Printing Pleasures

I was 12 years old when I created my first print. The small darkroom was filled with the red glow of the safelight and the strong chemical scent of fixer. I looked down at the developing tray, the liquid sloshing back and forth over the submersed white paper. Slowly, I saw it, the first hints of an emerging image. As I agitated the plastic tray, the moment I had captured with my camera came to life in front of my eyes.

Even after all these years, the rush I felt creating that first print has never left me. Although I’ve switched from a wet darkroom with its enlargers, safelight and chemicals to a digital darkroom and its computer, card reader and inkjet printer, creating a print is as wonderful as it has ever been.

The inkjet printer, along with the personal computer, provides each of us the kind of control that was once only available to a photo lab or a photographer with his or her own personal darkroom. We can do more than create good prints from our digital image. We can produce excellent prints that reflect the richness and wonder of those captured moments of time.