was amazed, shouldn't have been as long and as well as we know each other.

Hey, it's just me trying to foster interest in traditional photography in anyway I can. Well, guess I gotta get another copy a'comin'.

From Milton, Delaware. Where the intraverts look through their own viewfinders and the extraverts look through yours. I'm Chris Walrath and this is my blog.