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Hooked on B&WI love looking at old B&W photographs. Don't you? If you explore this website you will find that it contains lots of old B&W photos of Findon. Naturally, most of the photographs that I took as a child, during the 1950s, were B&W. However, my interest in photography really took off during the the early 1960s, when I was allowed to borrow my father's old 120 film Agfa Isolette and I began to do my own B&W processing at home. I used to convert the family bathroom into a darkroom. The dishes containing the chemicals were placed in the bottom of the bath and I used the hand basin to wash my prints. I used to plug the baisin and leave the tap running so a trickle of water flowed continuously out through the overflow. My home-made enlarger rested on my mother's pasty board laid across the sides of the bath. I clearly remember the excitement of producing my first B&W print. There's nothing quite like the magic of working in a darkroom! Later, when I started taking colour slides using a 35mm camera, my interest in B&W was temporarily forgotten. I rediscovered B&W during the late 1990s and once again started taking medium format B&W photos, which I developed and printed in an improvised darkroom. Actually, my wife insisted that it was her utility room, but from time to time she allowed me to transform it into a darkroom!
Groynes on the beach at Ferring, West Sussex, UK. I used an orange filter to emphasize the clouds, when I took this photograph. Effects like this can be further enhanced in the darkroom. Time spent in a darkroom can be very rewarding. Nowadays I use a 'digital darkroom' in the form of applications such as Paint Shop Pro.
Worthing seafront, West Sussex, UK. This photograph shows part of Worthing Pier and the Dome Cinema, following a storm. When I started working with medium format B&W again in the 1990s, I bought a secondhand Yashica Mat 124G (TLR), but later 'upgraded' to a secondhand Bronica ETRS (SLR). I have two lenses, the standard 75mm and a 50mm. However, it's a long time since I last used a film camera. B&W film is especially useful for experimenting with pinhole photography, as it is still comparatively inexpensive. Pinhole photography is probably the best-kept secret in photography. You don't need a fancy camera, nor even a lens. All you need is a light tight container of some sort, some film and of course a pinhole. Lensless, or pinhole photography, is incredibly satisfying. You should try it ... it really is terrific fun! Some people now use digital cameras to produce pinhole photographs. 
Photo gallery
Bodiam Castle, Bodiam, East Sussex, UK during 2000.
Trees in Wiston Park, Steyning, West Sussex, UK during 2000.
Cloister at Laycock Abbey, Laycock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK during 2000.
Old door at Laycock Abbey, Laycock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK during 2000.
An office where I worked in Brighton, East Sussex, UK during 2000.
Books about B&W photography
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