Louis Mendes

"Agh! It's fallen on the floor! Shoot, I can't see a thing!" - my first day in the dark room

This is the first picture I developed thanks to the excellent teacher Dave at Black & White Basement. I took this shot of Louis Mendes whilst in NY lat year. He taught me more in 5 mins about the Canon A1 than I had managed to figure out from the French manual I had been trying to translate. He can be found outside B&H offering to take people’s picture with his 4x5 Speed Graphic.  When I returned this year, I managed to show him the picture, even if it was on my phone.  Not sure he was very impressed, but as my first photo which I had taken and developed, it was certainly a lovely image to learn to dodge and burn on.

In the meantime, happy 4 July.  

By the way, I'm writing this whilst listening to the Radio 4 shipping forecast which I find strangely relaxing.  Don't judge me.  It sounds like this (it starts from 1m30s).