As I plunge further into the world of film, I've also decided to begin re-teaching myself how to develop B&W film. While my preferred stock, HP5, is cheap compared to color stock, getting it developed is far more costly and time consuming. I used to do this myself in my tween years, so I know that I'm capable. After finishing my first roll of B&W in my Leica, I stood there with the roll in my hand for some time, debating whether I should send it off to my professional lab (which would be about $25 and a 2 week wait), or drop it off at my local lab for $10 and wait a month for results (they send theirs to a local guy in the state who does the developing at his home). I knew that I had some old chemicals and the bare essentials for self-developing that my dad had given me the last time I was home in Florida, so I took a deep breath, put on a movie for my girls, and locked myself in the bathroom.

I was just tickled pink to see the images appear on my negatives. I did, unfortunately, butcher the negatives in my desperate attempt to prevent our hard water from drying on them (curse this Midwest water!). Lightroom to the rescue though...I managed to remove the scratches/tears and dust (because I also managed to drop the wet negatives on the new chenille bath mat). They did come out very grainy and I'm still trying to figure that out; could it be that I rated it at 800? Are my inversions too harsh? Was the water temperature off? I guess I'll keep experimenting because my dad got me a bulk film loader and 100 ft of HP5 for Christmas...score!

So about $5 and 3 days later (I still have to get the negatives scanned by my local lab since I don't have a scanner yet), here are some of my results!