Wondering if people out there saw a particular photo or set or some circumstances and thought 'wow' that is nice, and so I'd like to pick up a camera?
I'll start the ball rolling with 'Dreamkeeper' by Bob Carlos Clarke. http://www.thelittleblackgallery.com/shop/dreamkeeper-1984-by-bob-carlos-clarke/
I really like the eyes, shadows, and skin tones.  (If you've wondering where you've seen it before it's also the cover photo of the Damned's Phantasmagoria album, so a cheaper way to acquire.)  Still it encouraged me to pick up a second hand Olympus OM-10 with manual adaptor, that still works flawlessly, with no idea what I was doing.
Don't care for his other photos though.
Unfortunately, many years later,  I'm no-where near that talented, but can still dream....

Always loved photography even as a child. I was playing with my fathers old slr at age 5 even. Not getting much but loving it! My mom encouraged my artistic side. I always made do with whatever camera i had, we were poor growing up ive never had amazing gear. Still dont have money for that now lol.

For photog in general, nothing. Always loved it.

For cave photog it was a natural thing to do...i usually took landscape stuff above ground why not below? In fact first few years i hated poeple beig in my underground photos. Now i dont mind as much and realize how much scale it gives but id still say half my stuff i make them minimal.

Inspiration wise though would be robbie shone. Found him pretty early on and loved the angles and perspectives he uses. Also he was the first cave photog who was nice to me...in the us it seems too many (not all - some nice ones I know now! At the time i didnt is all) are a bit cutthroat and dont want to share anything. But even as a nobody just starting caving - he replied to my email i sent him with some technical questions! So that just made me a bigger fan. I cant find the two photos of his that really got me, they were on his old website from years ago.

Also inspiration is cave ferret, the trip to ofd les took me on in 2010, ferret was on, and he did some photog. It was my first exposure to an actual cave photog in person and although we use very different techniques again he was so nice and helpful. I got my first good pic on that trip, it actually won at the TAG cave photo salon. Although looking back it isnt the best but ita been 7 years haha.

Amata, a lovely story and thanks for sharing.  Since posted original post I did a bit of digging.  Thought this video was the best use of tea in photo-retouching and printing (4m58sec in), but the whole video is awesome!  Beats photoshop any day.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXNMK_fbDqM

That is a great film.  Thanks for that link. Photography bores me, but I love photos, too lazy for it I think.

ZombieCake said:

Amata, a lovely story and thanks for sharing.  Since posted original post I did a bit of digging.  Thought this video was the best use of tea in photo-retouching and printing (4m58sec in), but the whole video is awesome!  Beats photoshop any day.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXNMK_fbDqM

Click to expand...

Amazing skill and artistic flare. Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Don't suppose anyone can recommend a reasonably priced airbrush.  Quite fancy squirting Mendip tea at some mono prints. I guess non-glossy ink jet paper would be needed (I have an old enlarger that is effectively a massive paper weight and so useless).  Probably fail miserably but it would be fun to do.  If you don't know what I'm on about see the YouTube link in this thread.

Those were the days. I had a full set of dodgers too, and for a few years had hands that pretty much constantly smelled of cat-piss, as I just couldn't use tongs for more than a few minutes.

My favourite darkroom technique was using two developer baths, one strong and one incredibly weak - like 50:1 dilution if it was normally 7:1. You could develop a print for over ten minutes in the weak bath (face down, as it would partially fog at that duration), and this would just develop highlights only, it being too weak to actuate the shadow development. This massively increased the tonal range at the top end, so you could use quite contrasty paper, but squeeze a lot more grey out than normal. Then ten seconds in the strong bath would bring all the shadows in solid black - bam. This is sort of a chemical version of HDR, but did require premium fibre paper, like AGFA Record Rapid or the Hungarian Forte. There were several photographers really pushing the limits of what film and chemistry could do in the 1970s - late 80s before digital arrived. Though Polaroid had clearly also made a huge impact with instant prints and manual manipulation options too, it being a dye process rather than silver-crystal based.

