I get so much joy out of processing film. It is a time when I am in the moment, especially pulling the big 8x10 neg out of the tank for the first time, and always having that sigh of relief of seeing image.
It is the closest thing for me to be a magician. Turning a blank sheet of film into a view-able object. After doing this for over 30 years, I'm still amazed at the various analogue photographic processes.
My hands still linger of fixer and my skin is dry as a desert. There are containers to wash and clean and dry, put away the chemicals, put away the equipment used. My negatives are still wet, so I distract time doing something else... Right now on the computer, writing about the process... Still wet.
Patience is mandatory, the process is slow, tedious and exact. Chemicals must be mixed, poured and timed. I'm not only a magician, but a chemist and dancer as well.
It is the time between that I think I love so much. That period where you are forced to wait. Time passes and if you aren't distracting yourself with something else, your mind goes to a place where things can fall in, epiphanies, ideas, and often, things out of left field where you say to yourself, wtf?
Time to check the film again...
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