195/365 Another new class

My next new class of the season, Black and White Darkroom, started on Thursday night. My initial thoughts? I think it's going to be great.

When I first learned last year that this was one of the required courses for the Photography Certificate, my first thought was, "Why?" So few people still shoot film. It's becoming harder and harder to find, too. And with that, you normally just send it off for someone to process in a machine. So why go through the process of learning in the darkroom?

Knowing a little more now, I get it. And I'm excited to learn. For one, a lot of the tools in Photoshop (like dodging and burning, two concepts with which I've fiddled but not mastered) are built on darkroom actions, so what I learn in this class should help me in digital editing.

The most amusing part of the evening is the feeling that I've stepped back into 1978. Not only is the darkroom itself an "old" art, but the building where the class is held doesn't seem to have been updated in 30 years. Then you add the teacher and the old slides he showed us... and it feels like I've stepped into one of my Dad's photo albums from his post-college days. Kind of crazy.

But I like it.

(Photo taken while driving under a railroad bridge east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 9:45 p.m.