One of my favourites was the abstract US landscaper Frederick Sommer, who created 'gel packs' for dodging/burning large format negs, en masse - these were layers of gelatine or similar material cut into 'contour maps' and overlaid onto a glass plate which was placed near the negative in the enlarger - they would progressively block or transmit light in very subtle gradations, as the pack was defocused enough in the enlarger head for the edges to disappear. It would be roughly equivalent to using 'Levels' in Photoshop, but as he might be printing many editions of the same prints, this would be a huge time-saver in the long-term, especially as he was old and was trying to ease up in the darkroom.

https://www.artsy.net/artist/frederick-sommer

I do miss a lot of the mystique of the darkroom, and the sheer beauty of proper silver or platinum prints, but it was also a lot of hassle, girls thought you were weird, and it wasn't cheap if you weren't selling. Of course if you were selling, it became far less hassle, less expensive, and as Bob Carlos Clarke and many others would attest, girls stopped thinking you were weird too.

That darkroom 50:1 technique sounds interesting, might have to give it a go.  Recently been experimenting on and off (more off than on I have to confess) with direct positive paper https://www.ilfordphoto.com/harman-direct-positive-paper-sheets or https://www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file_id/1913/product_id/720/ in a 5x4 wooden pinhole camera that takes 5x4 film holders.  (I suppose you could also cut it to size to fit other cameras.) Results are a bit contrasty so far (more than likely down to me).
A good feature is you can load it into the film holders in low level red light due to lack of sensitivity in that area.  One issue is the low sensitivity of ISO 1-3, and has a tendency to curl up.

Now that does sound interesting, though 1-3 ISO is a bit daunting!

I have a 'half-plate' (6 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches) large-format camera - a Kodak Specialist 2. One is shown below - though my lens is a better model:

http://www.theonlinedarkroom.com/2013/12/kodak-specialist-2-unboxing.html

Luckily half-plate was close enough to 7 X 5 for the film holders to work, and I bought up loads of brand-new Fidelity holders about 20 years ago, so have a stack. I also have an unopened 50-sheet pack of Kodak Tri-X in the freezer, that I bought from the Calumet store in Los Angeles in 1998 - it's never been even warm since. One day I will get that ripped open, but it's the lack of a decent light-meter that stops me. I had a beautiful Weston V that I thought would last for ever, but turns out the sensors die after about 20 years, so it's just a good-looking object now. So it means taking the SLR out as well to do the metering - which given the weight of the main camera isn't that much hassle I guess. But developing the negs in my kitchen may be a bit of a faff.

I've a Sekonic L208 twinmate http://www.sekonic.com/united-kingdom/products/l-208/overview.aspx it's not too bad at all, had it for a couple of years, and comes with a hot shoe attachment.  They also make various other meters of varying gadgetness and associated detriment to your bank account.  Tempted by the L398A which is all analogue (L208 needs a 2032 battery). http://www.sekonic.com/united-kingdom/products/l-398a/overview.aspx

I have a 'half-plate' (6 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches) large-format camera - a Kodak Specialist 2. One is shown below - though my lens is a better model: http://www.theonlinedarkroom.com/2013/12/kodak-specialist-2-unboxing.html

Click to expand...

Forgot to add that is a nice camera.  Picked up a few of the Fidelity 5x4 darkslides on eBay a while back for about a tenner each inc P&P give or take which do take the direct pos paper.  Half looking for a large format camera as ISO 3 and f200 (ish) with pinhole is a bit slow. Weird ghostly piccies though.
Also the sheer faffing about of large format will enshrine the mythology of cave photo models as a thankless task only suitable for the inhabitants of the very depths of Beelzebub's fiery home for the previously unworthy

I wouldn't lug that thing underground, unless it was a showcave, and even then it's likely to be tricky with possible condensation, dust on the film etc. And I only have B/W film, which might be a bit limiting. But it does take a lovely sharp photo, given there's pretty much a whole reel of 35mm used in one snap. I do remember a mate of mine trying some Cibachrome paper in his dark slides, and got great colour results, with astonishing clarity  - effectively grainless. But his exposures were still in the range of 20-30 mins for an outdoor shot as I remember.

Here's the song to go with the original photo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LGZzVo0A8U Give it a chance and don't be put off by the band's name.  Dave Vanian's bass-baritone voice comes across really well.  Bit of a of a romantic classic with a few goth undertones if you ask me that blends well with the pic.