Well, today as the day crept along I could no longer resist the urge.
I got out that duster and took it to Little Boy and all the other gear and set things up in the upstairs bath. I have this neg of my niece that I had been promising to my sister and others for a long time. Figured with Christmas coming up it would be a good time to make some gifts with a good printing session.
I get the chems in the trays and get out the paper. I load some into the paper safe. I had printed this before and my starting point was 12" at f/8 so that's what I did. After two minutes in the developer I had a very week print, it was washed out.
Well, I had printed on Arista RC paper the last time. I had Orient Seagull on the easel. And I was using old developer that I had opened a couple years ago. It looked more like Old Brown than fresh soup. So I rebatched the developer and printed a test sheet.
Two minutes in the developer, same thing, even the 64" portion of the print.
When I closed up shops a couple years ago I put everything into my bedroom closet. It has a window to the front of the house and gets afternoon sun. With the door closed, no controlled air got in, aside from humidity control. So as the temp went up and down over the last thirty months, so did the paper.
Yup, the paper is trash. Ditched it and that bottle of developer. So it looks like I'll just have to try another time. But the smell of the chems, the setup and seeing that neg projected on the paper under a red light.
It is certainly good to be back.
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