Young people have no idea …

Yup. One place told me that we would have to go somewhere to go have photos processed and get them back to the newsroom ... they were so cheap and awful that they didn't even have the ability to process their own photos.

Talk about what used to be a massive red flag. If only that were now the biggest issue facing newsrooms and media outlets these days ...

 

35007

 

My first full-time job out of college was at a weekly and we had an account at the photo store in the strip mall down the street to get our photos processed. They always looked pretty good in the paper. I was there less than six months. My first daily gig, which was right after that, and the photo staff was fully digital (in all honesty, probably a pretty early adapter and not bad for a small, locally owned rag). We got primitive point and shoots to mugshots and stuff too.

I still have a roll of film in a camera from when my just graduated high school oldest was probably one. I think there might be some decent things on it. I wonder if they would turn out?

 

The darkroom, and the rush and pressure of processing our own film on deadline, was one of the best things about working at the Bennington rag.

Especially during middle of winter when we'd come back from games and our fingers were still half frozen.

 

Every thread on sj.com about the old days will eventually come back to pica poles, composing rooms and developing film. It’s canon.

 

My first job, at a group of weeklies, I had a wheel. I always just went the calculator, which means I screwed up a fair number of times. Always doing stuff the hard way.

I ordered a pica pole a few years back but left it at my last gig. I think it was $15 on eBay. Itching to get another.

 

Ah, the darkroom. A place of mystery, aromas and hands working calmly to achieve a goal.

 

I used to do that in the back of a Pontiac.

 

What you did alone, sir, well, we don't need to know about it.

 

Fuck film. Nobody needs to feel nostalgic about that shit.

 

I used pica poles to scratch my back. I worked in one shop early in my career where they were still utilized. It was an experience. Before and after that my papers were pretty well Quark'd up.