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Hooked on B&W
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Hooked on B&W

I 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!

Camera: Yashica Mat 124G (TLR)
Film: Kodak T-Max Pro 400 (120 B&W print).

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.

Camera: Yashica Mat 124G (TLR)
Film: Kodak T-Max Pro 400 (120 B&W print).

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.