let's do it againg daddy

[hbc]

i just wanted to share sommething with you. i am not an eloquent writer so i will tell it how it happened. last night i went into the "darkroom " actually it is the spare bathroom, to do some light printing,i usually wait till every one in the house settles down, so that i will not be interrupted, but last night my 31/2 yr old daughter fatu (i posted a portrait of her on the standard gallery) fallowed me in for tha first time since usually i wait til she is asleep, as i set up the trays, measured developer etc... she asked me what i was doing i tried to explain it to her the she offered to help, i said ok, the started on the first neg i showed her the image on the easel, took a piece of paper and exposed, then proped up fatu on a chair so that she could see the developing tray, when i placed the paper in the tray i asked her to help me rock it back and forth, when the image started to appear she was so exited started ooing and aaing as if it was majic. after fixing i turned on the light and showed her a picture of her mother , she said "lets do it again daddy". i pray that as she grows up she takes up this great tradition. and if there are any kodak, ilford etc.. reps please take heed.

[Donald Miller]

Eloquent or not, you expressed the experience better then anyone else could have. Congratulations on your experience and thank you for sharing it with me. Wonderful!!!!!

[Sean]

Thanks for sharing that. I have a 7month old daughter and look forward to doing the same

[Jorge]

yep, I think there is still the kid inside a lot of us who still marvel at seeing the image appear like magic. Great story!

[Nige]

thanks for sharing

My son (just turned 4) has been 'helping' me in the darkroom for about a year. I say 'helping' because sometimes he really does help. His job is to drive the enlarger, operate the light switches and agitate trays. He manages pretty well. He even suggested to me one day that we should 'do printing' and took me into the darkroom where he had organised the tray and tongs... getting the sequence (colour coded red/beige/white for dev/stop/fix and the tongs are red/yellow/green ) of both trays and tongs correct! I was amazed. On the weekend he was basically doing a test strip by himself, turning the enlarger on, then closing the flaps on 'our' Test Strip masking frame (Paterson) although he managed to bump it when closing one. He also loves watching the print appear in the developer, and usually says "'ahh, magics" as it appears.

On the downside, his attention span is pretty limited at the moment, and after a couple of prints he's usually to be found messing around under the benches sorting bottles of distilled water and other junk. He's only managed to wreck a couple of pieces of paper when he came into the room un-announced (my fault for not locking the door... but he now knocks&#33 and the other day he shot out the door before I could stop him. I only put a couple of sheets of paper in the paper safe as he's sure to open that one day while the lights a on!

[BobF]

I haven't even considered taking my 5 yr old grandaughter in for "the experience" and I feel like a real curmudgeon now for not thinking of it. She has a chance for an experience that she will always remember and I thank you all for reminding me to give it to her.

Bob

[David Hall]

I had my four year old son Daniel collect some of his favorite things...a rock from a beach we visited, plastic dinosaur, and what's left of a stuffed animal he's had since infancy.

We put the things on a piece of paper and made a photogram, and then developed it. Same reaction as fatu, and now the same request to do it again and again.

dgh

[bmac]

Ah yes, Photograms! I can't wait till Emma is old enough. I love photograms! Go Man Ray Go!

[Aggie]

..

[Nige]

hehe! that reminds me.. we did a photogram of his hand! he thought that was great and ran the wet print out to mum to show her!

Attached is a pic of him at work! (red tint added digitally&#33