It's still magical

Pacific Fruit Express R-30-14 32983 from the Michael Urac Collection

I spent most of today in a darkroom, printing photos from the Michael Urac Collection as I am diligently working to get another volume of Focus on Freight Cars put together. It is the first time I have printed photos from negatives since my last year of high school. In a word, it was magical. I had forgotten about how exciting it is to put the paper into a tray of developer and wait in anticipation until that blank sheet springs to life as a photo. 

How you may ask, did I do it, given that I am smack dab in the middle of moving? I joined a community photography center - PhotosynthesisCT. If you have old negatives, be they of freight cars or anything else, I urge you to see if you have such a resource in your community. Alternatively, you could also break out that old Nikon and throw a roll of Tri-X into it and see what magic you can create. Go for it; it's a lot of fun...

P.S. as a little teaser, I'll let slip that the photo shown above will be in Volume 3 of Focus on Freight Cars.